Most sites charge for the introduction
On the big marketplaces, a contractor pays the moment your project reaches them — whether or not you ever call back. Lead Dog charges nothing for sending them your job.
No referral fees. Ever.
The pro who calls you didn't pay for your number.
Most home-service sites charge a contractor a referral fee every time a project like yours reaches them. Lead Dog charges nothing. That means two things for you: less padding in the quote, and pros who aren't chasing volume to pay off a lead bill.
- $0
- Referral fee charged to the pro
- Free
- For you, start to finish
- Local
- Pros who work in your area
Where the extra cost comes from
It isn't the contractor. It's the toll booth sitting between you and the contractor.
One deck repair, quoted two ways
Through Job Hound
$1,800
Where the pro paid for the referral
$1,885
Illustration only. The gap is whatever the referral cost — it lands in your number either way.
Your project gets resold
One request is often sold to several contractors at once. Everyone pays, one gets hired, and the rest cover the loss somewhere. Here, your project goes to the pros you picked.
Those fees land in your estimate
Referral fees are a real cost of doing business, and real costs end up in the numbers on your quote. Take the fee out and there's simply less to pad.
The same project
Job Hound
Sites that charge referral fees
What the pro pays for your project
Nothing on Job Hound
A fee per referral elsewhere
Who receives your request
The pros you choose on Job Hound
Whoever bought it elsewhere
What it costs you
Nothing on Job Hound
Nothing elsewhere
What's inside your quote
The work on Job Hound
The work, plus fees elsewhere
Cheaper isn't the only thing it buys you
Take away the referral fee and the contractor's whole incentive changes. That shows up in how they treat your job.
No pressure to upsell you
A pro who bought your name has to win big jobs to break even on the ones they lost. When the introduction is free, a small repair is still worth doing — so you get told what the job actually needs.
You're not a race to the first callback
Nobody else bought a copy of your project, so the pro who reaches out isn't sprinting through a call list. They have time to ask what you're actually trying to fix.
These pros run on real software
Everyone listed here uses Lead Dog to handle their scheduling, quotes and invoices. Your request shows up as a real job on their board, not a sticky note. Organized behind the scenes usually shows up in your driveway.
Three steps, start to hired
- 1
Say what needs doing
A few details about the job, where it is, and when you'd like it started. No account, no phone tree.
- 2
See pros near you
We show local contractors who do that kind of work, with the trades they cover and the jobs they take on.
- 3
Talk to the ones you like
Your project lands on their board as a real job. They follow up, you compare, you decide who gets it.
Your project goes to the pros you choose, as a real job on their board — not to a list of everyone who paid for a copy of it.
Questions people ask first
Does Job Hound cost anything?
No — not for you, and not for the contractor. There's no fee to send a request and no fee for a pro to receive one.
If nobody pays for referrals, how does this work?
Job Hound comes from Lead Dog, the software contractors use to run their business — scheduling, quotes, invoices, customers. Signing up for Lead Dog lists the pro on Job Hound automatically, and your project arrives in their dashboard as a job. The software is the business. Your project isn't the product.
Will my quotes actually be lower?
Contractors set their own prices, so nobody can promise you a number. What's true is that a pro here isn't paying for the chance to talk to you, so there's one less expense sitting behind the estimate. Get two or three quotes regardless — that's always the right move.
How do I know a pro is any good?
Each listing shows the trades they work in, the area they cover and the kind of jobs they take. Reach out to a couple, ask how they'd approach your project, and hire the one who answers it best.
Find someone good, close by, today
Tell us what the job is and we'll show you the pros who do it near you. It takes about a minute, and nobody pays a cent to reach you.