Contractor lead services compared: 12 questions before you pay
Do not compare only the price per name. Compare where the request came from, whether the homeowner asked for contractor contact, what you see before paying, whether the service sells the same contact more than once, whether the trade and area fit, and what happens when the contact is invalid or duplicated.
A lead is not a job. Even a legitimately submitted request can become unreachable, change scope, fail a program rule, lose funding, hire another company, or decide not to proceed. A responsible lead service describes what it can prove and does not publish a conversion claim without current substantiation.
Why these questions matter
In 2023, the Federal Trade Commission finalized an order involving HomeAdvisor after alleging deceptive or misleading claims about the source, quality, characteristics, and conversion rates of leads sold to service providers. The matter concerned HomeAdvisor's conduct and historical claims; it is not proof about every platform or its current terms. It is, however, a concrete reason to ask for definitions and evidence rather than accepting “high quality” as a measurable promise.
The 12-question evaluation
- Source: Did the person submit the project on this service, through a partner, through an advertisement, or through a reused/aggregated record?
- Consent: Did the homeowner expressly request contractor contact for this project? Can they choose program information without requesting an introduction?
- Preview: What non-contact facts can you see before you accept or pay: city, trade, scope category, timing, property type, or possible program context?
- Fit: How does the service enforce your selected area and trade? What happens when its categorization is wrong?
- Price: Is the exact charge visible before acceptance? Is it one-time, recurring, auctioned, or percentage-based?
- Subscription: Is a membership required even when no suitable lead appears? How and when does it renew?
- Buyer count: Does the service sell the same contact more than once, or does one completed purchase close the lead to every other buyer?
- Scope of a one-buyer promise: Does it mean no other contractor receives the contact through that service, without pretending that the homeowner cannot independently contact another business?
- Contact unlock: Is homeowner contact exposed before a contractor makes an explicit decision, or only after acceptance and any required payment?
- Invalid/duplicate policy: Which conditions qualify, what evidence is needed, how many days are allowed, and is the remedy cash, credit, or discretionary review?
- Conversion evidence: What counts as a “job,” which cohort and date range support the rate, and are refunds, nonresponses, and cancellations included?
- Data and exit: What account data, homeowner data, tracking, auto-renewal, cancellation, suppression, and deletion terms apply?
The Grant Map's current answers
| Question | The Grant Map, reviewed July 18, 2026 | What remains uncertain |
|---|---|---|
| Source and consent | A homeowner submits a project and expressly requests contractor routing. Program-results-only signup does not route to contractors. | Passing intake does not guarantee that a contractor will receive or accept it. |
| Pre-accept notification | Every matching contractor listed in the directory for whom we have a usable business email may receive contact-free structured context such as city, trade, and possible program records to verify, whether the listing is claimed or unclaimed. | Possible programs do not prove eligibility, funding, timing, or program acceptance of the contractor. |
| Listing cost | $0 to list or claim; no card and no monthly contractor subscription. | New registrations require review; claiming proves possession of the usable public business email on file, not quality. There is no text-code or manual claim path. |
| First accepted lead | An available free credit can cover the first accepted compatible lead. Completing that acceptance closes the lead to every other contractor. | A credit does not change the explicit acceptance or contact-privacy gate. |
| Later accepted lead | Paid leads that pass the sellability checks range from $20 to $500. The exact one-time price appears before acceptance and reflects the job, its scope, the local market, and lead quality. | A lead with insufficient core information is not sold at a lower price. The price does not promise reachability, funding, a contract, or completed work. |
| Buyer and contact unlock | Exactly one contractor buys each lead. The first eligible contractor to complete a free-credit acceptance or finalized paid acceptance receives the contact, and the lead closes immediately. | Nobody else is charged or receives the contact through The Grant Map. The homeowner remains free to contact another business independently. |
| Invalid/duplicate/outside-area | Eligible for review when reported within seven days. | Review is not automatic approval; the facts determine refund or credit treatment. |
| Conversion promise | No promised close rate, project value, grant approval, revenue, or job. | Contractor follow-up, homeowner decisions, program rules, and market conditions remain outside the platform's control. |
How Grant Map leads are different in purpose
The homeowner starts by researching possible repair assistance organized by city. If the homeowner asks for contractor contact, program names can give the contractor questions to verify: whether an estimate is required, whether preapproval comes first, whether the administrator limits contractors, and whether funding is open. That context can make the conversation more prepared. It does not make the lead “grant approved” or inherently more likely to close.
The business model is one buyer per explicitly accepted lead after an available credit, not a featured-listing subscription. Every matching directory listing with a usable business email may receive the contact-free offer, whether claimed or unclaimed, but the first eligible contractor to complete a free-credit acceptance or finalized paid acceptance closes it to everyone else. Nobody else is charged or receives the homeowner's contact. Directory placement and The Grant Map's reviewed-profile label are not purchased. That is a product difference, not proof that every lead will be a better fit than every lead from another source.
What to track in your own business
Use a simple source-level ledger rather than relying on platform labels:
- Offers viewed, declined, accepted, refunded, and credited;
- Valid contact, response, appointment, estimate, and signed-contract counts;
- Spend, estimator/sales time, travel, gross contract value, gross margin, cancellation, and collection;
- Days from first contact to decision and from authorization to completion;
- Reason codes: outside area, wrong trade, no response, not funded, not ready, price, schedule, or selected another contractor.
Compare at least a useful cohort over time. One sale or one bad lead is real evidence about that event, not a stable conversion rate. Do not combine trades with different job sizes or free-credit and paid acquisition without labeling them.
Warning signs in any sales pitch
- A guaranteed close rate or income claim without cohort, date range, denominator, and supporting records;
- A “single-buyer” promise without a precise definition of who receives the contact;
- A price or renewal term revealed only after entering payment details;
- Claims that homeowners are funded or ready to hire when the service can prove only an inquiry;
- Pressure to buy a large territory before receiving the written invalid-lead and cancellation policy;
- No way to distinguish homeowner-requested contact from public-record, affiliate, or resold acquisition.
Primary source
Review the FTC's HomeAdvisor matter page and final-order record directly. Platform terms change, and a government action about one company should not be generalized into unsupported claims about another.
See the current offer before deciding
Listing is free. Learn exactly what a contact-free preview contains, what contact remains locked, and how price reflects the job, scope, local market, and lead quality.
Review the sample offerAdd your businessCommon questions
Does a lead guarantee a job?
No. It does not guarantee reachability, fit, an estimate, funding, a contract, or completed work.
Does The Grant Map require a subscription?
No. Listing is free. Claiming is free when a usable public business email is on file; there is no text-code or manual claim path. No card or monthly contractor subscription is required. Each paid lead is a separate explicit choice, and the first eligible contractor to complete a paid acceptance with a finalized charge becomes its only buyer.
Are these approved grant projects?
No. Possible programs are research context. The administrator decides eligibility, funding, timing, contractor rules, and application outcome.