Home improvement leads: prices and proof of consent

Windows, bathroom and kitchen remodels, siding, gutters, flooring, painting, decks, walk-in tubs and basement waterproofing are all sold under this heading. Each has its own buyers, ticket size and close rate, so experienced buyers never ask for home improvement leads in general.

Buyers want one trade

They ask for bath remodel enquiries from owners in three counties, or window replacements for houses built before a certain year. A broker who can supply one trade well is more useful than one offering everything thinly.

High-ticket categories such as roofing, solar and full renovations cost more than small jobs. Several large networks don't publish prices at all, so a broker usually learns the going rate only by asking buyers what they pay now.

Contractors and their call centres call and text these leads, which brings the TCPA in. Prior express written consent must be a signed agreement (an electronic signature counts) that authorises the seller to call that number using automated technology and says consent isn't a condition of purchase.

Buyers increasingly want proof that consent happened, not just a checkbox field in a spreadsheet.

The consent evidence to hand over

• A certificate from a third-party consent-capture tool such as TrustedForm or Jornaya, tied to the session.
• The exact consent text and the companies it named, as the homeowner saw them.
• The page URL, timestamp and IP address.
• Do-not-call scrubbing results, since registered mobiles also can't receive marketing texts without permission after the FCC's 2023 order.

Many remodelers nurture slow-moving leads by email. CAN-SPAM requires honest headers and subject lines, identifying the message as an ad, a physical postal address, a working opt-out that is honoured promptly, and monitoring of anyone sending on your behalf.

The FTC says both the company being promoted and the company that sends can be held responsible, with penalties of up to $53,088 per email.

• A supplier who can't say which trade or ZIP codes a lead came from.
• Consent captured for one trade and resold for another.
• Many contractors named on one consent form.
• In-home sales scripts that ignore the FTC's three-day cancellation right.

We don't run a lead network and we don't sell remodelling enquiries. DataBroker is a paid academy with tools for brokers who connect lead supply with buyers: choosing a trade, checking consent evidence, setting return rules and pricing a test batch. Contractors who need leads today should talk to the networks above.