This holiday season, you probably visited a dozen websites and read hundreds of reviews to choose just the right gifts for your loved ones. What about when it comes time to select a home remodeler? That remodeler will be doing a significant amount of work to your biggest investment: your home. Choosing the right one is a paramount decision.
If you’re like most home owners, you’ll likely do a significant amount of online research to find the remodeler who’s best suited for you and your home. But with all of that collective wisdom available online, it can be hard to tell which reviews are the most accurate, or at the very least, which ones are legitimate.
Proceed with caution
The internet makes it easy to find a wealth of information with just a few quick clicks of the mouse. Much of what you find will provide some useful background, but you can’t believe everything you see or read. When looking through customer rating sites, use good judgment to weigh the value of certain online reviews (positive or negative).
Keep in mind:
An abundance of positive, brief, nondescript reviews that use excessively promotional language can often indicate phony reviewers.
Customers who had a positive experience are far less likely to post a review than customers who had a negative experience.
Reading at least a dozen reviews is important to recognize any possible trends –good and bad.
The Better Business Bureau (bbb.org) is a good resource to ensure the business doesn’t have any unresolved complaints. Other sites worth noting include Angie’s List, HomeAdvisor and Houzz.
Remember, the most reliable customer reviews will always come directly from the mouths of previous clients. If you don’t happen to know any former clients of the remodelers whom you are considering, simply ask those remodelers for references of recent projects.
Those who are talented and trustworthy remodelers will readily provide you with several former clients who can speak to their quality of work.
To find a reliable contractor with an established business in our community, visit the online directory of the Home Builders Association of Greater Chattanooga at www.HBAGC.net.