Porch.com Reviews
Porch.com is among the most popular websites for finding a contractor to work on your home. The site’s strengths are the property and quality guarantees you get when you book a contractor through their site.
About Porch.com
Porch is an online marketplace for homeowners where you can post projects for the purpose of getting bids from contractors or hiring a Porch Service pro to perform work at your house.
The company is based in Seattle and was founded in 2012, then launched in 2013. The company’s two founders are Matt Ehrlichman and Ronnie Castro.
Ehrlichman, the company’s CEO spent around five years at ACTIVE Network, a marketplace for activities and events. Castro, the company’s VP or Customer Operations, previously worked at Google, Expedia and Wild Tangent before helping found Porch.
The hallmarks of Porch’s website is a combination of their Porch Pro contractors and Porch Services, along with a pair of guarantees that, in qualifying situations, can protect you in the event that your contractor doesn’t follow through on their work or your home is damaged during the project.
Over the course of this review, we’ll provide you our insights about the various features of the website, as well as talk about some of the fine print we think you should know when you head to their site to find a contractor.
We’ll also do a quick comparison of what Porch and other homeowner-focused contracting sites so that you can get an idea of how the site fares against the competition.
At the end of our review, we’ll wrap up with our thoughts on Porch.com’s strengths and weaknesses.
Porch.com’s Contractor Options: Porch Pros and Porch Services
As we mentioned in the introduction of this review, Porch provides two main types of contractors: Porch Services and Porch Pro.
Porch Services
This part of the website is dedicated to handyman services and contractors who come to your home to perform work.
What makes these contractors different than Porch Pro contractors is that you can schedule, book and pay for their services through Porch.com, whereas with Porch Pros you post a project on the site, get bids from contractors and then book and pay for those contractors on your own, away from Porch.com.
At the time of publishing, Porch Services offered handyman and contractor help in 40 different areas, with each of those areas featuring its own subset of different jobs and projects.
We wanted to get a sense of what the Porch Services booking engine was like, so we gave it a test run. After entering our area code, we said we needed cabinet installation. Porch quickly gave us a quote: $249 for cabinet installation.
Porch Quote. Credit: Porch.com
From there, Porch asked us to pick a time and date for the service and then requested our address and contact information.
Once you finish this process, a Home Assistant from Porch will contact you to finalize the details of your appointment. Their booking engine’s fine print notes that your Porch Services Pro will contact you the day of your appointment to confirm that they’re on their way.
Important Reminders About Porch Services
Booking your appointment is a simple process. There are, however, a few things you need to remember as you prepare to have your Porch Services pro come to your home.
First, you can cancel your appointment for free as long as you do it at least 24 hours before the time at which the contractor was supposed to arrive.
If, for some reason, the job takes longer than Porch estimated, their fine print says that you’ll be charged an hourly fixed rate for the additional time it took.
Background Checks
All professionals who participate in the Porch Services program are background-checked and, according to a Porch rep with whom we spoke, agree to “carry the licensing and insurance applicable to the service and location.”
The Porch Services Satisfaction Promise
One of the advantages of using Porch Services is that contractors hired through this program are backed by a property protection guarantee and a quality guarantee (“Satisfaction Promise”).
This is a key factor because competing sites Thumbtack and HomeAdvisor offer a property protection guarantee (more on that later) but don’t cover the quality of the work performed by contractors you hire via listings on their site.
Now, in order to properly file a claim through the Satisfaction Promise program, you need to do a couple of things ahead of time.
First, you have to file a claim within 15 days of the work being completed. The claim needs to include three important pieces of information, a Porch representative told us:
- A written statement detailing which parts of the completed work you aren’t happy with
- Photos of the unsatisfactory work
- A statement telling Porch how you want the situation resolved
Porch notes that their goal is to have the same contractor come back and do the job right, so handle your claim with tact. You don’t want to burn your bridges with the contractor before he or she has a chance to return to your home and correct the mistake(s) .
If it’s not possible to send out the original contractor, Porch will provide you with a replacement professional to fix the mistakes.
Another important factor here is that Porch will only cover work that was paid for by debit or credit card through their site. Additional services performed by the contractor that you pay for in cash aren’t covered.
Porch’s fine print also states that you can ask for a reimbursement of your original payment if the redone job still doesn’t satisfy you.
The work done by the Porch Services pro is also covered by the site’s Property Protection, which we’ll address in the next section.
Porch Pros
The second way to book contractors via Porch is through Porch Pros. This portal differs from Porch Services because you aren’t booking and paying for services through Porch.
Rather, you post a project that you need done in your home and contractors who’ve signed up with Porch will send you quotes for the work that you describe.
While the profiles of these professionals may list licenses, it’s important that you verify that the contractor is licensed because Porch does not check the backgrounds of Porch Pros.
