HomeStars News and Updates
HomeStars has begun a partnership with CARAHS (Canadian Association of Renovators and Home Services) – a relatively new organization. The CARAHS aim to make those in the Construction, Renovation and Home Services industry aware of their obligation under the law, as it relates to the Occuational Health & Safety Act. In addition they are working on becoming an organization which helps their members find new business by educating them on new market developments and new techniques in the home services business.
As part of that process they invited HomeStars to come an present to their members early Friday morning at the Whitby Rona Store. Fraser Firth, our business development manager presented in front of about 30 of their members, including some of our current companies with lots of reviews including CallRich Eco, and Envirotech Insulation. It was a great morning of education and networking among the members, about HomeStars, as well as about other issues in the industry. 
There have been a number of recent changes in the health and safety regulations in Ontario recently, including changes in WSIB requirements. Additionally the regulators and agencies have been cracking down on small renovators. In Ontario, many of our renovators are small businesses, and are generally too busy to get involved in bigger employee and owner education programs. CARAHS aims to help these renovators and home services companies by providing them an inexpensive way of keeping up to date on their requirements, as well as helping them network to find new business.
We would highly encourage any company involved in HomeStars to look into what they are doing and give the fearless leader of CARAHS, Alec Caldwell, a call at 1-866-366-2930, or email him at info@carahs.org. We’ve also added their link into the blogroll on the side of our blog.
We will also be posting some of their articles and information in upcoming blog posts to help our community of HomeStars companies.
Posted by BrianS
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Our booth has been busy at the show. While the sun is starting to peek out from the rain, on Vancouver day, the city has come to the Vancouver Home and Interior Design Show. With a Canucks game tonight across the street at GM Place, we expect it will get busier as the day goes on.
We have been walking around the show and meeting some of the exhibitors who have some great reviews on our site.
If you come to the show be sure to check out Penfolds Roofing. This Vancouver roofer has not only has the most reviews on HomeStars, but also has prime position on the central aisle of the show.
We also ran into Dave Hillier, from Resurface Solutions/Vancouver Bath. He has been working a busy booth throughout the show. (This isn’t Dave in the Booth at the time of my picture)
Also, the guys at WestCoast Renovations were very busy talking to potential new customers at the show:
Posted by BrianS
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We are at the Vancouver Home Show, showcasing HomeStars to the Lower Mainland community. The reception has so far been fantastic. I have been updating our twitter followers with notes about who is at the show and how the progress has been going through our twitter account.
While the home services industry has not fully embraced twitter we found a few early adapters at the show who have been using the vehicle to grow their businesses.
We ran into @papaplumbing whose booth is right around the corner from us:
We also saw the fabulous Urban Barn (@urban_barn) display who, clearly by their HomeStars reviews,
And of course, the fine people at Habitat for Humanity (@HVHGV_Restore) had a booth for their Restore, one of our premium Vancouver companies.
And finally we ran into the fine people at My House (@MyHouseLive) Design Build , who also has a booth near us, at the after party. Great bunch of guys.
Posted by BrianS
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I’ve been out recently a number of times talking about HomeStars among friends and colleagues. They often mention that they need a bunch of things done around the house, but wouldn’t hire a ‘contractor’ to do it. They mention things like fixing that sticky jammed door, attaching a broken piece of floor moulding, repairing a few pieces of chipped tiles in the bathroom, hang a light fixture, or even hang a picture. Any of those small things. They don’t think a site like HomeStars can help, because it’s not a big enough project.
But we can!
There’s a perhaps little known category in the home improvement business called Handymen. They do all those little things that you need to get done, but don’t have time to do.
When hiring a Handyman (or woman) you should get together a list of things you need doing. Put a piece of paper in your kitchen so you can continue to add to the list over a few weeks. When you’ve got what you consider a reasonable list, look in the Handyman section on HomeStars. (here’s the Toronto link)
The list in Toronto includes some independent individuals like Handyman Dan, Handyman Paul, or even HandyNancy, who sounds like she’s pretty good from her reviews. There are also franchises where they have teams of handymen to help out homeowners. You get a bit of a ‘big company’ backing going with companies like Handyman Connection or Handyman Matters
Posted by BrianS
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In June we offered a promotion to the folks at Habitat for Humanity Toronto to upgrade their Restore Listings to premium because of the great work they do. We’re also expanding in Vancouver and have a number of new customers there, so we thought we’d get ahead of the curve and offer the Vancouver Restores, of which there are two, one in Vancouver and one in Burnaby.
