Basic Elements of Service Provider Determinations
- Adam Garrett
- Dec 12, 2022
- 1 min read
Updated: Jan 10, 2024
In real estate transactions & outside of real estate transactions, it can be helpful to know how to find service providers. While no referral is foolproof, even the best-reviewed companies have their problems, & someone who served you before might no longer be in the business, taking the steps below can help to mitigate the likelihood of issues.
How to find potential service providers/places of business:
Reviews generally:
1. Look at Review # total & rating a 4.7 with 50 reviews is typically much more reliable than a 5.0 with 10 reviews.
2. Look at what people are actually saying in their reviews.
3. Look at how long ago the reviews started. If they're all from the past year, that's a bad sign.
4. If someone gave a # star review but didn't say anything, treat it suspiciously and try not to count it in your determinations. Sort by the lowest review.
5. Look at multiple review sources rather than just 1. If someone has 50 reviews on Google Maps, but no reviews anywhere else online, they're much more likely to have been "farmed" reviews where the business requested that people give them a review at that location.
6. If you look at a location that doesn't seem to have many options in cities that aren't major, skip it. For instance, if I'm looking in Hampton, I see that Zillow has places for home improvement professionals, but a very low number of businesses with reviews. With Zillow the same low volume providing reason to skip it is true of Home Builders, & real estate photographers. With home inspectors, Zillow appears to have a bit more, but still skip it. All those listed in Hampton on Zillow with reviews at the time of this writing are based in Virginia Beach, the biggest city of the region.
Where to Check Online Reviews
Google Maps is a great place to start since it's free for businesses to join, you can easily see the proximity to the location of a job in many cases, the phone number, the hours, and in many cases the website as well as the number of reviews and ratings.
Check the Better Business Bureau.
There are specific sources that can be beneficial for certain businesses. For instance, if looking for hotels, things to do, or restaurants throughout a particular city/county, Tripadvisor is a good resource (& for restaurants), & I particularly like US News for hotels, restaurants, and things to do when in a big enough city for them to have a list compiled.
Beware of places that charge businesses/individuals to be listed on the platform. A common example for home-related businesses is Houzz, which requires fees to be listed. The best business available may simply not want to pay to be listed there, or pay extra for a "Premium Profile", and the charges to be listed in certain sources can be as high as 50% of the total proceeds from you using them (in the case of hiring a real estate agent). Also, beware of sources where someone can pay to be put to the top of a list. For instance, notice where it says "ads" here, meaning no matter how well-rated a business, it won't be listed at the top here if it's not paying for it:
Image courtesy Google.com
Likewise, to have "license verification" on Yelp costs $365/yr at the time of this writing.
Image courtesy biz.yelp.com
If you can't find reviews for a place that someone else recommended, Google them.
Get a referral
Get a referral from a friend, family member, someone in a related field (i.e. your real estate agent) or coworker, as long as the person you're asking advice from wouldn't exert too much of a controlling influence in your decision where if you didn't go with that person's recommendation, you would hurt your relationship with that person & they would be offended. For reference, if you ever avoid going with someone that I recommend, I take no offense.
Referrals are a way to sometimes get people who you might not know about otherwise because they may not be aggressive with requesting reviews after doing a fantastic job with people.
If someone won't provide you a referral due to liability, try not to take offense. It's possible someone held them liable (financially or refusing to do future business with them) for a previous referral even when that person was receiving no compensation for that referral. I've had people do both with me after I provided a referral where I was receiving no financial compensation for the referral. In one of those cases, I even provided a liability release disclaimer along with the referral and 4 service provider options (along with when each would be available and the cost of each), but they didn't care and still wanted to hold me liable to the tune of more than twenty thousand dollars. While a request like that is unlikely to go in the favor of someone seeking to hold me liable in court, sometimes people aren't looking for something fair, but something they think that they can get away with.
Examples:
1. For instance, the person I used to have cut my grass I got via referral, though they had nowhere online with reviews, and they did a much better job at the same cost vs a few others I had before them. After they did such a fantastic job, I went to review them, and couldn't find anywhere to do so. When someone does a fantastic job, one of the best ways to give them a "tip" at no cost to you is to spend 5-15 minutes on reviews for them. That little bit of time could be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars to them.
