My Amazing Experience with Angie’s List

In this post you’ll learn:

-About my Amazing Experience with Angie’s List

Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time getting to work on our home office remodel. I’ve got about 90% of the coffered ceiling framed out and I’ve applied for an electrical permit for the additional ceiling lights we’ll be adding. I’m looking forward to shifting gears and actually doing some drywall work, which isn’t something I’ve had to do much of in our new house. Am I any good at spackling or mudding walls? I’m actually pretty good at it, so I hope I can share some tips on that subject if you’re interested learning. Later this week, I’ll share some pictures of the ceiling work on our Instagram and Facebook accounts.

Today, I want to do something a little different and share with you one of my all-time favorite remodeling stories. Now just so we’re clear, I’m not being paid to write this post. I’m sort of on the fence as to whether or not I should start doing sponsored posts or not. I have yet to write one. Anyway, that’s a discussion for another day. Even though this isn’t a sponsored post and I’m not being compensated for it, I just added Angie’s List to my affiliate portfolio. That means if you visit the Angie’s List website using my link AND THEN purchase a subscription to their service, I get a kickback at no additional charge to you. Affiliate advertising is a good deal for bloggers and there’s way more money in affiliate advertising than banner or Google ads. Anyway, just want to be above board with our readers on this stuff.

So back to my favorite remodeling story….

It’s 2008 and I’m getting married in under three months. I’m living in a row house that has been about 50% gutted. The kitchen is gone. The upstairs bathroom is non-existent. All of my personal belongings are covered in a thin haze of horse-hair plaster dust. I was just informed by Philly’s License and Inspections Department that I need to have most of my remaining remodeling work completed by licensed and insured contractors. Philly has a policy where contractors are the only ones permitted to perform electrical and plumbing work. Homeowners are allowed to do some basic remodeling like window replacements, framing, drywall, etc. Not a popular policy among DIYers as you can probably imagine. So, being the rule follower, I acquiesced and attempted to hire a plumber and an electrician. Lucky for me, I had just signed up for Angie’s List. A few years prior, I had renovated the first half of the house and hired out some roof work. I quickly realized that using the yellow pages to find a roofer was a misadventure I didn’t care to repeat. Let’s just say I burned through some serious vacation time waiting for contractors to eventually not show up to give me quotes. It was infuriating. So by the time 2008 had rolled around, I had already become an Angie’s List subscriber.

Now here was the challenge before me. I needed to identify affordable, competent and reliable contractors to finish the electrical and plumbing work so I could finish the house in time to have my beautiful bride move in after we got married. These contractors would have to both show up AND give me a quote, which in the days before Angie’s List was… well… a crapshoot. Oh, and after all of that, I still wanted to build my own kitchen cabinets. Needless to say, time was a critical factor.

Here’s how I pulled it off… On a Monday, I called three electricians and four plumbers I found in Angie’s List. I told them all I wanted them to come by my house on Wednesday and give me a quote for some work I wasn’t permitted to do myself. I intentionally gave them all different times so as to stagger their visits throughout the day. Right away, in Philly, this is like asking for the Pope to swing by with a fresh cheesesteak. A couple responded with something like… “Meh, maybe Wednesday will work. We’ll see what we can do.” Then, as if reading from a script, towards the end of the phone call, they would each ask me where I got their number. Was this from a previous job? Did you find my number on a bathroom wall? Where did you hear about our business?

This is my favorite part. I would tell them “Angie’s List” and then listen for that audible silence on the other end of the line. That “Oh crap, I better show up and better give this dude a quote” kind of silence. They would all commit to being at the house that Wednesday. They know that if they didn’t show up or blew me off, I could go onto Angie’s List and leave them a bad review or indicate a no-show. That’s not good for business.

Wednesday rolled around and I literally had a dozen contractors in the house tripping all over each other to scope out the job. It was an Angie’s List miracle. Oh and that whole staggering thing went out the window once the morning rush hour hit. I had three electrical contractors in the house at the same time eyeing each other up. I think it ended up working out in my favor. They knew there was competition.

Each and every one of those contractors showed up and all but one gave me a written or verbal quote. One contractor did decline to provide a quote, but showed up anyway and after viewing the work, told me he wasn’t interested in the job. Hey, at least he told me.

I was thrilled. I ended up hiring two awesome contractors that’d I’d recommend in a second. Actually, I’m working on a Resources Page and I will provide their info to anyone in the Philly area who’s looking for some quality guys.

All the work ended up getting done fairly quickly, which left me in a great position to build my kitchen cabinets.

So that’s my Angie’s List story. If I ever need anything done by a contractor, which is rare these days, the first place Lisa and I look is “the List.” The membership fee is outrageously affordable. It’s under $4 a month and the cost drops even further if you buy a whole year or two subscription. Lisa and I have even used it to look up our prospective doctors and dentists. Forget “in-network”… are they on the List?

For $4 a month, if you hire a contractor once a year, it pays for itself immediately.

Just so you know, I’m never going to recommend a product or a service that I haven’t used or don’t hold in high regard.

I hope you’re having a great week and I’ll be back later this week with a home office update.

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