We’re excited about this partnership. Be sure to go to their listings and write them a review if you’ve been a restore customer and have good things to say about them.
Also look forward to more news about the upcoming Habitat for Humanity contractor event BBQ in Toronto! More news soon!
Posted by BrianS
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Last week I posted an article about how to build your “Whuffie” - that is, your social capital among your customers and peers. It involves turning the bullhorn around and listening to your customers.
In this new paradigm, your customers now have a voice. They can talk about you, your services, and add to your reputation or bring it down. Your customers can now voice their criticisms and praise online, not just with HomeStars, but also on plenty of other sites on the net, such as Red Flag Deals, Smart Canucks, and other forums.
So what do you do when you get a customer criticizes you? The wrong answer is to threaten to sue them.
This morning we got word from one of our reviewers that one of our companies was threatening to sue her for a critical review. From what we can tell it seems like a valid review – a job was performed and money changed hands.
The company’s response, as has been their response in the past, is to repeatedly call the customer and threaten legal action. Does this build the company’s reputation? Would she go and tell her friends offline to use the company? I suspect not! The difference is that now the customer has social media tools, such as HomeStars, and other sites to voice her opinion. The customer could similarly post comments about the company on her personal Facebook page, or on Twitter. She could mention that the company was going to sue her.
What’s the answer? Listen, respond and engage. Make things right. Leave the customer with a good experience. Be honest and open. Explain the situation. Otherwise your actions will catch up with you.
Remember, it didn’t work in the music business, and it won’t work in home improvement.
Posted by BrianS
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The Consumers Council of Canada, an independent group which researches consumer issues, released a report this week on the Home Improvement industry called Renovation RipOffs, Problems and Solutions. The report examined issues to do with consumer complaints regarding renovations and the home improvement business.
The report was far reaching and well researched with extensive reading and researching done, as well as a cross Canada omnibus survey of over 1500 homeowners.
There were some very interesting conclusions which came out of the survey as noted by the Canadian Press article. Some of the key points which were raised were that wealthier and more educated homeowners and consumers were more likely to complain about a renovation gone wrong. And overall things fared well for contractors in industry with 55% of consumers reporting that everything went perfectly during a renovation. With over 28,000 points of reference at HomeStars, we’d probably suggest that number is higher. Our review data isn’t exactly scientific, but we find over 85% of reviews posted on the site are greater than a 5 rating, most of those being a 10, where nothing, or little went wrong.
The suggestions for homeowners before they hire a renovator in the report are excellent including:
- Get at least three quotes
- Make sure the quotes are for the same requirements
- Check references
- Educate themselves on the renovation, or hire a renovation adviser
- Understand the triple constraints of time, budgets and quality.
- Understand that it’s going to be difficult.
The report missed a couple things we’d also suggest which are to check licenses of your contractor with your local authorities, and, most importantly, to a full online research of the company you are going to hire, not only on HomeStars, but also with sites like Red Flag Deals, where an active discussion takes place on home improvement, as well as just doing a Google search on the companies you are going to hire. Don’t miss out on the power the internet offers to acquire information.
The report also suggests that the market for home improvement services is “undisciplined” and “unruly”. I’d suggest it’s a market with a low barrier to entry and a lot of small business operators who are trying to grow and manage their own businesses. In the past, there was a lack of information about these companies, and many could ‘fly-by-night’ and get away with poor work, this has changed. But with sites like HomeStars, and others, this is changing. A quick search for the company on google will turn up history of work performed. This is a resource consumers can and should use.
Posted by BrianS
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Last week I was on vacation in South Carolina and spent the first couple days reading a great book by Tara Hunt called The Whuffie Factor. You’re probably asking: what’s whuffie? It’s actually a term I don’t really like, but it’s used to describe “social capital”. Specifically, it’s the influence you have, as a person or a company, on the people around you to either help you or buy your products or services. It essentially comes down to trust. People want to buy from, work with and help out those who they like and they have relationships with. Makes sense, huh?
