Contractor Update

Report from MarketWatch on new home construction jobless claims: "Residential construction jobs have fallen by 84,000 in the past year. And economists say the layoffs will soar this year as the production pipeline dries up. Home builders have slowed the pace of groundbreaking, but there are plenty of homes still under construction that were started months ago. As many as a half a million construction jobs could be lost, according to Citigroup economist Steven Wieting."

Labels: Construction Hiring, Construction Industr, Construction News

From the Building Online website: "Spending on home improvements by homeowners is expected to increase at a 3.7 percent inflation-adjusted compound annual rate over the next decade according to a new report released by the Remodeling Futures Program of the Joint Center for Housing Studies. After strong growth earlier this decade where low financing costs and strong returns to house values encouraged upper-end remodeling projects, spending reached $280 billion in 2005. Recently, the remodeling industry has softened.

'The 2006 slowdown in the broader housing sector was reflected in the remodeling industry, with many homeowners putting their improvement activity on hold until the market stabilizes,' explains Nicolas P. Retsinas, director of the Joint Center. Retsinas adds, 'when the industry emerges from its current slowdown, investments in older homes that missed the last round of home improvements, the desire for energy efficiency retrofits, and growing pressure to upgrade the rental stock will ensure a healthy recovery.'"

Read more on the Building Online article, titled, "Healthy Gains in the Remodeling Sector Predicted for the Coming Decade"

Labels: Construction Industry, Construction News

Some common questions received at our customer service center involve how we get our leads, whether leads are real, and how the whole process works. I think there may be confusion about how the Internet is fast-becoming the method of choice for homeowners to find service professionals.

Many contractors are spending a large portion of their advertising budgets on phone book ads. And it is a good idea to make sure your company is listed and in the public eye. But contractors may not be aware of how many people are using the world wide web to fulfill their needs.

If their need is a new roof, plumbing repair, or landscaping services, more and more people are going online. For example:

• Nearly 95% of all airline tickets are reserved or purchased online.
  
• Online sales during this past holiday season were up 25% while brick & mortar stores had only a modest increase in sales (close to 5%.)
• 98% of homes in the high income bracket have Internet access.
  
• People are spending more time on the Internet than watching television (averaging 8.9 hours per week in 2006.)
  
• As of December, there are 211 million people online in America. This is more than 3/4 of all Americans over age 12.

All this means is that people are searching online for information, shopping, planning, and looking for help. They're coming to Construction Deal to find companies to help with home and business remodeling and repair projects. There are several services that can provide you job leads. However, Construction Deal is one of the few that verbally qualifies leads to make sure we have the right contact information, that the property owner is truly looking for help, and helps keep them informed of the process.

Here are some more interesting stats about online usage:

• For the first time, more women are going online than men. And, women now make 75% of all the home remodeling and repair decisions in the modern household, as of 2006.
  
• 68.5% of users consider the Internet a very important or extremely important source of information for them - up from 56.3% in 2005.
  
• The number of online purchasers has risen to it's highest percentage in any studies of the 'Net. Over 51.1% of Internet users have made a purchase online.
  
• Homeowners are using the Internet at work for personal reasons, which explains why many are posting jobs through online services, like Construction Deal and not using their yellow pages. 85% of Americans can access non-work related websites while on the job.

Our renovation, home repair, and new construction leads have come to us online from all over the country. You can tap into our knowledge of the Internet to provide you additional jobs to help your revenue grow and your business expand. Some online services may promise you a lot of leads but never qualify them. Several online services even charge you for leads without letting you review them. Many make you buy a minimum number of leads. We do none of these things. We may not have as many leads as they do -- at this time -- but we provide stronger leads than any other service today.

And we're continuing to add additional resources to bring in more jobs for our network of members. If you're interested in becoming a member to review local leads, you can join for free. If you're satisfied with the 60-day history of leads we've had in your area, you can add one of our premium plans to your membership to get the contact information for all current and new leads that continue to pour in on a daily basis!

Labels: Contractor Advice, Small Business Expansion, Small Business Marketing