2. Some of my favorite photographers for real estate, like ARC Imaging based out of Williamsburg & Art Louis Photography, don't have practically any reviews online. If I was only looking on review websites, I would have never found out about them. I typically skip those with only one or no reviews online when going through review websites.
Use someone who you've already worked with and had positive experiences with
Close Proximity
If looking at 2 service providers with similar ratings/look, the one that's closer in proximity will typically be able to do the same job for lower cost and faster than one that's more distant. That said, it's not always true, and sometimes a more distant provider can do a much better job than someone who is a lot closer. For instance, a seller I am serving 1 hr away will typically get a much better experience with me than with someone close in proximity with similar ratings.
Get a list of possibilities from Adam
If getting a referral from me, in some cases I have lists of possibilities in spreadsheet form where I've already compiled a number of information about them, in some cases information that isn't public.
I have lists for the following at the time of this writing, which often include information like reviews, pricing, location, my experience with them, availability ratings, etc.:
Contractors (including categorized by type)/Cleaners
Real Estate Photographers
Home Inspectors
Termite/Moisture Inspectors
Well/Septic Inspectors
Surveyors & Soil Scientists
Lenders - in this case instead of a private spreadsheet I have a public page on the subject.
If I am willing to share a list, I am assuming that you would let me know if you have problems, but that you won't hold me liable for that referral. I am unaware of any of the above lists where I receive any form of compensation for those referrals. If you would hold me liable for issues, please don't request a list.
Check their Business License on DPOR &/OR SCC Status Before Hiring
With contractors, home inspectors, real estate agents, and many other profession types, you should be able to check for their license & any disciplinary action they've had against them on DPOR. Go here for looking them up. If you can't find their license number, ask them for it. If you hire an unlicensed business, you may have less recourse to find them & prosecute them if things go bad. In some cases, i.e. household cleaners, no license with DPOR is required.
With other entities, or if you can't find them on DPOR, be sure to look them up with the SCC. For companies based out of VA, you can locate that information here.
Outreach method to potential service providers:
Email/Send message on website
Best for low time commitment from you while retaining ability to ask multiple questions effectively, though not as fast of responses as text
Text
Texting is best for quickest responses for a brief list of questions (i.e. 1-7, though I've been known to do more than 7 questions before, especially for showing inquiries with agents when unique scenarios are present, like properties in flood zones with no mention of it on the listing). Sometimes you won't get a response because a business doesn't text, or their public listing isn't textable, so it's important to reach out to multiple businesses if texting just in case you don't know whether they text.
Textual "chat"
(on website, via Google, or directly if found on social media) chatting is especially helpful for those overseas who want fast response but who aren't in a good position to call without spending on Skype calls or similar.
Call
While many go this route first, it's too easy to be pressured into a commitment here & is too time consuming for multiple outreach attempts. In my opinion, it's best to collect data in textual form first before making a determination about who to potentially call.
Video chat
Many shy away from a video chat, and while a pressure salesman can work their magic best in a face to face vs something on the phone or in textual form, someone that is good at what they do can also demonstrate just how good they are if they use resources like screensharing. If they start to pressure you into making a decision, it's best to be familiar with common logical fallacies in order to expertly sidestep and redirect their behaviors in a way that few do. The more they try to quickly pressure you into something where you don't need something quickly, the more mental red flags you should mentally note if a decision really isn't urgent on the service you need. That said, there are some cases when quick action is warranted. For instance, when a buyer reaches out to me about a property that they want to see, especially if there are active offers on the table, quick action is definitely appropriate, as some properties can come on and off the market in <24 hrs, and taking a single night to sleep on something could cost you a home.
Confirm Receipt of Links
Especially if you are sending a link, be sure to confirm with a service provider receipt of the link. Sometimes, a link you send will land in their SPAM folder. If you're sending them a link to pictures or a video, definitely confirm receipt. That's especially true for any estimate you receive with the service provider not going to the property to see the job for themselves. If they get it in their SPAM folder or don't bother to look at it, I've seen where prices were around double what was quoted because the service provider didn't realize the extent of the job.
What questions to ask:
The questions to ask can vary substantially when you reach out to a particular service provider, but some of the most important questions are:
Availability
(i.e. for inspection time & report time for a home inspector, which can be different from one another, or estimate time and work start/completion time for a contractor)
Cost
i.e.
