Our next Vizion property on Rosedale in Kansas City, KS doesn’t close till this Friday September 26th. Our most recent Vizion property on Kenwood was completed September 12th. So for the last few weeks our crews for the most part have been waiting for us to close on Rosedale so that they can get to work on the rehab. During this down time our head contractor while posting some items on Craigslist came across a website where you pay for contractor labor leads. The cost of each lead is paid up front and is priced according to the labor intensity of the job. For instance a job like installing a window would be $15 per lead. But a job like remodeling a kitchen would be $60 per lead.
From the get go I was very skeptical about this service but was willing to give it a try. After all if this thing worked out we could be looking at whole new branch of The Vizion Group. Within minutes of checking out the site reliableremodler.com and reading a few reviews of their service I was convinced that this was a sure way to get some work for our crews.
With a credit card on file and our account activated we began receiving leads within in minutes and this is where the problems and road blocks began.
Our first lead was for a basement remodel which is right up our alley. Our contractor completed the bid and came in just a little lower in price than the other three contractors bidding the job. The only problem was that this individual was only interested in getting a price for the work he was not interested in getting the work done. Little did we know that this was about to become a very common scenario.
ReliableRemodler.com is a great idea and to be honest I wish I would have thought of it. They have found a way to profit off contractor labor while just being a middle man. On one hand the customers who are wondering how much it would cost to remodel their kitchen can have a contractor come out to their house and give them a bid all for free. The contractor on the other hand has to pay an upfront charge averaging $50 per lead regardless if they actually get the job.
It seems to me that the majority of leads are just customers looking to get bids on contract labor. Very few of them are actually interested in getting the work done…at least not anytime soon. I don’t think that reliableremodler.com is a scam but I would not recommend jumping in head first into their system unless you’re prepared to spend a good deal of money upfront with no immediate return on investment.
As of yet I have accepted (paid for) about 300 leads. Of all those leads I’ve only been able to schedule about 30. And of that 30 only about 5 seem willing to get the work done in a timely matter. This does not feel like a formula for success.
If you’ve had an experience with reliable remodeler I’d love to hear about it positive or negative. If you have a suggestion on how I could be using this service better I would love to hear about that to.
Comments (4)Subscribe to CommentsComment