{ "dataset": "How homeowners actually choose a contractor", "url": "https://husky-digital.com/research/how-homeowners-choose-contractors/", "published": "2026-09-09", "lastVerified": "2026-09-09", "licence": "CC BY 4.0 — reuse with attribution and a link", "publisher": "Husky Digital", "method": [ "Verified rows come from seven primary-source families, each opened directly in this session: BrightLocal's 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey (n=1,002 US consumers via SurveyMonkey, published Feb 11, 2026) for review-driven shortlisting behavior — confirmed by hand through a live browser session after every automated fetch attempt (matching the User-Agent this site's own verification script uses) was blocked with an HTTP 403; a 2016 Pew Research Center American Trends Panel survey (n=4,787, fielded Nov 24–Dec 21, 2015) as a decade-old baseline for review reliance; Angi's 2024 State of Home Spending Report (n=6,961, surveyed Nov 8–18, 2024) for the homeowner side of the search-for-a-pro difficulty; the FTC's Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2024 (a PDF, downloaded and read page by page) for verified complaint volume in the Home Improvement, Repair, and Solar category; Whitespark's 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors survey (n=47 SEO experts, published Nov 6, 2025), labeled explicitly as opinion rather than measured behavior; the NAR/NARI 2025 Remodeling Impact Report's underlying HouseLogic.com consumer survey (n=806, fielded winter 2024, PDF downloaded and read page by page) for who actually does the work; and Google's own Local Services Ads Help documentation for the vetting pipeline behind the trust badges homeowners see in local ads.", "Harvard JCHS's 'Improving America's Housing 2025' report was also downloaded and searched in full, but it contained only remodeling-market-size and industry-labor-supply data with no homeowner search/selection behavior, so it was excluded rather than forced into an off-topic row. Numbers that could only be traced back to blog listicles quoting other blog listicles — chiefly the 'near me' 24-hour-visit statistics long attributed to Think with Google, and various 'X% of homeowners read reviews before hiring a contractor' claims that turn out to be non-contractor-specific BrightLocal data relabeled — were placed in the dropped section rather than included with a caveat." ], "rows": [ { "id": "review-reliance-2026", "metric": "Share of US adult consumers who read online reviews when evaluating a local business (general local-business shopping behavior, not contractor-specific)", "value": "97%", "valueNumeric": 97, "unit": "% of US adult consumers", "period": "2026 survey, published Feb 11, 2026", "source": { "name": "BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026", "url": "https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/", "type": "industry-survey" }, "quote": "Reviews are a vital part of the business decision-making process, with 97% of consumers reading reviews online.", "accessed": "2026-09-09", "verification": "manual", "note": "From a representative panel of 1,002 US adults surveyed via SurveyMonkey, published Feb 11, 2026. It measures shopping for local businesses generally — restaurants, retail, and services together — not hiring a contractor specifically, though home-service purchases sit inside that surveyed universe." }, { "id": "review-count-threshold-2026", "metric": "Minimum review count below which US consumers say they will not use a local business", "value": "20 reviews", "valueNumeric": 20, "unit": "reviews (self-reported threshold)", "period": "2026 survey, published Feb 11, 2026", "source": { "name": "BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026", "url": "https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/", "type": "industry-survey" }, "quote": "47% of consumers won’t use a business with fewer than 20 reviews, and only 9% are willing to use one with five or fewer.", "accessed": "2026-09-09", "verification": "manual", "note": "Self-reported stated preference from the same 1,002-person BrightLocal panel, published Feb 11, 2026 — a stated rule of thumb, not observed clickstream behavior." }, { "id": "star-rating-threshold-2026", "metric": "Share of US consumers who will only use a business rated four stars or higher", "value": "68%", "valueNumeric": 68, "unit": "% of US consumers", "period": "2026 (up from 55% in 2025)", "source": { "name": "BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026", "url": "https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/", "type": "industry-survey" }, "quote": "Seven in ten (68%) will only use a business with four or more stars, up from 55% in 2025.", "accessed": "2026-09-09", "verification": "manual", "note": "From the same 1,002-person BrightLocal panel, published Feb 11, 2026. The same report also finds 31% now require 4.5+ stars, up from 17% a year earlier — a bar that is rising fast, not a fixed one." }, { "id": "review-sites-consulted-2026", "metric": "Average number of distinct review platforms a US consumer consults when choosing a local business", "value": "6", "valueNumeric": 6, "unit": "review sites", "period": "2026 survey, published Feb 11, 2026", "source": { "name": "BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026", "url": "https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/", "type": "industry-survey" }, "quote": "With consumers using an average of six review sites in 2026, relying only on the major review sites is no longer enough.", "accessed": "2026-09-09", "verification": "manual", "note": "Same 