Home Advisor Scam

I was with Home advisor for six months when I was just starting out. I decided to drop them because it wasn’t working. After a few years I was contacted again by them with an offer for $450 in free leads to sign back up. At this point I am fairly consistent with business but figured i’ll give it a go and it would probably help my SEO to be listed anyway. I had a few good leads come through at first and then it stopped. After two weeks I started receiving all kinds of oddball leads, about 90% of the ones I could actually get in touch with. They needed mold remediation, septic inspections, foundation repairs and everytime I spoke with home advisor they made it sound like people just click on the wrong thing because they don’t know any better. The other day I had a lead come in and called the person. She was a real estate agent that was looking for a structural engineer because they knew there were issues with the foundation. She was confused, as was I, about how this came to me for a lead. She then sent me screen shots of everything she clicked through on her laptop. She was on a site that said Powell and sons structural specialists. It looked like a site for a company that provides these services. What it actually was is a lead generating site that is partnered with home advisor. So the realtor is thinking she is contacting a company for what she needs and it is coming to a home inspector that is getting charged for it. It all made sense after that, why these leads for work that do not fall under my license were coming to me. I contacted home advisor to discuss the issue with them and have not yet heard back. This is a blatant scam for them to generate false leads or a complete lack of competence and gross negligence of the one thing they actually sell. Leaving us to pay for their inadequacy. It amazes me that we are held to such high standards with little room for error and yet these giant business are able to get away with so much. It is truly frustrating. Hope this helps some of you newer guys out there before you throw away a small fortune.

Side note: I do not mind paying for leads and realize there will be some bad ones. This seems like a system that is designed to maximize there leads with little concern for whether they are good or not.

7 Likes

If only there weren’t 300 other threads already on here to warn people about Home Advisor.

6 Likes

Well now there is 300 and 1.

3 Likes

How many more posts do we need to realize that Home Advisor is a total ripoff !!!

4 Likes

I admire NACHI for allowing dissenting views and for being a clearinghouse for vendors to the home inspection profession. Vendors don’t get an easy ride here, from the beginning Nick has always challenged them to commit more to NACHI members than the rest of the industry.

I avoided them like the plague when I got started … and I still do.

4 Likes

Yup. They are rude dogs! They were relentless in their efforts to bring me into the fold. I never fell for it. Haven’t heard from them in a long while.

1 Like

They would be wise to send their agents to proper customer service training. Most of the ones that call me have no idea how to make a sales pitch, how to gain the customer’s trust, or how to end the conversation on a positive note.

I just thought it was interesting to see from a clients perspective. These third party lead services are representing themselves as the contractor but are partnered with HA. I have been told the clients just don’t realize how home inspections work and that’s why they click on the wrong thing. In reality they, at least these third parties, purposefully represent themselves as something they are not. It doesn’t help the person looking for help and costs us money ( unless you have 30 minutes to waste on the phone).

1 Like

Justin, thanks for sharing. I am terrible sorry for what you have gone through. Lead generation business is a huge established scam, it may be a legal business, but is still a scam. One could have better results flipping one of those big arrows in a busy highway corner. This a business where we need to develop personal (contact) relationships.

2 Likes

Google used to (maybe still does) allow their affiliates do this. They got sued in class action and I won $3.45 (after wasting thousands). It is the reason I haven’t used AdWords in over a decade. It’s called blind leads in the industry.

2 Likes

I am a new inspector and figured I would give it a try with “$200 of free leads” that I have to pay $100 to get. I got one inspection out of it but also had similar problem that they continually send me leads for other professions and typically send me leads early in the morning or late at night, one was at 12:30am, saying I should respond within 15 minutes.

I got the picture after about a week and called to cancel. They are still sending me leads and I have called them to cancel multiple times. I should have listened to the wise advice on the interNACHI forum.

3 Likes

Good to tell, Evan. That will help some more newbies.

Thank you!

2 Likes

I have actually made out pretty good with Home Advisor. They’re definitely challenging with some of their policies but overall on in the black for sure. They need to design a category for people that are actually shopping for prices as this is their biggest downfall. You really have to know what your doing with them to make $$.