When you’ve looked through the quotes and decided on a contractor, all booking and payments take place outside of Porch. Porch Services, on the other hand, is an in-house service.
Because of this, the work that’s done on your home isn’t covered by the aforementioned Satisfaction Promise.
Porch Property Protection
However, you do get the site’s Property Protection, which is a program that’s designed to reimburse you up to $1,000 for any major damage done to your home at the hands of the contractor you hire.
Like the Satisfaction Promise, there are certain things you have to do to file your claim. First, Porch says that you’ll have to try and resolve the situation on your own before coming to them.
If that fails to resolve the problem, then you can file a claim as long as you meet the following criteria:
- Pro was booked via your project page
- You marked the pro “hired” on your project page
- You file your claim within 15 days of the completion of the job
You’ll have to provide proof of the damage – photos work – as well as “documentation showing the value of the damaged property,” their site says.
Things that aren’t covered by property protection are:
- Poor work quality
- Payment issues
- Damage done that was part of work done that wasn’t included in your original project posting
Porch.com’s Better Business Bureau Ratings
Porch gets an A+ grade from the BBB, a ranking that reflects 13 different aspects ranging from how the company interacts with the BBB and how it handles complaints from customers.
At the time of publishing, Porch received an average customer review of 4.2 stars, which is better than HomeAdvisor, Houzz, Angie’s List and Thumbtack.
Complaints about the company focused on Porch Pros who didn’t live up to their original agreement with the customer either because they charged more than they quoted or they didn’t do the work well.
How Porch.com Compares to Other Contractor Websites
We’ve compared five of the most popular sites for finding a contractor, – Porch included – and find that there are some distinct differences between Porch and its competitors.
First, Porch’s Better Business Bureau page has a higher average star-rating than HomeAdvisor, Angie’s List, Thumbtack and Houzz.
Second, Porch and Angie’s List are the only two sites that provide a guarantee for work quality. Angie’s List’s guarantee, however, is only available to users who pay for a yearly membership on the site.
Porch is the only site of the five who provides a free quality guarantee, although it’s important to note the guarantee is only valid for Porch Services and not Porch Pros.
As for background checks, based on our research we believe that homeowners will probably be most satisfied with HomeAdvisor because they run each contractor through two license verifications, sex offender registries, a national criminal registry and the court system.
While Porch, Thumbtack and Angie’s List’s background checks aren’t as extensive as HomeAdvisor’s, they do check the area that is critical to work quality: licensing.
You don’t want a contractor who doesn’t have a license. For all you know, they could be a random person pretending to be a contractor who will take your money and run.
When it comes to background checks, it’s important for you to do research on your own, though. Porch notes that even though they do license checks on their Porch Services contractors, homeowners should verify the validity of the contractor’s license.
Call your local government office to find out how to verify a license and check criminal backgrounds. Your state’s sex offender search can be found with a quick google search.
Another important thing to remember is that the background checks these sites do are only administered to the owner of the contracting business.
The owner’s employees and/or subcontractors are not checked. So, be sure to ask the contractor who is doing the work and if they are licensed. Feel free to inquire about criminal records, too.
Whichever the case, the general rule of thumb is that the homeowner should do research on their own to confirm that their contractor is licensed and has no criminal or sex offender history.
» For Further Reading: Finding a Home Contractor: A Guide to the Five Best Websites
The Final Word: Pros and Cons of Porch.com
Based on our research, we believe Porch’s greatest strengths are that it offers a double guarantee on work performed by contractors booked through Porch Services.
Your property is protected up to $1,000 for damages caused by the contractor and, in the event that he or she did a poor job, you have several options for making sure the job is done right.
Homeowners who’ve endured poor contracting jobs will most likely find this double protection to be a big relief.
The downside of the site are that they don’t perform background checks on contractors who bid on the projects you post. You’ll have to do the legwork of checking that their license is up-to-date and valid for the type of work they’re doing, as well as running their name through a background check, if you choose to do so.
Overall, we think Porch is among the best sites to find a contractor and that, based on our research, the best-case scenario for homeowners is to work through their Porch Services option to find a contractor that’s been vetted and whose work comes with a quality guarantee.
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Editor’s Note: It is our understanding that this company has been asking its customers to leave feedback on HighYa. We assure you that each of these reviews has still been subjected to the same verification & vetting process that all submitted reviews go through. Learn More Here -
BEWARE! Porch.com bogus leads!
I am a small business owner who signed up with Porch.com for electrical customer leads. I think they have been just sending me a number of bogus numbers. The last 15 numbers that I called were either non-working numbers, non-English speaking households, or the owner has absolutely no idea, that they live in apartments or never ever asked for an electrician. I did my credit refund and they told me they wouldn’t refund the credit to Spanish speaking leads. I called and filed a dispute with my bank on December 3rd and they charged my bank $345.00 and on December 9th, another $365.00! I am considering speaking to an attorney on this matter. This is FRAUD on Porch.com's part! Do NOT use them!
Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend
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0 out 1 people found this review helpful
Kitchen island drawer off the track
I had a kitchen island assembled on November 19, 2018. One of the drawers is off the track. I have called customer service FOUR times. The project manager has still not returned my call to set up a time for the repair to be done. I paid a lot of money for the island and the assembly. This is the only problem.
What else do I need to do?
Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
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If you are a contractor considering using Porch.com, please read on
If you're a construction pro thinking about using Porch.com, please read on before making what could be a very costly commitment. I've been using Porch for roughly three years now. Before them I used Thumbtack for about 4 years and, have used Angie List, and HomeAdvisor and Networx, so I'm pretty well versed in using lead services.
When I first enlisted with Porch, like Thumbtack years before, they were fairly new to the market and offered all kinds of nice incentives to get contractors on board. But as of last year, their attitude towards contractors in their database has drastically changed, and it's obvious that they are no longer focusing on providing good service to it's contractors, but lining their pockets with green. See, Porch boasts that they have a great lead credit policy, which is total bull! When I first joined Porch, if I got a bad lead, all it took was a phone call to Porch to get credit. For non-responsive leads, you only had to make two phone calls and send two texts before requesting credit. Then they added that the lead had to be open 72 hours before you could request a refund for non responsive customer (this change was implemented without me being informed, resulting in them robbing me of $100). Then they added the rule that you had to attempt two calls and two texts to the customer within the first 72 hours (wasn't notified, this time they robbed me of $50).
For about 30 days (between November and December 2018) they changed the system to give automatic refunds to bad leads that met their criteria. That quickly changed to them promising to refund credits for bad leads within 48 hours. It's taking them upwards of 5 days to give credit for leads that for example, have a disconnected phone number attached. They've changed the system so that leads that have non-responsive customers are supposed to be automatically credited after 7 days. This is total bull! Because their rule now is, unless you are a vetted pro, if another contractor makes contact with the customer, you can't get a credit.
Now they have a section in each purchased lead called "lead details" which is supposed to show if any contractor has made contact with a particular customer, which I always view. I had a case where I requested a refund and was told that the homeowner had connected with another pro. But, "lead details" showed that I was the only contractor to reach out. When I questioned this (when I could still get phone assistance), the agent told me that tracking system they used in house was different than the one provided in "lead details," and that the customer had hired another Porch contractor. That was another $50 they robbed me of. Today I'm in my 10th day of a non-responsive lead which has not been credited by their automatic system, so that's bull!
Now they have some new crap called "Vetted Pro." It's a system that requires you to give them $275 for a background check. This also gives you access to there phone techs whenever there is a problem with a lead. I can't even call in anymore because my calls are routed to an agent who never answers when I call, and who can't do anything for me about lead credits. If you are not a "Vetted Pro," you're treated like a tire kicker. I could overcome much of the bull! I get with Porch through the leads I purchase, except, 95% of the leads I purchased last quarter were NO GOOD PERIOD! People are not requesting the service, yet their names and information show up as supposedly valid lead. I confirmed that when I bought a lead for a bath remodel that ended up being a sub contractor that I use for my bath remodels.
Of all the lead generation companies I've dealt with since 2006, I have purchased more invalid leads through Porch, than all of the other companies combined, and in less time. Sure, I question this whenever I can get a live person (I use different phones whenever I need to get through since my phone number is obviously restricted), but I get as many different answers as bad leads. I argue that it's not cool to tie up contractor's money, money that they could use towards valid leads. Their response, "Most of the contractors keep enough money in their budget where they're not waiting on credits to buy new leads." Makes sense, except, who wants to invest $200 or more every month on invalid leads, that end up tying their money up unnecessarily?
So in conclusion, I'm not telling anyone not to use Porch. The truth is, on the rare occasion that I purchase a valid lead, if I can get an appointment with the customer, my closing rate is in the 90 percentile. The money I make from valid leads generally makes up for the money Porch robs me of so, for me, it's a calculated risk. This is not the case for everybody, and you could end up losing a lot of money dealing with Porch. I suggest you not put all of your peas in one pot, and put the least amount into Porch.
Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend
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Silver Creek Construction misled the public.
I waited over three months September 2017 - January 2018 for Josh to put automatic gate openers on two driveway gates, that he offered and agreed to install. I spent two afternoons going over the installation process, he never did the work. He stated he purchased the gate openers, but no work was ever done. Josh operated using falsified business addresses and misled the public to believe he was licensed when he was not. Used two separate R1 residential business addresses when he was not legally authorized. Had employees working for, recruiting and advertising for his business when it was not legit. He may have charged customers disposal fees for job debris but possibly dumped on his property and/or used his residential trash can to dispose of it. Photos and surveillance video were taken. A signed affidavit by Iowa Workforce Development Des Moines IA November 2018 stating neither Joshua nor his company, Silver Creek Construction, were authorized nor licensed in the state of Iowa.
Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend
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Sex offenders in the Porch database
When you use Porch.com you just might get a convicted/registered sex offenders information sent to you! Porch tells homeowners that all of the professionals they refer are vetted and background checked (taken from the porch.com website) but this simply isn’t true. When a contractor is found out to be a convicted/registered sex offender and Porch is questioned as to how this happened, their response is "Everyday we aim to filter and perfect our list of pros by encouraging them to go through a full check, unfortunately, this is not true for all of the pros in our network as this process takes time, additionally each city has different rules and regulations in regards to what requirements we should be asking these pros to meet, it is because of this that we also leave the vetting process in the hands of the homeowner" (taken from an email sent by *****, Manager, Homeowner support). *Employee Name omitted by moderators.
They want the homeowner to believe that it is safe to use the Porch.com service when help is needed around the home but they do not disclose that rudimentary background checks are not done in fact they say the exact opposite. After a contractor is found to be less than trusted, less than reliable, less than safe, Porch blames the homeowner for not vetting the contractor. PORCH BLAMES THE HOMEOWNER. Porch takes the homeowner's request for services, sends the homeowner information on a supposedly vetted and background checked contractor, and when it is discovered that Porch did not background check the contractor but rather asked the contractor to background check themselves, and a convicted/registered sex offender is found to be in the database, they blame the homeowner (see excerpt above taken from email to complaining homeowner).
Porch will try to get around these facts by admitting that they farmed the homeowner's request to another service, Networx.com, but the homeowner is not informed of this upfront. Since the initial request is made through Porch.com, it leads the homeowner to believe that the information listed on the Porch.com website is accurate. One of the companies Porch uses is Networx.com. They have the exact same response when asked how this happened. In fact, ****** (Employee Name omitted by moderators. ), Resolution Agent, at Networx.com threatened the complaining homeowner with legal action if the homeowner said anything "inappropriate" in complaining and leaving feedback on the internet. Get that, it is the homeowner's fault for believing the claims made on the Porch.com website, and when the homeowner starts to complain, legal action is threatened.
Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend
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Very lacking on follow up
Please be advised the Porch-recommend contractor who reviewed my initial project never followed thru with picking up my project blueprints. I would not recommend a Porch contractor referral.
Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend
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Fence project
Porch put me in touch with Calvin Silva of Premier Specialty Builders to build a fence across an alley behind my rental property. His crew started working on it the same day they arrived. The next day they came and finished it. The fence looks sturdy and is built well. A reasonable price was quoted and the job was done on budget and on time. Premier does quality work and completes the job as stated. I will use Porch.com again for my next project and highly recommend them.
Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
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Excellent home assistant
The Dedicated Home Assistant (Karla) from Porch was excellent. She kept in constant contact with me only to the point of not being a nuisance. She supplied me with a huge list of "painting contractors" to choose from for my project. There was one contractor who contacted me and he was very respectful and came to my house to look over the project. I plan on using that contractor so I cannot at this time give a rating of the king of work done. I also have other projects, not related to painting in the future and I plan to use Porch again.
Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
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Real service or NOT!
I can't thank of a better service provider - Jeep's Plumbing Repair Service in Bay St. Louis, MS, 2283233477.
Lyonie, the owner, was very courteous, extremely professional, on time, explained how it is done, how long to do the repair, time of arrival, did a perfect repair, cleaned up the mess and advised me to call if anything should go wrong. I am totally pleased.
Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
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PKM General Contracting
Patrick with PKM General Contracting (978-798-5047) called us to discuss our carpentry project. He showed up on time. After climbing to the top of our chimney, he assessed our problems and clearly explained his findings. He brought with him the correct tools, ladders and roofing materials to do all the work necessary. He fixed our chimney leak on his first visit in less than 3 hours. Patrick took before and after pictures to show us. He also fixed a few shingles and nails that were backing out due to wind damage and did not charge extra. I observed him from the ground and would highly recommend him for any roofing work. My wife and I spoke with him after finishing his work and we were very pleased. We feel he is dependable, honest; also his price was fair and reasonable.
Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
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1 out 1 people found this review helpful
Nick Dewalt
Nick Dewalt did some work for us in our bathroom. He took out the old bath tub, insulation, and drywall. He put in new faucets and a new bathtub with a surround. He was polite, hard-working, professional, and very contentious about his work. I would recommend him to anyone in the Dayton area. He also removed all the debt I that was left.
Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