1,002-person BrightLocal panel, published Feb 11, 2026. The same report finds Google's share among the sites people actually use for local recommendations fell from 83% in 2025 to 71% in 2026, while ChatGPT and other AI tools jumped from 6% to 45%." }, { "id": "review-to-website-visit-2026", "metric": "Share of US consumers who visit a business's website as the next step after reading a positive review", "value": "54%", "valueNumeric": 54, "unit": "% of US consumers", "period": "2026 (up from 32% in 2019)", "source": { "name": "BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026", "url": "https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/", "type": "industry-survey" }, "quote": "Consumers are most likely (54%) to visit a business’s website after reading positive reviews, up significantly from 32% when we last asked this in 2019.", "accessed": "2026-09-09", "verification": "manual", "note": "Same 1,002-person BrightLocal panel, published Feb 11, 2026. Measures one step in the shortlisting path — review to website — not a final hire decision; the same report separately notes only 40% of local businesses have a dedicated website." }, { "id": "pew-review-frequency-2016", "metric": "Share of US adults who read online customer ratings or reviews before purchasing something for the first time, at least sometimes", "value": "82%", "valueNumeric": 82, "unit": "% of US adults", "period": "Fielded Nov 24–Dec 21, 2015; published Dec 19, 2016", "source": { "name": "Pew Research Center, Online Shopping and E-Commerce — ‘Online reviews and ratings’", "url": "https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2016/12/19/online-reviews/", "type": "academic" }, "quote": "Fully 82% of U.S. adults say they at least sometimes read online customer ratings or reviews before purchasing items for the first time, including 40% who say they always or almost always do so.", "accessed": "2026-09-09", "verification": "manual", "note": "American Trends Panel survey, n=4,787, fielded Nov 24–Dec 21, 2015. A decade-old baseline about purchasing in general, not contractors specifically, and phrased differently from the newer BrightLocal figures — read it as an early data point, not a trend line that connects cleanly to 2026 numbers." }, { "id": "angi-hard-to-find-pros-2024", "metric": "Share of US homeowners who hired a professional in the past year and said they struggled to find a skilled/qualified one", "value": "54%", "valueNumeric": 54, "unit": "% of homeowners who hired a pro", "period": "Surveyed Nov 8–18, 2024", "source": { "name": "Angi, 2024 State of Home Spending Report", "url": "https://www.angi.com/press/2024-state-of-home-spending-report", "type": "industry-survey" }, "quote": "More than half (54%) of homeowners struggled to find skilled professionals, encountering too high of costs (22%), difficulty locating skilled workers (18%), and delays (15%).", "accessed": "2026-09-09", "verification": "script", "note": "From 6,961 respondents surveyed Nov 8–18, 2024 (5,000 general population, post-weighted for age/gender, plus 1,961 homeowners who completed a project and hired a pro, quota-sampled). Angi is a contractor marketplace with a commercial interest in this narrative, so read it as an industry-survey source, not neutral academic research." }, { "id": "ftc-home-improvement-reports-2024", "metric": "Number of consumer reports filed with the FTC's Consumer Sentinel Network under the 'Home Improvement, Repair, and Solar' category", "value": "81,925", "valueNumeric": 81925, "unit": "reports filed in 2024", "period": "2024; published March 2025", "source": { "name": "Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2024", "url": "https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/csn-annual-data-book-2024.pdf", "type": "government" }, "quote": "16 Home Improvement, Repair, and Solar 81,925 1.27%", "accessed": "2026-09-09", "verification": "manual", "note": "This FTC category bundles furniture and appliance complaints and solar-panel/energy-efficiency issues in with contractor and home-repair complaints, per the Data Book's own Appendix B1 description, so it is not a pure contractor-fraud count. Sentinel reports are unverified and self-submitted, not confirmed fraud. Volume in this category has fallen every year on record: 95,198 (2022), 87,063 (2023), 81,925 (2024), per Appendix B2 of the same Data Book." }, { "id": "whitespark-expert-survey-2026", "metric": "Number of local-search experts whose opinions were pooled to weight Google's local ranking factors", "value": "47", "valueNumeric": 47, "unit": "expert respondents", "period": "Published Nov 6, 2025 (2026 edition)", "source": { "name": "Whitespark, Local Search Ranking Factors 2026", "url": "https://whitespark.ca/local-search-ranking-factors/", "type": "industry-survey" }, "quote": "47 of the best and the brightest local search experts are invited to complete a comprehensive 2-hour survey... None of the experts have special access to the internal workings of Google's local search algorithm.", "accessed": "2026-09-09", "verification": "script", "note": "This is an opinion survey, not a measurement of actual behavior or algorithm weights — 47 SEO professionals scored 187 factors on a 0–5 scale, and the report itself states none of them have special access to Google's actual code. Published Nov 6, 2025." }, { "id": "nar-nari-who-did-the-work-2025", "metric": "Share of homeowners who hired a professional to complete their entire remodeling project, versus hiring labor only or doing it themselves", "value": "29%", "valueNumeric": 29, "unit": "% of homeowners (hired a pro for 100% of the job)", "period": "Consumer survey fielded winter 2024; report published April 2025", "source": { "name": "National Association of Realtors® / National Association of the Remodeling Industry, 2025 Remodeling Impact Report (HouseLogic.com consumer survey)", "url": "https://www.