1. Does the service provider charge for estimates?
2. If the service provider can't provide a firm #, what's the range?
If the service provider doesn't see the property themselves, and if they don't see any video or Matterport scan, know that the cost can be drastically different than what they quote, with some service providers being much more accurate than others. Be sure to be truthful especially in these scenarios about the extent of the job. If you say that something is "average" and the job is nothing close, the estimate you receive will likely be way off.
What's included
What level of expertise does the service provider/business have
How long have they been around in business?
If you don't find out online, be sure to ask for any certifications (i.e. is a home inspector also certified for mold/moisture/wood destroying insect inspections), licenses (some businesses operate unlicensed), insurance (some businesses don't have it), bond, designations, level of contractor (i.e. Class A vs Class C), how many similar jobs they've done, etc.
Check their license & any complaints on the state website
In the case of VA businesses, you can check on DPOR where it's typically best to look up the business. Try the service provider's 1st and last name first. If there are many of that 1st and last name, order by license type. If that doesn't work or if there are dozens of service providers by that name (& it's not unusual for it not to work such as if they include their middle name and you're looking up first and last), try using the "Advanced License Search" with the last name (or 1st name if an unusual 1st name as long as you're sure they're not called by something else) of the service provider & the location that the business operates out of along with the board:
Image courtesy DPOR
Image courtesy DPOR
You can also look at the "Complaints" Section on some businesses that have had them, which whill be right next to "License Details" if applicable:
What kind of team does the service provider use if they are not a 1 man operation
I.e. if the main inspector has done 3k inspections, but his assistant on site that will be performing tasks unsupervised is almost brand new, that's important.
Questions specific to certain providers
i.e. Termite/moisture inspectors, home inspectors
For any provider where I don't have a full article, if you're my client, ask for my lists of that type of provider, if I haven't sent it to you already, so that you can see what metrics matter to me.
There are some metrics that can be helpful to note following you reaching out to them:
How fast do they respond to you?
That said, many factor this one into the equation too highly, even going with the first person that responds to them & making a decision prior to hearing back from others. I don't recommend that with very few exceptions since there's a big difference between "good enough" & "best". If one person responds in 30 seconds with a very brief response that doesn't answer all questions, and another person takes 3 hrs to thoroughly answer in detail, I'd much prefer to go with the person that takes 3 hrs, especially if their availability to see me/provide an estimate/perform a task is the same as the other person.
Do they answer all your questions?
Are any questions ignored or not answered directly?
How well do they/thoroughly do they answer your questions?
How positive or negative are the responses to your questions?
Feel of admin you'd be dealing with regularly beyond primary point of contact
If the person you reach 1st is not the primary point of contact, but someone you'd be dealing with regularly, and that person is rude or could care less, there's no need to deal with that business as long as there are alternative viable businesses to consider.
Metrics I try not to factor in much or at all that many factor in far too much in my opinion:
How often they follow up with you
Many people appear to have too narrow of a focus on those that pester them the most as a positive rather than as a negative. You should go with the person that will do the best job, not the person on the top of your mind because they're pestering you left and right. If you like someone but they're pestering you a lot, let them know that you'd prefer for them to not follow up as often or that you'll potentially contact them when you need to hire someone and that you'd prefer to be left alone in the meantime. In order to not factor this metric into your thinking too much, it's best to create a spreadsheet of possibilities for whatever task you'd like to hire for. If doing so & factoring in ratings into the equation, using a composite ranking across multiple websites with reviews is ideal.
How a gatekeeper makes you feel
If I am trying to contact a particular person of a company, and a gatekeeper is rude to me but patches me through, that doesn't mean that the one I am trying to reach is terrible and a company should not be hired. If the gatekeeper is someone you'd be dealing with regularly if you were to work with that company, that's different, and a much more significant factor to consider. Also, when you reach the person you're trying to reach in this scenario, inform them of your negative dealings with the gatekeeper, either in initial discussion with your primary point of contact &/or sometime during or slightly after your dealings with that company.
Are they a "yes man"
Many people hire those that fall in line with being a "yes man" rather than those who are honest yet go above & beyond again and again. See more details on how that's problematic & how to avoid that here. Many don't hire me because I'm more honest than a "yes man", despite the fact that I go above & beyond again and again.
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