The Home Depot is set to significantly boost its home contractor leads network with today’s acquisition of Redbeacon. No price was announced for the acquisition. The deal puts Home Depot in the same boat as Sears, which has been quietly developing ServiceLive, its own contractor leads service.
Redbeacon, which takes a 10 percent commission for service jobs, was one of a number of socially driven leads companies that started in the 2008-2009 time frame. Others include Cox’s Kudzu, which has developed an intriguing partnership with Scripps’ HGTV; The Washington Post’s Service Alley; LikeList; HelpHive; and Thumbtack. The latter received $4.5 million in venture funding last week.
Last year, Redbeacon announced $7.4 million in funding from Mayfield and Venrock, but it hasn’t been easy sailing for the company. The service never landed media partnerships that it had been hoping for and replaced its founder last year with new CEO Anthony Rodio. It has, however, managed to launch services in nine markets. Under Home Depot, one assumes it will take a national approach to contractor leads.
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Would this be seen as a win for Red Beacon? Or would it be seen as an effective resignation that even though they were a former winner of TechCrunch 50, and successful in raising $7.5m of funding, that the local space is just too hard for them and they need to get out?
By the way, Helphive.com seem to be no longer in operation.
The correct site for sears is http://www.servicelive.com I beilve. I saw they actually have done over million jobs, not sure about some off the others mentioned. Will be interesting to see how home depot works this business going forward, maybe more like servicemgagic.
Bill, thanks, the site is definitely ServiceLive. Electrician, my hunch is that this is not a validation of the Red Beacon vision of local leads and advertising. Folding it into Home Depot was probably a convenient Build or Buy decision for Home Depot that worked out. The evidence will be in the purchase price, which I don’t know.
your article says red beacon takes 10 percent from service providers, I’m a service provider they’re taking 25 percent from me. would like to compare notes with other service providers, see what percentage is being taken from them, 25 percent is awful hi. told you 10 percent. date of this article a full 9 2012
25 percent, wow. That would be way beyond the 10 percent level that they launched with. I better look into it.
YerBid.com is also out there. They charge a small flat rate fee and offer fully customizable pages for the user. They signed my business up. The thing I really liked about them was that they sent a representative to my place of business, explained it all to me and signed me up. I had the option of paying 19.99 a month with 3 months free if I signed myself up but got a year for $99 bucks. I made that and more off my first job, can’t imagine losing 25%, that might be my profit margin on some jobs. There have been a lot of these I’ve tried, the main problem is either there aren’t enough listings coming through or not enough businesses bidding. Let’s hope we can get one to stick. I like yerbid so far.
Lep I’ve seen Red Beacon promoting a 25% fee as well on their website.
Check out http://www.redbeacon.com/pro/#payments-with-jobtrack
I believe they started out at 10% too. I wonder if its gone up since Home Depot bought them?
Wow Yerbid sound very cheap! How are they able to generate sufficient jobs for all of their members for just $99 per year.
They are either much much smarter than the Red Beacon guys (doubt it) or just a flash in the pan site.
Does anyone know the price that Red Beacon sold for yet?
Seems odd that its been kept secret for this long.
BidsList is the provider that takes 1%-10% depending on the project type. Red beacon is at 25%
BidsList is your only choice when trying to find a legit service professional. BidsList http://www.bidslist.com makes sure contractors and clients are both treated fairly. The way BidsList operates make it the ideal situation for everybody.
Bidslist Provides a full service verification process for all construction related projects
BidsList will do extensive verification checks on Contractors or
Professionals
Schedule times with consumers and professionals to get accurate estimates
Pair bonded and insured contractors with consumers in need
Create contracts based on project location and project type
Facilitate transfer of funds for both parties
Every BidsList Verified Professional must list BidsList as an additional Insured on their insurance in case any problems should arise.
This is by far the best service around. Pretty sure its nation wide already too…
In order to sell the Georgia market, there is no fee. At least that is what I have been told. They originally wanted credit card numbers from us, but we advised them there was no way we would pay for a referral. Proof later, I guess.
@Tilers, they are doing a ton of advertising here locally and bids are coming in. theyre normal price is 19.99 a month which still seems cheap, especially considering how much a 100 dollar job would cost me if I was on redbeacon. They aren’t dipping into my pocket every time i win a lead. I also have a custom page that is searchable on their site. I started to sign up for redbeacon after posting here, didn’t finish it because they wanted my social and stuff for a background check, which i don’t trust, but now they are calling me every day, sometimes twice a day. Not cool in my book. I called my sales rep from yerbid and told him about redbeacon, he said they were fully aware of them and they weren’t worried because of their pricing and marketing (which was none). I’m hoping they aren’t a flash in a pan. I’m enjoying the new leads and extra money
in a search I found they take craigslist ads to generate listings
http://feedback.redbeacon.com/forums/28516-redbeacon
whats that about?
@David wow that’s an interesting find regarding Red Beacon!
Air B&B got into a heap of trouble with bad PR galore when they were found to be using Craigslist in a dodgy way. Maybe one of BIA Kelsey’s guru consultants should investigate this and report on it.
Its really really not cool if Red Beacon are doing this!
I wonder if they did actually do this, and whether they continue to use Craigslist even today now that they are owned by Home Depot.
Not cool at all Red Beacon!
It’s actually a perfect fit. World’s largest home improvement retailer acquires the best online home services platform that connects consumers and pros. Great day for everyone at Redbeacon!Great outcome for everyone, we are very excited!
at 25% I don’t think so.
Also in reading more about them they don’t connect all listings to all businesses in the area…its selective which is unfair to both sides. It keeps a business unconnected and leaves the user/lister without a possible option.
sorry to repost, but fife, would you be willing to give 25% of a 5-10k roofing job just because you were connected via redbeacon?
Robert I totally agree! What contractor in their right mind is going to pay 25% of a large job?
There’s a new site where people could post jobs and get estimates from business at no cost.
This new site also currently offers their services to businesses and contractors for free, no strings attached, no contracts, no payments (Because their just starting up).
After everything is setup, contractors’ memberships start from $20 to $550 Monthly, and there are discounts given to those taking up a yearly plan.
There are no charges for won jobs.
Their support team are easy to talk to.
So far, no requests have gone unanswered.
Contractors looking for new avenues of jobs could use this site, because it’s totally free.
And the site is? Sounds like a spammer to me self promoting.
@Robert you have to love a spammer that doesn’t even remember to promote what site that is!
I’m a handyman in Virginia and have used most of these sites and the best one by far is EasyEstimate.com.