Renovating the digital way
The experience of rebuilding his home prompts businessman to launch website to help others
When Alex Beraskow had his Glebe home rebuilt several years ago, he discovered that one contractor had charged him for 16 trips to Home Depot even though the contractor drove by the store every day on his way to Beraskow’s home. Another sold him items from his own retail operation but doubled the regular price.
Beraskow is happy with his finished home, but his experience got the Ottawa businessman mulling over ways to help other homeowners identify reliable renovation and repair contractors. His solution: MyReno411.ca.
Launched in September and free to both homeowners and contractors, the website lets users find everyone from electricians to bathroom renovators across Canada — over 130,000 services in all. Some listings include company profiles and customer reviews. Also available: professional advice on renovations and repairs, home maintenance tips and decorating ideas.
With Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. forecasting renovation spending in Canada to hit $65.6 billion this year, Beraskow hopes to build a national online renovation community. “We want to address the cottage industry of contractors and some of the larger players so homeowners can find reliable (ones).”
Beraskow is well-versed in business development, having founded such successful IT service firms as IT/Net Group, which he sold to consulting giant KPMG LLP in 2010. He hopes that advertising will pay for MyReno411.ca, but says there’s a good chance contractors will eventually be charged for participating.
In Ottawa alone, the website lists some 3,000 companies. Need a laminate flooring installer for Kanata? The site provides 13 that work in your area. A countertop installer or supplier for Orléans? Take your pick of 46.
If you want only companies that have submitted a profile, check the appropriate box. That produces a blurb about the company’s services, photos of projects, customer reviews and details including membership in the Better Business Bureau and warranties.
However, a listing does not mean the company has been vetted by Beraskow or his six-member team.
“We don’t want to be in the policing business,” says Beraskow. “We let homeowners make the decisions, so a large part of our website is educating homeowners.” The site does that by offering, for example, advice on hiring contractors.
It’s different from RenoMark ( renomark.ca), a national, industry-run program in which members sign codes of ethics and conduct, provide a minimum two-year warranty and generally exhibit a history of good behaviour. In Ottawa, more than 60 renovation and trades contractors belong to RenoMark, which operates through the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association.
John Manzo, owner of Tego Bathroom Design & Renovation Centre and chair of GOHBA’s Renovators’ Council, says the council is supportive of Beraskow’s efforts.
“If he can educate people about realistic expectations, about signing a contract, about the dollar values on different projects, it’s a good thing.”
Customer reviews highlight good contractors and flush out the bad ones, says Beraskow. Unfortunately, “it’s not Canadian to trash a bad contractor. We say, ‘He did bad work, but he’s got a family to feed.’ ”
He encourages consumers to post reviews, positive or negative. A string of bad reviews won’t banish a company from his site; instead, they serve as a warning bell to homeowners.
He says a “rigorous” process ensures that the reviews he posts are real.
That’s done because people such as University of Illinois, Chicago data mining expert Bing Liu estimate up to one-third of online reviews are fake. MyReno411.ca authenticates email addresses of reviewers to short-circuit sham reviews from dummy addresses. It’s also creating algorithms to identify suspicious situations such as a contractor getting consistently positive or negative reviews.
In addition to articles on how to create a paper trail when dealing with your contractor and ways to turn junk into home decor treasures (not every article is insightful), MyReno411.ca features an Ask the Experts section with a lawyer and others.
The information is helpful, and Beraskow says his company searches out new experts to respond to specific questions. “We want to be leaders on the content side, a onestop shop.”
Looking ahead, Beraskow plans to develop an automated job specification form so homeowners can more easily contract out a project and get exactly what they expect.
Also coming down the pipe, likely in the spring of 2014: a bidding system by which listed contractors can tender on homeowner projects.
As the website grows (its hits are doubling monthly), Beraskow also foresees homeowners using it to narrow down, for example, the style of kitchen makeover they want, create a scrapbook of pictures and design ideas, and then select a contractor to do the final planning and construction — a localized spin on popular sites such as houzz.com.
Says Beraskow, “You could do your planning over a nice glass of wine instead of spending your Saturdays going store to store.”