Why you shouldn’t ask for contractor recommendations on Nextdoor

Last update: December 2023

Asking for contractor recs on Nextdoor means you can easily end up with a bad one.  This isn't just theoretical:  A neighbor recently posted about how she hired a contractor based on a Nextdoor rec, but he turned out to be a nightmare, destroying her kitchen, leaving the work unfinished, and then blocking her calls—even though she'd already paid big bucks.  I've also seen recs for contractors on Nextdoor which, if you'd read their Yelp reviews, you'd run the other way screaming.

The problem with asking for recs on Nextdoor is that you'll generally get only 1 or 2 thumbs up for a specific contractor, and that's way too small a sample size.  You shouldn't base your decision on what 1 or 2 people think, you should base it on what dozens or hundreds of people think.  Which means, skip Nextdoor and head straight to Yelp.

Let's say that 1/3 of a particular contractor's customers are dissatisfied.  That's a huge percentage.  Most people wouldn't use a contractor whom they know disappoints 33% of his customers.  But when you ask for recs on Nextdoor, it's easy to wind up with exactly that kind of contractor.  Maybe one of your neighbors said her experience with that contractor was good.  That tells us nothing; 67% of that contractor's customers are satisfied, so it's not surprising that someONE will report on their good experience.  That hides the fact that a huge percentage had a bad experience.  You typically won't hear from enough neighbors to learn that a particular contractor has a bad reputation.  The one or two positive recs you get on a Nextdoor thread mean exactly squat.

Even if most of a contractor's customers are dissatisfied, you still might get a rec from one of the minority who had a good experience.  I've seen precisely that thing happen:  Someone recommended a particular contractor, I looked up that contractor on Yelp, and saw that a full two-thirds of his customers left bad reviews.  But in fact, two different people on Nextdoor vouched for that contractor.  These rare satisfied customers were the exception, but you'd never know that by relying on Nextdoor recs.

In another thread, a neighbor recommended a particular plumber.  That plumber has a whopping 154 one-star reviews on Yelp, comprising a massive 46% of the total of one- and five-star reviews.  By using Yelp, you can easily see how a huge swath of customers were unhappy with that plumber, but on Nextdoor, that bad plumber was the recommendation.

Recently, a neighbor posted "a red flag" about how she hired a contractor based on a Nextdoor recommendation, but he turned out to be a nightmare:

"[Most] projects are worse than before we had them 'fixed'. When I questioned the quality [of the work] he told us to find another contractor and took the money we had already paid him for another project, the built-in bookcase, ($$$$) and blocked our calls.  He also left all the other projects unfinished and a huge mess."

In any event, if you want recommendations from locals, that's exactly what Yelp is for!  It's full of recommendations from locals, that's its whole point.  Why would you post a question that's already been answered?

Google reviews are not the same

Yelp devotes a lot of effort into filtering out bad reviews.  It's not a perfect system, it's simply way better than anything else.  It's way better than Google Reviews, for example.  A local plumber has a pathetic 2.9 stars on Yelp, but somehow they've been able to finagle 4.8 on Google.

Skip the Better Business Bureau as well

Checking the Better Business Bureau is nearly as useless as asking for recs on Yelp.  Despite its official-sounding name, the BBB is not a government agency and has absolutely no enforcement powers.  It simply collects complaints about businesses, but is far inferior to Yelp in that regard, for a few reasons.  First, they don't have anywhere close to the volume of Yelp:  one local plumber has over 500 reviews on Yelp but only nine on BBB.  Another has 99 reviews on Yelp and only two on BBB.  Second, BBB's aren't trustworthy.  A well-known bad plumber has 2 stars on Yelp but 5 stars on BBB; BBB can easily steer you towards a problematic contractor.  Finally, contractors can get good ratings on BBB simply by responding to complaints in a timely matter, even if the overwhelming majority of their customers are unhappy.  So a company that advertises an A+ rating on BBB might actually be one that you'd do well to avoid.

Conclusion: Skip Nextdoor and BBB, use Yelp

Asking neighbors for recommendations and checking the Better Business Bureau are simply outdated.  In the days before Yelp, querying neighbors and using BBB were pretty much your only options.  But in the age of Yelp, asking your neighbors or checking BBB aren't just old-fashioned, doing so could easily mean you wind up with a bad contractor.

You might have to take what you can get

There's a shortage of tradespeople nationwide, and that's especially true in Austin.  There's an old saying:  speed, quality, price, pick two.  The meaning is you can't get all three things you'd like from a particular contractor.  Well, these days in Austin, it's more like pick one.  There's slim pickings, you might have to take what you can get.

The shortage also means you should be a little wary of anyone who's available right away.  Any contractor who's any good likely has work lined up for weeks or months.  If someone has immediate availability, there's probably a reason, and it's probably not good.  Likewise, when anyone approaches you and asks for work, it's almost certainly a red flag.