To make sure it has enough contractors for each job, HomeToDo's recruiting crew has to make lots of phone calls to contractors in the various markets. Sometimes, it winds up with too many contractors. After HomeToDo's launch in Atlanta, it realized that 20 carpet cleaners were about twice as many as it needed for the market. While HomeToDo doesn't charge contractors to join its service, they sometimes drop out for lack of business. Others decide they don't want someone else coming between them and their customers.
Some jobs are too small.
Keeping homeowners and contractors happy isn't always easy. Landscaping sometimes suffers from diverging expectations, says Mr. Gendell, HomeToDo's co-founder and chief operating officer. People are interested in planting a few bushes. Clicking the way to a contractor shouldn't lead consumers to let down their guard. While some of the sites try to rate the contractors bidding on the jobs, many don't have enough experience with the contractors to make the ratings useful, she notes.