Guide to online home-service directories
Online home-services directories can provide hundreds – or even thousands – of user ratings for contractors, plumbers and other pros. Consumer Reports looks at four popular sites to guide you in your home-improvement research.
Angieslist.com
Good for: User review reliability. Number of Pros: 1.2 million. Coverage: National. Cost: Currently about $10 per year; reviews and ratings will be free starting this summer.
Unique features: Has a proprietary process for verifying that reviews are authentic, including an annual audit by an outside company to prevent service providers from reviewing themselves favorably or their competitors unfavorably.
What Consumer Reports likes: 10 million verified reviews. A test search for kitchen remodelers in a Chicago-area ZIP code turned up companies with hundreds and thousands of reviews; user review sample sizes of that magnitude lend credibility to the resulting letter grades.
Caveats: Contractors who advertise on Angie’s List show up first in search results when the default search option “with coupons” is used. Using the “Recent grade: A-F” search option is a way around that.
Checkbook.org
Good for: Price guidance and independent ratings not influenced by advertising. Number of pros: 45,000. Coverage: Boston; Chicago; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Philadelphia; San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose; Seattle-Tacoma; and Washington, D.C., areas. Cost: $34 for two years.
Unique features: Completely funded by its members and accepting no advertising, Checkbook surveys its own subscribers as well as those at Consumer Reports (which provided early funding in the 1970s) about their experience with local contractors. Home improvement pros can’t promote themselves by buying ads or evade scrutiny by opting out.
What Consumer Reports likes: Instead of using letter or star grades, Checkbook shows the percentage of users who rated the pro as “superior” or “recommended.” Provides price info based on apples-to-apples comparison by secret shoppers.
Caveats: Available in only seven metro areas.
Homeadvisor.com
Good for: Cost guidance and prescreening of pros. Number of pros: 116,000. Coverage: National. Cost: Free.
Unique features: HomeAdvisor matches you with up to four highly rated pros who are actually available to do the job. It also uses third-party sources to perform background checks of every service provider it accepts.
What Consumer Reports likes: The “true cost guide” provides detailed cost estimates for hundreds of projects and jobs. Service providers cannot buy their way to the top of search results; all pay a $250 to $300 membership fee.
Caveats: Checks for criminal convictions go back only three years; its search of civil judgments goes back only one year. The company also has limited ability to search criminal records in 22 states (including Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan and Virginia), and it does not check for complaints filed at state attorney general or consumer affairs agencies.
Porch.com
Good for: Finding contractors rated by the Better Business Bureau. Number of pros: 3.5 million. Coverage: National. Cost: Free.
Unique features: Offers descriptions and photos of roughly 138 million home projects that consumers can use to gauge what their budget will buy and browse lower-cost alternatives, such as a cabinet facelift instead of a full kitchen remodel. The Ask Porch app provides free do-it-yourself advice from pros.
What Consumer Reports likes: Easy access to BBB ratings and convenient links to contractors’ websites.
Caveats: “Guaranteed professionals” rise to the top of search results, but that badge is available only to service providers who pay $100 or more per month (varies by ZIP code). Guaranteed pros must pass a “comprehensive background check,” but CEO and chairman Matt Ehrlichman told Consumer Reports that it’s based on user reviews, licenses, project history and “anything we can find on the Internet.”
To learn more, visit www.ConsumerReports.org.
2016 Consumers Union Inc.