Remodeling Leads: Buy Them or Earn Them
There are two ways to get remodeling and building leads: buy them from a platform that may send the same homeowner to other contractors, or earn your own and keep them. Here is what each really costs, without the sales pitch in either direction.
Get My Free Game Plan →Bought, Or Earned: Not the Same Thing
If you’re reading this you’re probably weighing a lead service, or already paying for one and wondering whether it’s worth it. Fair question. We don’t sell leads. We build the marketing that generates them, so we have an obvious interest in what you conclude. Everything below is checkable, and we’ve tried to be straight about where buying leads works.
What a Shared Lead Actually Is
A shared lead is a homeowner’s contact details passed to more than one company. Everyone who got it calls quickly. The homeowner filled in one form and now has several contractors asking to come out and measure, which turns a design-and-trust decision into a price comparison.
That’s the product working as designed. But it explains what most remodelers notice: lots of site visits, a low signing rate, and pressure to sharpen the pencil because someone else is quoting the same kitchen this week.
The Real Cost Is the Estimate
In a lot of trades, a bad lead costs a phone call. For a remodeler or builder, it costs a site visit, measurements, a design conversation and pricing. That’s hours of the owner’s time, usually in the evening, and it doesn’t show up on the lead invoice.
So the number that matters isn’t price per lead. It’s what it costs, in money and estimate time, to sign one project you actually wanted.
What Are Your Bought Leads Costing?
The starting figures are round placeholders to make the arithmetic easy to follow. They aren’t industry averages or our data. Replace all four with yours, then run it once for small jobs and once for your biggest projects.
- Leads it takes to sign one project10.0
- Share of the project that goes to leads1.5%
When Buying Leads Is the Right Call
Sometimes it is, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. If you’re new and have no portfolio online yet, bought leads can put estimates on the calendar while everything else is being built. If you’re testing a new service, like decks or basements, a short run of leads tells you whether the demand is there before you commit to it.
What they aren’t is a foundation. The contractors who struggle are the ones who have been buying for years and would have nothing if the platform raised its prices or changed its rules.
What Earning Your Own Actually Takes
Honest version: longer than buying. A website with real project galleries, honest investment ranges and a clear process, a Google Business Profile that shows up in your towns, steady reviews, and advertising you control. Homeowners planning a big project research for months, so the payoff builds over time.
In exchange, the homeowner contacts you because of your work, not because a platform routed them to you. You’re not one of several contractors walking through the same kitchen, and every project you photograph makes the next sale easier.
Is Your County Still Open?
We work with one remodeler or builder per county, based on where your business is located, and still market you in the neighboring counties you serve. Some Maryland counties are already spoken for. Tell us where you’re based and we’ll tell you straight.
Get My Free Game Plan →Free, no obligation · No long-term contractsIncluded as Standard
- Visibility in the towns where you want to build
- Project pages and galleries for the work you want more of
- Every inquiry tracked back to what produced it
- An inquiry form that asks about budget and timing up front
- Cost per signed project, by project type
- Inquiries that come only to you, from a system you keep
Questions We Get
About This
How much do remodeling leads cost?
It varies a lot by platform, market and project type, and prices change. That’s why we’d rather compare cost per signed project, including the estimate time, than price per lead.
Are exclusive leads worth the extra?
Often, because you’re not racing other contractors to the site visit. But ask how the lead was generated and whether the homeowner knows who they’re talking to, then run the numbers on cost per signed project.
Should we be on Houzz, Angi or other directories?
Some directories help homeowners verify you, and we’ll look at which ones actually show up in your market. We don’t recommend paying for shared leads as your foundation. Your own website and Business Profile should hold your best portfolio.
Do you sell leads?
No. We build and run marketing that generates inquiries for your company only. Nothing we produce for you is sold to anyone else.
Let’s Fill
Your Calendar.
Tell us where you work and the projects you want more of. We’ll review your market, your Google presence and your website, and show you where the opportunities are.
What happens next
Based in Towson. Serving remodelers and builders throughout Maryland and beyond.