Trusted Trader / Bark / MyBuilder / CheckaTrade in a new area

[Gavin John Hyde]

Thanks. Unfortunately I've moved from a rural area where I had been trading for 20 yrs to a small town, which seems to be drowning in sparks. Good move...?

Key is get yourself known. Find the hmo register on your councils website and send leaflets, letters even a free pen to the license holder.
Likewise the letting agents and lots of bright signage. Dont enter a price war present yourself professionally to reflect your standard of work.

 

[electricdave]

Key is get yourself known. Find the hmo register on your councils website and send leaflets, letters even a free pen to the license holder.
Likewise the letting agents and lots of bright signage. Dont enter a price war present yourself professionally to reflect your standard of work.

I agree, not interested in a price war. No-one wins that. Council is a good idea - I didn't bother at my previous location since the council wanted me to jump thru too many hoops, and pay £150 H&S assessment to be on their list, and £150 annually to be on their register.

 

[Andy78]

Key is get yourself known. Find the hmo register on your councils website and send leaflets, letters even a free pen to the license holder.
Likewise the letting agents and lots of bright signage. Dont enter a price war present yourself professionally to reflect your standard of work.

Presenting yourself as not cheap but as high quality and specifically targeting letting agents and HMO landlords is certainly an unorthodox strategy.

 

[electricdave]

Presenting yourself as not cheap but as high quality and specifically targeting letting agents and HMO landlords is certainly an unorthodox strategy.

hmm.. yes generally HMOs stuff is in my experience pretty poor quality. Letting agents always want things done quickly and for not much $$.
There must be some joy tho in using sticky trunking and no spirit level. BT use sticky back backboxes which must be a joy (untill they come off)

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

Bath is nearly 20% student population out of around 90k population. Its now end of tenancy season and phone ringing but im booked up until late August already.
Hmos everywhere. I find if you deal with landlords directly around here they pay for reliable trades as council are very much on the ball regards licensing. The agents are all about £$€. Prefer to deal direct. They Also add 20% on to my bill to the landlord. So i sometimes pop a copy over by email if they annoy me, they then get funny but often landlord comes direct in future!!
People bemoan checkatrade but i am liking it, its brought in nearly 5k of completed or agreed work since March. Not bad for £2 a day.
You could consider preferred management for the insurance call outs in your area, say 30 mins each way... if local they pay alright.

 

[Leesparkykent]

Bath is nearly 20% student population out of around 90k population. Its now end of tenancy season and phone ringing but im booked up until late August already.
Hmos everywhere. I find if you deal with landlords directly around here they pay for reliable trades as council are very much on the ball regards licensing. The agents are all about £$€. Prefer to deal direct. They Also add 20% on to my bill to the landlord. So i sometimes pop a copy over by email if they annoy me, they then get funny but often landlord comes direct in future!!
People bemoan checkatrade but i am liking it, its brought in nearly 5k of completed or agreed work since March. Not bad for £2 a day.
You could consider preferred management for the insurance call outs in your area, say 30 mins each way... if local they pay alright.

I do work for a builder who mainly gets his work off of checkatrade. This year I’ve rewired a 16 room hotel which he refurbed ,two rewires and just priced a restaurant with flat above for him. He’s having it off on checkatrade IMO.

 

[electricdave]

Bath is nearly 20% student population out of around 90k population. Its now end of tenancy season and phone ringing but im booked up until late August already.
Hmos everywhere. I find if you deal with landlords directly around here they pay for reliable trades as council are very much on the ball regards licensing. The agents are all about £$€. Prefer to deal direct. They Also add 20% on to my bill to the landlord. So i sometimes pop a copy over by email if they annoy me, they then get funny but often landlord comes direct in future!!
People bemoan checkatrade but i am liking it, its brought in nearly 5k of completed or agreed work since March. Not bad for £2 a day.
You could consider preferred management for the insurance call outs in your area, say 30 mins each way... if local they pay alright.

Fair enough. I guess its horses for courses. Bath is very well heeled tho so I guess it may be exceptional. I live in a generally non affluent part of Wales, where house prices are low. Landlords don't have so much financial incentive to upkeep the properties...
So is Checkatrade pay per quote? £60 per month doesn't sound bad as long as it brings in work

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

Fair enough. I guess its horses for courses. Bath is very well heeled tho so I guess it may be exceptional. I live in a generally non affluent part of Wales, where house prices are low. Landlords don't have so much financial incentive to upkeep the properties...
So is Checkatrade pay per quote? £60 per month doesn't sound bad as long as it brings in work

£60 per month no lead fees, there are loadsof promos out there too, 12 months for 10, they have a money back guarantee tooif you dont make the fees back or are unhappy after 12 months. If you call them them the offers to join get better the longer you leave it.

 

[peterhyper]

£60 per month no lead fees, there are loadsof promos out there too, 12 months for 10, they have a money back guarantee tooif you dont make the fees back or are unhappy after 12 months. If you call them them the offers to join get better the longer you leave it.

Perhaps things have changed since Checkatrade was taken over by Homeserve, but I know people whose annual fees almost doubled to £1,500. Lots of people apparently left homeserve/Checkatrade as they weren't willing to be shafted.

I wouldn't rely on their refund policy, as no doubt the small print will make that difficult to successfully claim.

Checkatrade were charging people around £750 for their first year's membership and then after they worked hard to get good reviews, Checkatrade were charging much more for their second year's membership. Perhaps this has changed because of how many people left and the competition they have with other trade advertisers.

Checkatrade have lots of sparks that are in or are local to my area, but trustatrade have hardly any, but I don't know which of the 2 get more customer traffic.