Remodeling leads: homeowners asking for a contractor right now

Where to find home remodeling leads near you

The areas above are only where our sources happened to reach. People ask for a contractor wherever they live, so the leads near you are in the places your own customers already talk:

• Town, neighbourhood and homeowner groups on Facebook, the "ask" and "recommendations" groups of a town. In our read, Castro Valley Ask Share Discuss and Parksville And Area Ask Me each carried a remodel request.
• r/Remodel and r/kitchenremodel, where homeowners post the quote they got and ask whether to sign it.
• The city or borough subreddit of the area you serve, such as r/Hackney, r/AskPhilly or r/asheville in our read, and r/AusRenovation or r/HousingIreland for work in Australia and Ireland.
• Facebook searches for a kitchen or bathroom fitter, where UK homeowners name their town in the post.

To find your town's groups, search Facebook for your town or county with words like neighbors, community, ask or recommendations. Read a week of posts before you add one. A small group where someone asks for a contractor every week beats a big one full of contractors advertising.

Search phrases that bring contractor leads

People rarely write "remodeling leads". They write the room and the ask. These phrases found requests in our read, alone or with your town's name:

• Asking who to use: "general contractor" with recommend, "renovation company", "renovation contractor".
• The room: "kitchen remodel" with contractor, "bathroom remodel" with contractor.
• Looking now: "looking for a contractor".
• The UK: "recommend a kitchen fitter", "kitchen fitter recommendation".

"bathroom fitter recommendation" found 2 requests in its 3 posts but was read for only a few hours, like "recommend a kitchen fitter": add it if you fit bathrooms in the UK. We also tried "need a contractor" and "remodel quote": each found only one or two requests in our read, so add them with your town's name or not at all.

Add only the work you take. A bathroom search is worth it only if you do bathrooms. A phrase with your town's name finds fewer posts, but they are in your area.

Which renovation leads to answer first

Not every request is worth the same. Answer in this order:

1. A defined project with a place and a time, like the kitchen fitter wanted in the Wirral for a full install with plumbing and electrics. They are ready to book.
2. A homeowner who names the rooms and the town, like the basement and back porch in Berwyn or the kitchen remodel in the Kansas City, Kansas area. Ask the one thing you need and offer a visit.
3. A quote in hand and a question: is this price fair, what is missing from this scope? They are about to sign with someone. A calm second opinion can earn you a chance to bid.
4. A half-finished job, like the San Diego condo where the rough plumbing and electrical passed inspection and the owner wants one contractor to finish the bathrooms and the kitchen and run the trades. The scope is written out, so you can answer it point by point.
5. A short "anyone know a good contractor?" with no detail. Ask which room and which town.

Skip contractors advertising, before-and-after photos, people asking which countertop to pick, and DIY questions with no plan to hire. Hodorak leaves those out and marks each request with its level, so the first ones on your board are the ones to open.

How to turn remodeling leads into site visits

The reply above shows the pattern. A good reply reads like a contractor who has done the job, not like an ad:

• Answer within the hour if you can: a thread about a kitchen quote fills with opinions fast, and the first useful answer sits near the top.
• Answer the project first: what decides the price (plumbing moves, electrical, the cabinet line), what a fair scope includes, what to ask any contractor.
• Ask the one thing you need: the town, the room size, the timing.
• Mention your company once, at the end, and say where you work.
• Follow the group's rules on self-promotion, and move to a direct message only when the person asks.

Avoid a pasted ad, a link as the whole reply, or a price before you have seen the house. Those get skipped, and in many groups they get removed.

Free remodeling leads vs bought shared and exclusive leads

The table above shows what three lead companies publish today. All three sell a lead or a call to one firm at a time; the big shared marketplaces did not let us read a price, so none of them is in the table. The difference is not only the price:

• Shared leads: the same homeowner reaches several contractors, and the fastest caller usually wins.
• Exclusive leads: nobody else gets that call, and you pay for it, by the lead, the call or the package.
• Public requests: nobody sells them. Anyone in the group can read them too, but you answer in the same conversation where the person asked, and they see your answer next to the ones from their neighbours.

Many remodelers use more than one. Bought leads fill a slow month; public posts bring a steady flow from the towns you serve, with the homeowner's own words about the project. Searching the groups by hand is free and works, but it takes time every day; Hodorak does the reading and shows you the requests it judges fit.

A daily routine for home improvement leads

Remodel work comes in waves, and so do the posts. A short routine keeps you in front of them:

1. Morning: open the requests from the night and answer the defined projects first: a room, a town, a start date.
2. Midday: answer the quote checks and the slower planners.
3. Once a week: look at which groups and searches brought site visits. Drop a source that brings only other contractors, and add the next town or the next kind of job you take.

Honestly, if most of your work comes from builders, architects or insurance, public posts will be a small part of it. For homeowners who have decided to remodel and do not know who to call, a post in their town group is often the first place they ask.