You filled in one form. Within the hour your phone rang four times, and it kept ringing for days. Nothing has gone wrong — that is how the big lead sites are built, and it is worth understanding before you fill in another one.
What actually happened
When you described your project, you were not sending it to a contractor. You were creating a lead — and that lead was sold. Not to one company, but to several at once, each of whom paid for the right to call you.
Contractors report paying anywhere from about $15 to $100 for a single lead depending on the trade and the job size, and commonly say the same lead goes out to four or more of them. Those figures come from contractors and from marketing firms rather than from the platforms themselves, so treat them as rough. The shape is not in dispute, though: you are one lead, sold more than once.
That is why they all call so fast. Each one paid for your number, and the first to reach you usually wins. Speed, not suitability, decides who you end up talking to.
Why it is bad for you as well as for them
The obvious cost is the phone ringing. The less obvious one is who you hear from.
A contractor with a full book does not buy leads. He does not need to, and he certainly will not pay to race four other people to your phone. The contractors who answer in ninety seconds are, more often than not, the ones with gaps in their schedule.
Sometimes that is simply someone new and hungry, which can be fine. Sometimes it is not. Either way, you did not choose from the field — you got whoever dialed first.
What to do instead
Post what you want done on this board. Your details are not sold, and they are not broadcast. One person reads it — me — and I match it to contractors who actually work in your county and do that trade.
What that is and is not: I introduce you. I am not vetting anybody on your behalf and I do not stand behind their work. Check the license number with your state board, ask for references and photographs of similar jobs, and never let the payments get ahead of the build. Those checks stay yours.
That is deliberately a smaller promise than instant quotes from five companies. It is also the honest one: matching by hand is slower, and it means nobody calls you because they paid for the privilege.
How do I stop the contractor spam calls?
They will slow down on their own after a week or two, but you do not have to wait.
- Say it plainly on the call: “Please put me on your do-not-call list.” Say it to every company, not just the annoying ones. Each business has to keep its own internal list, and this is the sentence that gets you on it. “I’m not interested” does not do the same job.
- Ask where they got your number. Most will tell you straight out. You are looking for the name of the platform you filled the form in on — that is the source, and the calls do not stop until you shut it off.
- Go back to that platform and withdraw your consent in writing. Email them, ask them to close the request, stop sharing your details, and delete what they hold. Permission you gave by ticking a box can be taken back, and in writing you have a record of when you did it.
- Block the numbers that keep going. Anyone still calling two weeks after you asked them not to is not going to stop because you asked a third time.
One thing worth knowing: the national Do Not Call list will not help much here. It is built to stop cold calls from companies you have never dealt with. By filling in the form you gave permission to be contacted, so the calls are not cold — which is exactly why withdrawing that permission is the step that works.
If you have already filled one in
Ask every contractor who calls the same three questions, and the field narrows quickly.
- Are you licensed for this work, and what is the number? It takes a minute to check with your state board, and whether a license is even required depends on the permit, not on the price of the job.
- What is the payment schedule? The answer you want ties money to completed work. Never let the payments get ahead of the build — that is the single thing that leaves homeowners stranded.
- Who pulls the permit? If a contractor asks you to pull it as an owner-builder on work that is really theirs, the liability lands on you.
More on the payment question in how to pay a contractor without getting ahead of the work.