HOME IMPROVEMENT : Referral Services Help Take Guesswork Out of Hiring Contractors

Anyone who’s ever searched for a contractor or handyman to do a home-improvement job knows that finding the right person often takes longer than the task itself.

Does any of this sound familiar?

You talk to friends, who talk to other friends, until you find someone living next door to your neighbor’s third cousin who actually knows how to lay a wood floor. But the guy’s booked up for three months, then he’s going fishing in Cabo San Lucas, so maybe by Thanksgiving . . .

You try cold-calling from the phone book, but every time you find an ad that looks legitimate, the number’s been disconnected . . .

Finally, you reach a painter who doesn’t sound confused when you start talking about faux finishes. Only you wish you had been sitting down when she quoted the price . . .

Now you know why your next-door neighbor hasn’t bothered to do any landscaping for the past five years.

All this frustration has given rise to a new niche of businesses: home improvement matchmakers.

A handful of these services act as meeting broker between homeowners and contractors. Relatively new to the county--the oldest is going on its eighth year in business--the services have names such as Job Well Done or Home Improvement Referrals. One is operated as an adjunct service to a building materials retail chain.

The services basically work like this: They keep a list of workers whose references and job histories have been checked out (each does it a bit differently). They also check to make sure the worker has a contractor’s license, when applicable, and carries insurance.

Usually, an appointment is made so the homeowner can check this person out for themselves, estimates are quoted, billing arrangements set and contracts signed.

Most of the services also have some kind of follow-up procedure to find out if the work was completed to the homeowner’s satisfaction.

The matchmaking services typically get their money by charging the contractors a fee to be included in the listings or by getting a percentage of the bill from the contractor. All say customer satisfaction is important to the success of their business because they rely heavily on return business or referrals.

Here are some of the services operating in Orange County and what they offer:

Home Improvement Referrals

Diane Felton, who heads this Newport Beach outfit, says she has about 45 workers who pay her anywhere from $300 to $500, plus a small percentage of the homeowner’s bill, to be included in her membership. They range from a guy who cleans driveways to structural engineers, architects and a contractor who builds custom homes.

Before including someone new in her roster, Felton says she interviews at least 15, sometimes 25, of their customers, figuring that that many references can’t all be family and friends. “We are strict and selective,” she says, and everyone has to be licensed, except for those who do simple jobs that don’t require one.

Depending on the category of work and availability, Felton typically sends two people from her roster to bid on a job. She follows up the work with calls to the customer to make sure all went well. If she gets complaints about any of her contractors, she drops them.

Felton started the business after losing her teaching job to school budget cuts. She owned rental properties with her husband, and she was in charge of property improvements. But finding reliable help had always been a time-consuming task. After reading about an entrepreneur’s contractor service, she decided to start one of her own.

Felton says she hears horror stories all the time from people who have had bad experiences with contractors. Some people were left hanging when a contractor exited in mid-repair and never showed up again, while others have complained about shoddy work.

Felton says that doesn’t happen to her customers, because her livelihood depends on screening out those who are unlikely to perform as promised; she estimates that repeat calls from satisfied customers constitute 50% of her business.

Home Improvement Referrals , 2801 West Coast Highway, Suite 350, Newport Beach. (714) 348-8350.

Job Well Done

“We’re really about quality, not being the cheapest,” says Nadine Petropoulos, who started her Laguna Niguel home-based referral service almost six years ago. The company takes pride in not charging contractors a fee, but rather makes its money by getting a percentage of the final bill from the contractor. Petropoulos considers this an important distinction from services that require contractors to pay to join a roster. Her workers stand solely on merit, she says, not on their ability to buy a membership.

The service has a roster of 75 people who do everything from big remodeling jobs to painting to hardscapes to window washing to antique repair. One contractor, who has been in the area 20 years, builds multimillion-dollar homes. Although most of her work is with South County customers, Petropoulos has sent contractors on jobs as far away as Pomona.

Petropoulos also employs a screening process that includes scrutinizing training and work history. She looks for people who have been working in Orange County for at least five years, then she conducts personal interviews to gauge professional appearance. She checks references and also checks their work, inspecting the job herself when possible. She figures that in the five years she’s been in business, she can count only five times when people were not satisfied with a job.

Contractors referred through her are required to carry workman’s compensation if they have employees working for them on a site, and they have to show proof of bond.

Before starting her business, Petropoulos was a national marketing director for a Chicago-based insurance company. Part of her job required that she manage and supervise construction, from ground up, of the company’s office buildings. When her husband was transferred to Orange County, she had to find contractors to do work on their new home; starting a contractor referral service seemed like a natural segue.

She encourages those contemplating hiring a contractor to get three bids on the job and then throw out the high one and the low one. “It’s important to know that the cheapest bid is not necessarily the best way to go. Bad workmanship is more costly down the road.”

If you need work done around the house, winter is the best time to do it, she adds. Work is slow, so you’re likely to get the best bids, and you probably won’t have to wait weeks to schedule it.

Job Well Done Ltd., P.O. Box 7842, Laguna Niguel. (714) 249-3600.

Home Services Alliance

This franchise operation, based in Atlanta, has been in business on the East Coast and in the South for about three decades. The Mounce-Meech family--a mother, daughter and father--opened the first West Coast office about a year ago in Laguna Hills. (There is also now a Sherman Oaks franchise office.) It is among about 30 offices nationwide.

The business is based on consumer membership, which is free the first year and costs $25 annually thereafter. Membership buys access to the services of about 60 people, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and a guarantee that all work is done to the customer’s satisfaction.

Payments are made to the company, then a representative verifies that the job is done correctly before the contractor is paid.

Members also receive a quarterly newsletter and coupons for money off on services or products from local retailers.

The franchise’s service area covers all of South Orange County--considered a high-growth area--from the Costa Mesa Freeway to the San Diego County line. Vice president-mom Chris Mounce says many of their customers are home buyers referred through real estate agents (she used to be one).

Like the other referral services, Home Alliance uses only licensed, insured contractors. Licenses are checked periodically to make sure they haven’t expired.

Home Services Alliance, 26081 Merit Circle, Suite 112, Laguna Hills, 92653. (714) 348-8350

HomeBase Warehouse

This chain of home-improvement stores--there are five in Orange County and one set to open in Foothill Ranch--has devised a service that might be called enlightened shelf-interest: Buy a garbage disposal, kitchen sink or any of 200 other items sold at the store, sign up at one of their home-consultant desks, and you’ll be quoted a competitive installation fee from a licensed contractor. Rates are based on California Contractors Board fair market prices, and work is guaranteed for a year.

If you want to find out what a job will cost before signing anything, a HomeBase affiliated contractor will come out to your home to make an estimate.

The program, in place for four years, has proven very successful, says Carol Elfstrom, director of public relations for HomeBase. The store screens the contractors, makes sure they’re licensed and insured and checks references.