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/2025-04/2025-remodeling-impact-report_04-09-2025.pdf", "type": "industry-survey" }, "quote": "Twenty-nine percent of the owners hired a professional for the whole job, 24 percent hired the labor but purchased the materials, and 24 percent did the entire project themselves.", "accessed": "2026-09-09", "verification": "manual", "note": "Based on 806 online-panel respondents recruited by HouseLogic.com in winter 2024, describing their single most recent remodeling project — self-reported, not verified against contracts or permits." }, { "id": "google-lsa-screening-time-2026", "metric": "Time Google's Local Services Ads screening/verification process (background, license, and insurance checks) takes a contractor to complete", "value": "3-4 weeks", "valueNumeric": 3.5, "unit": "weeks (average, after documents are submitted)", "period": "Current as of access date", "source": { "name": "Google, Local Services Help — 'Business screening and verification requirements (United States)'", "url": "https://support.google.com/localservices/answer/12174778", "type": "platform-docs" }, "quote": "We recommend starting the screening and verification process as soon as possible after you've created your Local Services Ads account. On average, this process takes 3–4 weeks to complete after submitting your documents.", "accessed": "2026-09-09", "verification": "script", "note": "Describes Google's own vetting pipeline behind the 'Google Screened' / 'Google Guaranteed' badges homeowners see on local ads. It is a process-time figure from platform documentation, not a consumer survey, and actual timelines vary by state and service category." } ], "disagreements": [], "dropped": [ { "claim": "97% of consumers search online for local businesses before making a purchase (the generic, non-review-specific version of this stat, recycled across SEO blogs since roughly 2017)", "why": "Multiple listicles cite this exact figure across different years with no consistent original source. It looks like a conflation of several different studies — including BrightLocal's own review-specific number, which independently also landed near 97% in 2026 — rather than one traceable statistic. We kept the verified BrightLocal 2026 review-reading figure instead and dropped the generic 'search online for local businesses' framing." }, { "claim": "76% of people who perform a 'near me' search on their smartphone visit a business within a day, and 28% of those visits lead to a purchase", "why": "Almost universally attributed to Think with Google / Google research. The specific PDF URL blogs cite no longer serves that content — fetching it returns unrelated Adobe Illustrator design-file metadata, not the cited study. No current Think with Google or Google Search Central page restates this figure with its own methodology." }, { "claim": "88% of mobile local searches result in a call or in-store visit within 24 hours", "why": "Same 'near me' statistic family as above, same dead/unverifiable source trail. Could not locate this on a current Google-owned page." }, { "claim": "46% of all Google searches have local intent", "why": "Widely recycled in SEO content with no consistent primary attribution; could not find a Google-published statement of this figure or an identifiable, methodologically transparent third-party study behind it." }, { "claim": "72% of consumers use Google search to find local services/products in their area", "why": "Surfaced only inside a search-engine-generated summary referencing 'a recent marketing survey' with no named publisher, date, or link. Could not trace it to any specific report to verify or quote." }, { "claim": "Home-improvement contractor scams cost homeowners a median of $1,800 (often cited as an FTC figure)", "why": "This number traces to the Better Business Bureau via secondary blog posts, not to the FTC. The FTC's own Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2024 gives report counts for the 'Home Improvement, Repair, and Solar' category (81,925 reports, used above) but publishes no category-specific median dollar loss — only an all-fraud median loss of $497 and median losses for its top 10 fraud types, none of which is 'home improvement.' Could not verify the $1,800 figure against a primary BBB report either." }, { "claim": "A specific large percentage (versions seen: 82%, 90%, 95%, 98%) of homeowners read online reviews specifically before hiring a home-service contractor", "why": "Every version found either mis-cites BrightLocal's general local-business review statistic (about restaurants/retail/services combined, not contractor hiring specifically) as if it were contractor-specific, or carries no source at all. No primary survey was found that asked this question about contractor hiring in particular, as distinct from local-business shopping generally." }, { "claim": "A specific breakdown of how homeowners first discover a contractor (e.g., X% via online search, Y% via referral, Z% via a yard sign or truck)", "why": "Attempted to pull this from Angi's own 2024 State of Home Spending materials, which plausibly measure it, but the fuller press-release PDF (ir.angi.com) timed out on fetch and no other primary Angi/HomeAdvisor page with this exact breakdown could be located and quoted." } ] }