by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
They want to help keep their home repair nightmares away from people’s dream homes.
Perrin Fisher and Shawna Chriss were frustrated with the work and lackadaisical performance of some of the contractors in the area, and those experiences pushed them to create HomeWorks Referral Network.
“I remodeled my own bathroom and hired a handyman to help me. I wanted to get the job done cheap,” said Fisher. “Later, I noticed cracking near the bathtub and discovered mold infestation in the walls. It ended up costing me three times what it would have cost me had I hired the right person.”
Chriss was more frustrated with the lack of information available when she moved to Jacksonville three years ago with her husband, a Navy pilot. The couple wanted to fix up their home in Palencia, a community in St. Johns County on U.S. 1.
“We couldn’t find anybody who would return our calls and we didn’t feel good about the contractors we were contacting,” said Chriss. “We moved here not really knowing anybody, so it was hard to find people we were comfortable with. We ended up doing some of the work ourselves, and that’s our horror story, the trials of hardwood flooring.”
Fisher and Chriss are neighbors and after they shared home repair horror stories they realized that no one offered a referral service for contractors. They decided to do just that and launched the business early this year. All the information they research on contractors is public record, but their service saves homeowners time and it is free to their customers.
The company’s review process doesn’t stop at the paper trail. After verifying the contractor has proper licenses, insurance and workers compensation coverage, the company checks with the Better Business Bureau and Florida State Office of Consumer Affairs to see if any complaints have been filed against the contractor. They also require five “glowing” recommendations from previous customers and a face-to-face interview before the contractor is added to the network.
“We really get to know them, so we feel comfortable sending them to work on other people’s homes. If we weren’t comfortable with them working on our homes, they wouldn’t be in our network,” said Chriss. “We talk with them regularly, and we’ve met wives and families, so we feel good giving these guys work and helping them support their families.”
Fisher sees the business as a bridge of communication between contractors and customers.
“Some contractors aren’t the best with people,” said Fisher. “And customers, sometimes, don’t understand what a contractor is telling them needs to be done, so we help both sides understand the needs of the project.”
The two-person business also helps smaller independent contractors who don’t have a budget for advertising or the knowledge to develop an advertising plan to promote their business.
HomeWorks has connected customers and contractors on 275 jobs so far and has developed a network of over 90 contractors in about 40 different service areas from architectural design to window treatments. HomeWorks is able to offer the service free to customers by receiving a commission from each contractor per job.
Multiple estimates are available for each job, so the customer doesn’t have to worry about getting directed to one contractor just because he is in the HomeWorks Referral Network.
“We have 93 contractors at this time,” said Fisher, “but we have interviewed about 150. That’s the process. Some didn’t have the proper license, proper insurance and one contractor was on the sex offender list.”
Both Fisher and Chriss are relatively new to the home repair industry, but continue to research requirements and standards for each county. They can supply contractors to projects from Fernandina to Palm Coast and all of Jacksonville. But if they do run into a question they can’t answer they refer to an eight-member advisory board they have created through their interview process.
“I feel good about helping people out with their home repairs after hearing their horror stories,” said Chriss. “I know how they feel and I want to help them get the service they deserve.”
For more information go to www.homeworksreferralnetwork.com.
356-2466