Home Advisor is bad for the home inspection industry. They are an unnecessary middleman. They offer no benefit to Internachi members.
I believe that if you read the comments from dozens of Internachi members on this forum you will see a strong pattern of consistent bad experiences and a consensus that HomeAdvisor is dishonest, disruptive, and not welcome here.
I do not think that you are unaware of this. So I am curious why you have brokered a deal with them.
I get us the best deals on everything.
You vet them here.
Sounds good. Thanks.
A $24 lead fee on HA has resulted in a few $2000+ new construction inspections for me. This is where I report on progress of a home being built for out of state customers.
The second result is once I’m in the neighborhood I do 12 month warranty inspections throughout the majority of the neighborhood. Easy easy money!
Yes you do get a lot of stinkers along the way but once you get a good number of ratings I can turn HA on in one day and for $100 get 4 good leads. I win almost every lead. It works well for some while others fail. I haven’t had to turn on the leads since last year but it’s nice to know when I want to get more work it’s been a dependable system for me. I don’t crawl into the RA office begging for work.
You BETTER vet them before use!..any vendor offers, for that matter.
He doesn’t get a special pass… … …
Same MO as most of the other companies. They get the lead and sell you the opportunity to bid the low price on them. Like Zillow did to real estate agents so will HA do to contractors and inspectors. As soon as they get enough market clout they will try and push you to the curb with their own employees charging a fraction of what you charge. Don’t use companies like this it will always be bad for our business.
They ask me 3 times a month to rejoin and offer me no registration fee. I tried it for two years and with all the bad leads where I had no opportunity to talk with a perspective client I was still charged 18 to 38 dollars for each of them, this netted me a loss of nearly $100 per all inspections I did in those two years. Oh by the way I answered the calls within seconds. If I only paid for a lead I had the opportunity to speak with, win or loose I would pay the fee, if all leads were priced the same I may go back. When I call, text and email those perspective clients and get no response at all I question the legitimacy of the call. Sorry but that is my experience. That’s not much of a deal Nick, they can do better.
Home Advisor can be a great help, or a great burden, depending on individual experiences. I have pulled some great leads and business through them. I have also had a lot of leads that don’t answer the phone, text or email and you don’t get credit from them for that. I have narrowed my market significantly since. I don’t get many leads from them, at least not the ones that may or may not be legitimate leads. Am about to cut ties altogether. The fee structure is crazy. Any mention of the word inspection and it becomes your lead even if it is not the type of inspection you perform.
Their offer was this to me:
No up front fee.
$300 credit without me putting up a penny.
Of course I declined.
In my are Home Advisor leads are $40-$50 . Not a bargain
My experience was like what Vincent described. Its a great program - if only they would be more fair and honest.
Would never recommend Home Advisor. When I started 10 years ago, I had became a member, Leads wouldn’t pan out, and still had to pay their referral fee. I get calls every month from them wanting me to come back! Nope…
You have to demand they turn your account into an “opportunities” not “leads” account. They will tell you that’s not an option, and it might not be in some areas. Keep pressing them or tell them to close your account. Worked for me. I don’t get charged for leads. I get “opportunities” and have the option to accept or decline. If I except I get charged. Most times you can tell from the description if its a worthy opportunity.
So if the Bunny Ranch in Nevada offered home inspectors a discount on an afternoon with a prostitute, you’d post it?
Because posting a discount to HA is like telling a home inspector to go get… we’ll let’s just say it starts with a letter between “e” and “g” in the alphabet.
@imayer I see your point. It does seems a bit like an endorsement. Nic might want to lead with this statement for each “deal” he posts.
Interestingly, at least one inspector had a positive experience which was worth listening to.
So if the Bunny Ranch in Nevada offered home inspectors a discount on an afternoon with a prostitute, you’d post it?
Yes, if a Bunny Ranch in Nevada was selling something inspection-related to our members, I’d post it. This is the proving ground and it can work for or against a vendor. It can also help a vendor improve.
But it can’t help anyone if we don’t throw them to the sharks (you all).
This system has been criticized by everyone for 25 years, and yet has worked amazingly well for 25 years.
And at least one other fan of HA is now saving some money.
And finally, for all of you who have complained for years that you couldn’t get anyone on the phone at HA, you now have a rep with a direct phone number.