When you have found the right contractor, make sure to indicate your hiring decision through your BuildZoom account and upload a copy of your final work agreement so we can double-check to make sure it complies with industry standards. Contractors have extra incentive to provide excellent service when hired through BuildZoom because your feedback can determine whether or not they will continue to receive new opportunities from us. In fact, 95% of those who hire a contractor through BuildZoom, report high levels of satisfaction with the finished product.
Will you guarantee that the contractor is safe to hire?
We only recommend the most reliable and qualified contractors in your area to you to hire. We evaluate each contractor and assign a BZ score based on a variety sources including:
1. Whether a business has an active and valid license in areas that require business licensing
2. Verified reviews from past clients of the business
3. Feedback gathered from local consumer advocacy groups
4. Length of time they have been in business
5. Their responsiveness to clients on BuildZoom
6. As an extra layer of security, we also offer background checks on contractors through our SafeHire program.
What is the BuildZoom score?
The BuildZoom score is designed to give you a general idea of a contractor’s trustworthiness and ability. The score is calculated from an analysis of their work history and license status, based on data from a host of sources.
If you are a contractor and would like to improve your score, please claim your profile and tell us as much as possible about your business and work history. The more we know about you, the better our algorithm is at differentiating you from other contractors in your area.
What does the BuildZoom score do?
The BuildZoom score helps us figure out who to recommend to property owners, and incentivizes contractors to do great work and communicate promptly with our property owners. A contractor must be licensed to get a profile on BuildZoom. Licensed contractors start out with a BuildZoom score of 90. Licensing laws and rules vary significantly between states. We have prepared a complete list of what it means to be licensed in each of the 50 states.
When a contractor becomes licensed to do home improvement work, they appear on BuildZoom with a score of 90. If you see a BuildZoom score below 90, it means the contractor is no longer licensed, or that some of our other data sources indicate problems with past projects. BuildZoom keeps recently unlicensed contractors on the site for up to a year, so that property owners reviews about them do not disappear.
How is the BuildZoom score calculated?
We look at dozens of factors to influence a contractor’s score:
- Has the license been suspended or revoked at some point in the past (up to negative 40 points)
- Customer reviews*
- Quality of project photos
- Better Business Bureau rating
- Do we have a valid phone number and email for the contractor
- Does the contractor respond to property owner phone calls
- Contractor response time -- do contractors respond to requests within a few minutes, or at least in the same day?
- Endorsements from other contractors
- Contractors know more about other contractors than just about anyone.
- Building permit history
- Type of work completed
- Average project value
- Max project value
- Repeat business with a similar property owner -- does a contractor work with the same property owner as the homeowner moves on
- Repeat business within a neighborhood — does a contractor do a lot of work in the same neighborhood? This is a sign he is getting word of mouth visit
- Hiring history through BuildZoom
- Did the contractor do a great job for one of our property owners?
- Proof of knowledge — How many questions have they answered at www.buildzoom.com/answers, and how many upvotes have their answers received.
- The BuildZoom score isn’t a perfect measure of a contractor. In many cases, we simply have no information about a contractor beyond them having an active contractor’s license. - These contractors get a score of 90, but we can’t judge them beyond that.
What if I have issues with the contractor I hired?
In the unfortunate event that the contractor you hired does not meet expectations, we suggest you submit a review on that contractor’s profile and contact your Project Consultant to help you find a better contractor to finish the job. Your feedback is invaluable to our platform as it will make other homeowners aware of the risks of hiring that contractor and can determine whether or not they will continue to receive new opportunities from us. It also provides the contractor a huge incentive to right their wrongs, which we find happens often.
What should I do after I select a contractor?
Once you have selected a contractor for your project, please send your Project Consultant a copy of your work agreement or upload it to your BuildZoom Dashboard. Our contractor-in-residence will review it to make sure it passes our 7-point inspection and make sure it's in line with the thousands of contracts we've already seen. We will also help organize your project paperwork through our online platform.
Do I pay BuildZoom or the contractor?
Our service is 100% free to homeowners. You pay the contractor based on your mutual work agreement, and the contractor will pay us a small referral fee.