Marketing for Builders & General Contractors.
An enquiry is not a signed job. A signed job is not paid.

Seven stages between a search and a paid job

The money is made or lost across seven stages. The sections after the table fix the leaks one stage at a time.

Stage 1: the enquiry, and what a homeowner can check before you visit

The Federation of Master Builders and CIOB surveyed UK small and medium-sized construction firms for July to December 2025 (493 responses) and reported that workloads remain strong even as enquiries soften. For a builder, the number to watch is signed work booked for the months ahead, not enquiries this week.

Before a homeowner lets you on site, they check you. TrustMark describes itself as the only government endorsed quality scheme for work in or around the home, and the FMB tells homeowners to check a builder is a Master Builder because some places claim to be a member when they're not. So every badge on the site links to your entry on that scheme's register, beside photos of finished jobs of the same type and the areas you cover.

In the US, Houzz's study of 2025 projects found general contractors were the most frequently sought construction professionals, engaged by 29% of renovating homeowners (registered US Houzz users only). California is a case where the licence class decides the words: licensed "A" General Engineering and "B" General Building contractors can advertise as general contractors, and the law prevents you from noting in your advertising that you are bonded. Check which class you hold before putting "general contractor" in an ad.

Stage 2: qualify before you drive to site

Put the sorting before the visit: the enquiry form asks for the job (extension, a home addition in the US, loft conversion, kitchen), whether they own the property, whether planning is in place or still to come, a budget band and when they want to start. The FMB tells homeowners that many builders will be able to offer guidance on planning permission and building regulations. In practice, a first visit can turn into free advice. Our lead generation team sets up those questions and judges them on cost per qualified enquiry.

Houzz found kitchen projects averaged 9.5 months of planning and 5.8 months of construction (US Houzz users, 2025 projects), with planning often taking longer than building. A qualified enquiry may be months from a start date, so each one is tagged by start window and kept warm by email until the homeowner is ready.

That long wait is also how to judge bought leads. In March 2022 the FTC alleged that HomeAdvisor made false, misleading or unsubstantiated claims about the quality and source of its leads sold to service providers including general contractors, and its April 2023 order prohibits false or misleading claims about its leads, including that they concern people ready to hire. That concerns one platform only. For any lead source, count signed jobs per lead bought across the whole planning window: a lead paid for in March can sign in the autumn, and a platform judged on the month you paid will look worse, or better, than it is.

Stage 3: the quote

Send the quote within a set number of days of the visit, stating scope, exclusions and a rough timeline before price comes up. TrustMark tells UK homeowners to obtain 3 quotes before starting any work and to use a written contract, so expect yours to be read beside others. Houzz research found 41% of homeowners said a clear project timeline would have improved their experience, and 40% wished for better communication (Houzz gives no country, year or sample), which is why the timeline goes in early.

Conversion rate optimisation tests one change at a time on the quote-request page, and automations send the reply and a nudge on a quote nobody has answered.

Stage 4: planning, building regulations and permits

Write a "what happens next" page for each job type you take: which approvals normally apply, who applies and roughly when. Never promise "no planning needed", because that depends on the property. In England, three separate processes sit behind that page.

First, planning: the Planning Portal says permitted development rights allow you to extend a house without a planning application when limits and conditions are met. Under those rights, single-storey rear extensions cannot go beyond the original rear wall by more than four metres on a detached house, or three metres on any other house, and larger ones, up to eight metres (detached) or six metres (other houses), go through prior approval, where the local authority consults the adjoining neighbours. Where an application is needed, the target is a decision within 8 weeks of validation, a target not a guarantee. These planning points are for England only.

Second, building regulations are a separate approval. Most extensions need it, and gov.uk says it is different from planning permission, and you might need both. The Party Wall etc. Act is a third process: a building owner must give adjoining owners notice of work the Act covers, and the Act is separate from planning and building regulations (England and Wales).

In the US, California's contractors board quotes the state building code: no building may be enlarged or altered without a separate permit, and code requirements vary in different cities and counties. New York City says most construction requires approval and permits from its Department of Buildings. In US homes built before 1978, the EPA's rule says anyone paid to do work that disturbs painted surfaces must be certified, with trained employees.

Stage 5: contract and deposit

A signed job can still unwind, so a contract signed at the homeowner's kitchen table goes out with the cancellation information required in that country and state, checked by your adviser, and the deposit wording in proposals and ads matches the rules where you sell.

In the UK the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 say a consumer may cancel an off-premises contract in the cancellation period without giving a reason, and for a service contract that period ends at the end of 14 days after the contract is made. Trading standards guidance counts the supply of goods and services together as a sales contract instead, where the 14 days start the day after the goods come into the consumer's physical possession, or, when goods in one order arrive on different days, the day after the last of them arrives. If you do not give the right-to-cancel information, the period ends 14 days after the homeowner receives it if that happens within 12 months, and otherwise 12 months later than usual. Exceptions exist. In the US, the FTC says its Cooling-Off Rule gives buyers three days to cancel certain sales made at their home. The seller must tell the buyer about the right to cancel at the time of the sale and, among other things, hand over cancellation forms. In California, the contractors board's guide says the down payment on a home improvement contract may not exceed $1,000 or 10 percent of the contract amount, whichever is less.

Stage 6: the build and the stage payments

Agree an update rhythm at contract stage, such as a short message with photos on a set day, and send a message the day anything slips. Tie each stage payment to a stage the homeowner can see finished, written into the contract, so every invoice arrives after a photo of the work it pays for. The update photos also feed the finished-job page for that job type.

Delays are common: nearly half of firms report job delays linked to a lack of skilled tradespeople, according to the same FMB and CIOB survey (UK, July to December 2025). In the Houzz research above, 40% of homeowners wished for better communication from the pros they hired.

Stage 7: handover, final payment and the referral

The job is paid when the final invoice is settled, so handover is a meeting, not a text: walk the finished work, close the snag list, hand over the certificates, then send the final invoice.

The referral conversation comes once that invoice is paid, while the homeowner is still showing the work off. Ask about people by name rather than in general: the neighbour who watched the build, the friend already shown round the new kitchen, the relative planning a loft of their own. Ask whether a board can stay up for a fortnight and whether you can photograph the finished room for the page about that job type, and send the review link that evening.

Track referrals per finished job. That figure and the signed value booked ahead are the two we report first, the same discipline we bring from 600+ clients since 2017. We take on builders and general contractors in the UK and the US, work across both countries' time zones, and quote in GBP or USD.