How to Evade The BAD Contractor – Remodeling Reviews
We have all heard the stories of home remodeling projects gone bad. I have heard of contractors who have taken money and never finished or even started at all. Furthermore, there are contractors that will finish the work but with poor materials and craftmanship. How do you make sure that your project gets done right the first time? Remodeling reviews can certainly help as you plan.
What to look for in remodeling reviews
The Rating
The first thing that you see when you look at remodeling reviews is the company name next to a rating. This rating is typically on a 5 point scale indicated as “stars”. These ratings are based on customers reviewing this company. They can give them a rating of 1 star being the lowest and 5 stars being the highest. The rating is an average of all the ratings given for a specific company. This is a good place to start but you also need to look at the number of reviews a company may have. A company with a 5 star rating with only 2 reviews is not helpful. However, a company with hundreds or even thousands of reviews gives you a good view. Then, you can know what this company may really be like.
The Comments
As you are looking at the reviews be sure to look at a few of each rating. Our first inclination is to look a the poor reviews. It is important to look at some of the poor reviews but also keep in mind to look at a few high ratings and a few in the middle to get a good idea of the company’s failures and successes. In your sample selection, look for ones with good explanations and more than a few harsh words. You want to find out what this company is like and more words in a review gives you a better understanding of what may have happened in that situation.
Longevity and Frequency
Many sites will show you how long the company that you are looking at has been in business. This is helpful as you want someone with a history that hasn’t just started. This is your home that you are investing in. I wouldn’t want to be someone’s guinea pig. Plus, you will want to see how old the last review was. If they haven’t gotten a review for years, it certainly says something. Furthermore, how often they get reviews. How often do they get reviews? Is there just one a month or do they get several, weekly? These are good questions to ask yourself.
Where to look for valuable remodeling reviews
Google Reviews
First, we will look at Google Local Listings traditionally found on Google or Google Maps. For those who have never used Google, you can go to www.Google.com or maps.Google.com to start. In
the search field on the page simply type what you are looking for and where you are looking for it. For example, type “Bathroom Remodeling Muncie Indiana” and you should get a map with a list of Bathroom Remodeling Contractors in Muncie Indiana. There you will find a rating on a 5 point scale, the number of reviews (in parenthesis), how long they have been in business, hours of operation and a link to the website. If you click on a company then it should take you to their company profile. If you click on the number of reviews next to the stars, it will take you to a list of their reviews with several ways to filter
for the reviews that you most want to look at.
Facebook Reviews
Next, you can find reviews on Facebook. I would recommend that you know what companies you are searching for before looking on Facebook as it is not very good for a suggestive list. However, once you know the company that you are looking for, just type that companies name in the “search on Facebook” field. Then, it will show you a list of matches. Select the one that is the company that you are searching for. After that, on the companies page, you should see the company name and logo. Below that, you should see options like “Home,” “Services” and the important one “Reviews.” Once you click on “Reviews” you will get a listing of reviews with a selector bar to sort by “Most Recent” or “Most Relevant.”
Other Reviews
There are many helpful sites to get reviews for the home improvement companies that you are considering for your project. Home Advisor and Angi are technically the same company, however they keep their reviews separate so it might be a good idea to check both. If you have a company in mind, you may want to google the company name and the site that you want the reviews from. Like, “L.J. Stone Home Advisor reviews.” This will give you a direct link straight to the company’s reviews instead of trying to click through the site and to find them.
You can also find reviews on Yelp. However, yelp tends to weed out a lot of solid reviews because of reasons they like to think are valid. However, I regularly find very helpful reviews in their “# other reviews that are not currently recommended” section very helpful. This link is normally at the bottom of the first page of reviews and is a light grey color as to hide it from your view. A couple of other good sites are the Better Business Bureau and even Guild Quality.
Here at L.J. Stone, we encourage you to do your research. Find a company that you feel most comfortable with and get your information from them. We certainly try our best to make our customers happy. Maybe that could be you too.
