Why is there no class action lawsuit against them as of yet ?..Nick ?
Nick,
Buy them.
I don’t get why everybody thinks its a sham. I guess its good for me that you guys do.
Just to put it in prospective. I received 6 leads from home advisor in the last 7 days. The leads cost me like $20.00 each so a total of about $120.00. Out of those leads I closed 2 new clients. That’s $600 in revenue. So I made $480.00 from clients I probably would not have had in the first place, and I got in front of two new realtors I wouldn’t have worked with also.
Now there is some things that should also be said. I do get a lot of tire kickers just trying to price things out (don’t expect a refund), people just asking a question (No refund), I get leads that have fake info (sometimes I get a refund but not always), and lots from people who don’t even have an offer on a piece of property (no refund). They also send the same lead to 3 other inspectors.
Lastly, if your not a true salesman then Home Advisor is not for you. I consider myself to be a very good one and last year I closed 15% of my total leads, but that’s not counting the repeat clients, and agent referrals I have gained as well.
Id love to hear what other service you guys think would be better.
Not everybody thinks Home Advisor is a scam, but those of us that know what a scam is do.
Three hundred bucks ea for 2 new clients & more than six out of ten get away?
At those cheeeeep prices it looks like you’re not a good salesman.
huh? wha?
Well Marc, my point was that if your not a good salesmen then you will close an even lower percentage then I do. Home advisor is a means to an end. I have gained 4 good young realtors that recommend me all the time. All I need is 20 more then I’m set. Since I wrote this I closed two more leads from them. I could quite possibly be trying to rationalize with a troll here though.
Here’s the bottom line. It works for me. Id rather be rocking 10 inspections a week over six all day long as a one man shop.
Good luck to you & hope to see you increase your fees & make some money,
unless that’s all you are worth.
I learned the hard way too. It didn’t take long though.
Hi Nick. I am very concerned about this “Home Advisor” issue. There is a pending class action lawsuit against them and I have been contacted by them several times but have decided to NOT use them because of the seemingly countless complaints against them. I love what InterNachi offers me and represents for as I present myself and my credentials to the paying public-my clients and as a business owner it is imperative that I be associated with reputable companies like InterNachi or I will wither up and die due to the negative exposure. What say you about these videos and the lawsuits?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPeh42cfqcc)
and: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=(https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/class-action-lawsuit-alleges-rico-violations-by-iacinteractivecorp-nasdaq-iac-and-homeadvisor-300365169.html) - this one is older so I don’t know the outcome.
Anyway, Please feel “our” concerns…the first video is really disturbing sorry:(
Do NOT use HA…
There are thousands upon thousands of contractors that have massive complaints against HA, and like 10 that actually make it work.
You’ll also notice that the clientele HA has to offer are typically the ones looking for the best price. So when you get the lead, you have to hurry to call back and beat the other low-baller contractors. It’s a race to the bottom!
I get plenty of tire-kicker calls that I don’t have to pay $20/each for…
HA is a perfect example of how mass marketing can skyrocket you into success, but it won’t last long if you have a crap business model. Trust me, they won’t be around much longer.
So, 20% of gross revenue went directly to client acquisition.
Before cost of gas, insurance, tools, business cards, your website, etc.
Plus time of acquisition, because you have to quick to respond, or you don’t get. Plus time you spent talking to tire kickers, the occasion bad lead, and time if request refunds, etc. That was at least $100 worth of your time.
Which means your profit margin was very, very slim. If you even made a profit at all.
A lion can easily kill a mouse and have a quick meal, but the lion will slowly starve itself to death, as a mouse don’t contain enough calories to make up for the energy it took to catch it. A lion hunts bigger game, even though it may be far more difficult with far less of a success rate, and take much longer, because the pay off of catching bigger game sustains life.
The issue with H.A. is not that it can’t get you a few jobs. And I fully get when you’re starting out, you’ll do anything just to say you have a few jobs.
The issue is that it’s not sustainable.
An inspector must expend great effort to make a small amount of money for very short term success.
Even the biggest HA fans all admit they eventually stop using it.
Not one person has ever posted on this board they are a full time inspector and use HA year after year after year.