In the online world marketing has changed the playing field for advertising. Sites like HomeStars allow users to go and review their home improvement specialists and contractors. Yes, your customers can talk back! We don’t really provide an advertising medium here at HomeStars (although it’s the product we sell), but instead a platform for contractors to communicate with their clientelle. They can portray their company with pictures, lots of text, but the real content that users of the site want to read are the reviews.
Lets look at some of Tara Hunt’s tenents for building this ’social capital’ and apply them to the businesses on our site: home improvement specialists and contractors. These our our clients, and our community, as well as the homeowners that read and write their reviews. These are the people that really create the content on our site which is valuable to them.
The first rule of ‘Whuffie’ is to turn the bullhorn around and start listening. For contractors this means really listening to their clients. Many of them do this every day as they have personal relationships with many of their clients anyway. Most home improvement companies listen just because of the nature of their business – they are small companies that deal directly with the clients. But when they don’t, it can end up hurting them. Bad reviews, bad ratings and bad reputation can hurt a company immensly. On the other hand, good feedback makes a company better. Derek Morland from Mr Rooter GTA explains here.
Another rule is to listen and integrate feedback. People who take the time to review you, whether bad or good, want to know you’re listening. The HomeStars site will sent out an email to the reviewer letting them know that the company has responded to a review on the site. One excellent example is Carson Dunlop, a home inspection and eco-inspection company. If you look through their listing and reviews, they take the time thank their customers for taking the time to write a review. Another great example is Direct Energy who, despite some rough reviews, is taking the time to answer each one, take the feedback and solve the issues raised. Direct Energy is a much bigger company, so fixing customers service issues can be a challenge, but taking the time to thank those who reviewed you is important – not enough companies on our site take the time.
Be Notable. Contractors should go above and beyond and create the experience that customers want to write about. One of the most memorable examples comes from Mr Rooter in March of this year where their service tech saved a cat from between floorboards. Another example is Flavio of CanadaWide Plumbing, who always seems to go above and beyond for his customers, inspiring them to write reviews.
Importantly, you should be real and be yourself. It really helps. Brent Jefferies, of Classic Home Inspections, told me at one of our recent meetup events, that he is incredibly busy because of the site. He often refers jobs to his competitors (something that builds local Whuffie with his peers – again suggested!) but clients want him and him only. By the time they’ve read almost 90 reviews of Brent’s inspections, they know him pretty well before he even arrives at their house! Talk about building trust!
There are many more lessons to learn from the book, especially about social media – elaborating on some of the points that Mark Evans made a few weeks ago. I highly suggest you pick yourself up a copy. (write 3 reviews and tell a few friends and we’ll give you $15 gift card to Chapters/Indigo too!, which almost covers the price of the book)
We try and embrace these ideas at HomeStars and even set up our own page where companies and users can write reviews about us. It helps keep us honest, open and builds trust among our homeowner users and our listed companies. We have a forum, a facebook page, a twitter account, and even just email to get in touch with us. As we continue to say: give us feedback! It helps us grow.
Posted by BrianS
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Renovating a kitchen can be a dusty and inconvenient experience. Being prepared can make it a little easier. In a previous blog post we looked at the preplanning and planning stages of a kitchen renovation. This list considers the actual renovation schedule and what to expect (and be prepared for) during the renovation.
III. Demolition and Disposal:
- Rent a dumpster and salvage reuseable materials: If your kitchen cabinets, appliances, sinks, and faucets, doors, trim and moulding are in good shape but can’t be reused for your renovation, donate or sell them to a local salvage store, give them away on freecycle.org, or put them up for sale on craigslist. Your old building materials will avoid landfill and save you dumpster fees.
IV. Construction: early phase:
- Rough Framing: The outline of your new kitchen takes place during this phase. With the 2×4’s going up, you may have difficulty knowing where the doors and walls are placed. Ask your contractor to give you a tour.
- Insulation: if you’ve stripped back to the studs, now is the perfect time to upgrade the insulation; it will help lower your heating bills, and possibly get you some grant money during your second eco-energy retrofit audit.
