I have a question for everyone here.

If you were to be doing any kind of remodeling in your home, for example new floors, cabinets, carpets etc. Where would you look first to get quotes from?

Reason I ask is I'm trying to decide where my advertising budget will go. Does anyone look through "TheHomeMag" or any of those sort of advertisements that we receive in the mail?

Any ideas would be great!

 

For those kinds of services, much like detailing, you need a huge advertising budget, otherwise the best is word of mouth.


John

 

I agree word of mouth carries a lot of weight as people want to know from experiences whether their homes are in trusted hands. I also relied on recommendations from sales people at home appliance and tile stores or other like home improvement stores.

 

I think you are better off looking at advertising in a larger and more robust network that can deliver you a GEO targeted campaign.

Hit up Internet Brands and see what they will do for you on sites like doityourself.com.

 

RUSKIE: get a deal done with Home Depot and get on the preferred vendor list with those guys + Dunn lumber and etc... Lowes... then take their department managers out for beer (the guys who sell cabinets) whenever you're in the area. Should be easy. Beer is cheap. Y0ou just have to hang out with them to get recommended. To the extent that you get referred you can then ask the natural question of anyone for whom you complete a job "who else is doing the same thing" (get their neighbors' names from King County Records and ask (your customer) about them, naming them directly).

Interestingly, you'd then easily source the parts from wherever you wanted for *those* jobs since the HD jobs are going to be necessarily skinnier. I assume you already have signage that you post on the lawn or in the street for wherever you are doing a current job and I assume that you get written testimonials from whoever you have HAD as a customer. These are the easiest, of course, and help in building a reputation. You should be able to go back to everyone you did work for and obtain one of these "after the fact" since your work, of course, speaks for itself! *LOL* (I say this because it is not natural for people to aggressively refer anyone ~ it's something that you have to be interested in obtaining, in the majority of cases, but interestingly, it's something that satisfied customers are still easily willing to do when asked.)

 

angie's list? our landscaper got listed on there and can't manage all the new business he got

 

We gutted and remodeled our home three years ago. We found the contractor by referral from a neighbor. We tracked him down on a job and his work was so good we just grabbed him up immediately. We have called him back many times for repairs and misc. We had also asked other friends for referrals - did not even think to look at advertising for this. I have referred this contractor who did our work to many people because: he gave us all sorts of suggestions to save money even though this was not our concern - it was always his which we appreciated (on line coupons that were available, had us purchase his supplies so there would be no mark up - he would make up the list, we would purchase and he would pick it up and bring it here with his truck, etc.). He always cleaned up, was very careful about keeping our home clean, and even did little things like bringing in the garbage cans for us on garbage day! He was GREAT! I trust him to be in our home and he comes when we are at work to do jobs for us. (and this is not like me at all to let someone into my home unattended). I trust him completely and his work is impeccable. He is also very humble and a nice guy. He does no advertising and is always booked out for many months with jobs.

 

does he charge tax?

 

I don't know - no contract - quoted us a price and I just wrote him a check. It may have been included. Knowing him so well, I am sure he is reporting and paying his taxes. We had several other contractors bid on it, he was the lowest, his work was the best, and after knowing him for three years, he is the only one I call.

 

I would consider geo-targeted Google Adwords to be the lowest hanging fruit. I would guess that getting onto the first page of results for "seattle home renovation" wouldn't be very expensive.

 

I don't think advertising works well in this area for your work. word of mouth is where you'll get most up there.

Lots of woman look at the mag's but most husbands pick the contractor


pj all have to charge tax unless it's cash.

i wanted to do my last project cash but the bank wouldn't give it all at once. damn them....

every $10k I have to tell them were it's going. So much for Caryl's anniversary gift being secret

 

^^^ that is so sexist Mark - the year is 2008! I drive the Porsche in my house and I chose our remodel contractor I just won't take out the garbage.

 

So I'm sexist on remodels and building


And racist with cars? What are you saying about me?

 

If you're interested in doing Search Engine Marketing, drop me a PM. I work for Marchex,Inc as a Search Marketing Specialist and I can see what options we might have for you.

 

Ruskie,

I've used Servicemagic.com a bunch of times. I've recommended it to others as well, it seems to work out well. I'm not sure what their fee is to you, but for me it is free to post what I want and I start getting instant emails and phone calls from contractors in the area. Some were good, some ok. But we have kept a few that we got from the site. Anyways, good luck.