I’m not saying I have all the answers, and I get when your starving, a mouse appears better than nothing. But realize it is what it is.
I know I am a new guy here, but let me help those of you that don’t understand the real problem that Service Magic creates.
While some people get all caught up in the fact that they provide a lot of dead leads that they paid for, that is really a non-starter for me. My problem with them starts and ends in their terms of service that explicitly state that you grant them an unlimited and irrevocable license to your company likeness. This clause you agree to means that a customer can google your name, get their reps, and never even call you when you were specifically the contractor called about. They have no obligation or duty to connect you with said client inquiring about your services. They also have no duty or requirement to cease using your likeness after you have stopped utilizing your service.
In short, once you have decided that you no longer need Service Magic you will be effectively competing against your own likeness. So, for instance, lets say a potential client saw your yard sign on their way home from work - a yard sign that by contract is to be removed on that particular day. They see your work/name/brand and require a similar service that you provide. The customer remembers your name but forgot the phone number and heads to the search engine of their choice to see your company name on home advisors site at the top of the list whereas your listing is 3 or 4 listings down with a nice and big ad that is intentionally designed to show the top ad in a very prominent manner.
Now to understand where I am going here you must understand that American culture in particular is built around instant gratification. This is very much part of the reason the service industry has rapid exploded to what it has become in just a decade. A quick example is that most people could form a burger patty that is much healthier, tastier, and more affordable that spending the gas to leave home headed for McDonald’s to buy a $15 meal as opposed to forward planning and patience.
So when the customer sees a legitimate posting nice and prominent like on such reputable sites such as Google or Home Advisor, most of them will click the Home Advisor call now button rather than scroll down just a little bit out of ignorance. This means that by the time the customer has fielded the 3-5 phone calls that they have too many options to chose from that a seemingly reputable service that legally promotes your likeness who’s services you have long since terminated.
My point is that the real cost of competing against yourself via Service Magic is much greater than the 20% some are throwing around here. Frankly, the cost of Home Advisor is more of an exponent than it is a pure variable. Most guys that are new to business flock there to generate leads and will never know how much business they really lose by subscribing to their services. Other guys, like a former boss of mine who was well established and networked was desperately looking for more work one year we were slow, damned near lost everything over a few broken phones and lost cards.
Can they be useful? Absolutely! Are they counter productive? Certainly. However, a newcomer to any industry can benefit from their services if they go into the deal realizing what the stakes are. This would be a perfect example of forming a very generic company name to get your name out there with full intention or reorganizing or renaming later while still informing your satisfied customers that this is your intent from the start. The only other feasible alternative is starting two companies, the first being a shell company that only shows losses and is advertised on Home Advisor and the second being your actual company you operate under and provide marketing material for. Yes, this would cost a few hundred in my state to form the shell company and a grand or so a year to use a BS likeness to maximize your HA experience, but those costs will be far less than that of mailers or hinging your business on their call, even temporarily. HA calls the burner company designed to fail, you show up and hand the customer another companies materials with the same contact number, briefly explain to the customer why this is so and point at Service Magics history, and profit at no long term expense.
Personally, I recommend doing things the hard way and not giving them a penny of your money. But with that being said, it is your business to do as you please with.
I’m a newbie to these boards but wanted to offer my 2 cents re: HomeAdvisor.
After signing up with NACHI I received several calls from HA representatives claiming to be actual owners of the properties that they needed to have inspected. We’ve got so much work we will keep you busy was what I was told.
I’m also a general contractor so I was already busy at the time and very skeptical based on the mannerisms of the phone associate and blew them off. After doing some online research on HA I’m glad I stayed far away.
I stopped answering their calls and they finally stopped calling me ten times a day while not leaving a message.
IMO HA is unprofessional at the very least. Be cautious my friends.
Nick, Homeadvisor is lying. I joined in the early years with free membership because I was aNACHI member. You are being played.
Sad that Nick will sue anyone who dares say Nachi is less than ASHI, but does nothing to protect the brand of NACHI from being tarnished by HA claims of being partners.
Home Advisor is a way to get a lot of leads, but there incredibly expensive if you can not get the job. Especially considering that the jobs are presented to 3-5 different inspectors.