- Electrical and technological wiring: As new wiring is being installed behind the walls, make sure you’ve thought about your computer, stereo, TV and security needs as well. While the walls are open, install as many systems as you can afford, even if you don’t think you’ll use a computer or stereo in the future, it’s always good to have the wiring there. Check with the electrical plan and confirm with the electrician that there is plenty of task light, overhead light and under-cabinet lighting planned.
- Plumbing and gaslines: Renovating is the perfect time to adjust any water pressure issues you might have. Use the opportunity to increase water pressure if you live in an old house with poor pressure. If you’ve always wanted a gas stove, now is your opportunity to install one. Get a quote before you make the decision though, extending a gas line can be expensive.
- Heating and Air Conditioning and over the stove vents: Make sure the appropriate number of vents, radiant heating coils, or rads are placed in the new space. If you are increasing the size of your home, make sure your old furnace can heat the additional space.
V. Construction: middle phase:
- Drywall: If you live in a town-home or condo with neighbours above and below, now is a good time to improve your soundproofing. You can use a soundproofing drywall (such as Quietrock), insulation. or using two layers of drywall with a sound dispersal agent such as Green Glue.
- Valances and Moulding: Moulding can make a newer home look like it’s been around for years. It increases the charm of a kitchen if you’re after a country or traditional look. If your kitchen is more of a modern or contemporary theme, moulding will be simple if there is any at all. Under-cabinet valances hide lighting components.
- Baseboards and Trim: Keep baseboards and trim consistent with the rest of the house. Make sure it is easily sourced before starting the project. If not, keep old baseboard and trim and reuse in the new space.
VI. Construction: late phase:
- Installation of kitchen cabinets: There are three types of kitchen cabinets: stock, semi-custom and custom. Stock come in predetermined sizes so your space must be adaptable to the cabinets. Custom cabinets give you the ultimate in flexibility, but are the most expensive. Depending on your needs, and the kitchen company you choose, will determine your timeline. Some kitchen cabinets can take up to three months from the time of order to delivery. Others are available the day you order them (stock).
- Installation of countertops: Like the cabinets, depending on the countertop you choose, it can take a few days to a few weeks to order. Functionality is key to the choice of a longlasting countertop. Depending on the activity levels in your kitchen, durability might be your top priority. Stone is soft and can chip easily. It also needs to be sealed on a regular basis. Alternatives are stone composite counter tops, made from stone chips, but mixed with an epoxy; it’s less expensive and more durable than solid stone. Another budget-conscious choice is Arborite.
- Backsplash and tiles: A backsplash is installed after the countertop, and can extend across the entire contertop or just behind the stove, depending on your budget. Another opportunity is to spend a little more on the area behind the stove to make it a focal point with a design, and to use plain, less expensive tiles on either side of the stove.
- Sinks and Faucets: Sinks and faucets range from budget conscious to top of the line expensive. For faucets in particular getting a quality faucet will save you time and money in the long run. Higher quality internal parts means the faucets will last longer, not leak, and provide many more years of service than cheaper faucets. Sinks also provide an opportunity to spend a fortune. A simple basic stainless double sink is a good option, high on durability, low on cost.
- Flooring: choosing a floor can be another overwhelming task. There are so many options and price points it makes it difficult to make a decision. Consider your lifestyle and budget when choosing a floor. Tile is durable but hard on the back and on little children. Linoleum and hardwood are easy on the back if you’re in the kitchen for long periods of time, but hardwood in particular can scratch easily.
- Appliances: Appliances can consume up to half your kitchen renovation budget if you let them. Think about what you really need, do extensive online research, read reviews on epinions, and consumer reports about the appliances you’re interested in purchasing. Then, go to the stores and speak directly with sales people. Some stores are more willing to bargain than others, and you’ll have more bargaining power if you’re buying a set.
- Painting and wallpapering and window coverings: the final phase in your kitchen renovation. If you’re not using an interior designer or decorator to help you choose the wall colour or paper, use the expertise at a paint store. Take in samples of your tile or countertop, maybe a photo of the space, describe the amount of light the area receives, and a good pain salesperson will be able to give you some suggestions to take home. Try a few testers before making a decision, and leave on the walls to see the colour change with the changes in light.
Posted by CathyR
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