No, being that this was already disclosed by BuildZoom prior to acceptance of a project, there should not be an issue. This is part of “Your” company overhead and needs to be built into the project cost. You pay ZERO if you don’t secure the project. It is far less expensive than sending a salesman out on a daily basis that needs company marketing materials, workman’s comp coverage, pay a salary and possibly a commission as well, let alone if you need legal representation for the performance of the sales person. The 2.5% is extremely cheap.
I think 2.5% was a great idea from buildzoom , this works good for both contractors and buildzoom , keep in mind in order for us to get leads some one has to pay for marketing,checking with customer to make sure is a good lead . buildzoom has to compete with other major sites like Home advisor,yelp . best thing about buildzoom we don’t pay unless we win the job. try doing this with Thumbtack, home advisor YES they are big but ,they been in business longer.
It’s completely fair and much better than the sites that make you pay for leads that could be fake, you don’t have time to contact, are given to 10 other companies and are from companies with bad business practices that don’t care about the businesses or the homeowners.
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That isn’t that high and is fair to cover management and oversite costs the GC incurs. Most GCs will charge some fee here either spelt out or hidden in cost elsewhere. Most of the time if you see this in the bid the GC is being honest and giving you a proper bid.
2.5% for a project that is confirmed is a great price
We’ve used other sites like HomeAdvisor, CraftJack, Contractors.com and you sometimes pay more than that with no guarantee that it is a “confirmed” project much less a sale.
Not a bad rate at all!! $6,250.00 could be spent in marketing on a given month with zero guarantee a lead will be generated. With Buildzoom leads are at no cost until a sale is made. Overhead should be considered when bidding no matter the size or cost of the project. The only issue I have come across is calling a disgruntled prospect for being the 6th caller after a contractor had already been selected. Other than that I think Buildzoom is doing a great job in sending us leads!
Your credit card processing company is charging 2.75% or more for your credit card sales, so why not pay 2.75% on the project lead. Other sites charge for the owner’s information and your paying for that at a sliding scale so I think it’s easier to just add the referral fee to the owner’s bid.
if it is not a big project i see it is fair. but when getting into big projects they should make the percentage less. but at the end you are not paying anything unless you win the job which is great verses other sites that you keep paying without winning any projects
I believe that is a good rate considering you only pay for the jobs you get and not the leads
yes. like the other answer . There are other companies or leads co asking for more.
buildzoom does provide alot of legit leads. theyve made me alot of money and has also kept me busy in my down time.
Regardless of the size of your project, you would not have that project without Buildzoom…so 2.5% seems very fair. And given the high quality of the leads that Buildzoom provides, this seems to be a no-brainer.
2.5% is very fair for a confirmed job. Especially when you consider that other sites charge you about 3.5% for a lead that has no guarantee of a sale.
its fair and compared to other online services that charge per lead for us it ranges from $40 to $130 per lead this is by far the best. yopu dont getg the job you dont pay. where as companys like home advisor charge per leqad $129 dollars for us on a kitchen remodel with a average sale per 15 to 20 leads so the price is about the same for us as it is paying 2.5 percent but with alot less trouble then the other services pay for the lead an i would say around 30 percent never even answer you by phoine text and email gets frustating when 130 dollars goes out the window and you didnt get a damm thing out of it not even a oppertunity to at least talk to the client. i understand that if i talk to a customer and lose the job to someone else thats one thing but not even a chance at dealing with them. i also pay upwards of 8 percent to homeshow leads not counting our estimators who sell our jobs over 10 percent and our telemarketing 1 percent so in all fair ness no matter the size of the job its worth 2 .5 percent if 2.5 percent is going to bankrupt you to gain more customers find another line of work or build the cost into your estimate so it dont effect your bottom lineand your margins are still the same.
I am grateful for 2.5 percent on any job if you had experience with home adviser you would know why they are the biggest ponzi scheme since BERNIE MADDOFF
Realistic i think its very fair to pay 2.5% commission specially after winning the contract
Fair price. Especially you only have to pay if you sign the job.
Companies on average pay 7.5% of revenue on marketing. 2.5% is a great deal!
Bruce, this is something we are actively discussing with regard to $500k projects and up. The goal is to better understand how the operating margin changes as the size of the project increases. I know that some commercial construction companies are operating at a 7-8% operating margin so clearly if we were to deliver a $20M project where the operating margin is 7.5%, then 1/3 of that would be challenging. However, for most residential projects, we did a great deal of research into typical margins and placed the fee far below what most contractors end up at from a unit acquisition cost standpoint. Message me if you would like to discuss in more detail.
hmmm 2.5% is fine. Take in consideration the 2.5% when you price it out.
I think, for normal sized jobs (Like a $10,000 concrete Driveway, thats the kind of job we do) 2.5% is reasonable. If you have ever used any other “Lead Generating Companies” such as Craftjack, you would appreciate Buildzoom all the more. They charge you alot (like $40 for a Driveway lead) and you pay no matter if you get the job, don’t get the job, can’t get in contact with the customer, whatever… I spent $1,000 in about 2 weeks with them and only got 3 small concrete jobs (one of them, for example, was a $3,000 sidewalk, another a $1,500 patio, and a $1,000 ramp) not worth spending $1,000. I love that you only pay for jobs that you get on Buildzoom. I will pay 2.5%, gladly, for my average sized jobs. I only do residential work, though, so rarely do I do larger, more expensive work.