Minimize the Disaster After a Disaster
Hiring a Verified Contractor is Easy, Saves Money, & Provides Peace of Mind
BuildSOS help homeowners rebuild faster and stronger after a disaster by providing an easy, transparent resource that saves them lots of frustration by reducing fraud, finger-pointing, and risk.
The Challenge After the Disaster
After a disaster strikes, all you long for is normalcy. You crave being back in your home, but it needs repair, so you are left unsettled.
You wait trying to get an insurance adjustor to your home to create an estimate to repair the damages. You look for options to repair your home by asking friends, posting on social media, and scouring the internet looking for options, but that is overwhelming. Then you wait to get contractors to provide estimates, and then you worry about which contractor to trust. When you do engage with a contractor, there is always the question of whether the estimate is accurate and fair, and whether the insurance company will also agree with it. In the worst cases, you may have someone knocking at your door offering to “help” just to end up being taken advantage of.
A Better Way
BuildSOS offers you three ways to minimize the disaster after the natural disaster via preparation, verification, and transparency.
- Before the Disaster – Register with BuildSOS and take 8+ pictures of your home to provide your insurance company and contractor exact details of what your house looked like before it was damaged
- Verify Contractors – easily and quickly verify legit contractors and avoid scammers – “Card your Contractor” with BuildSOS
- Transparency Throughout – throughout the process, get updates from your contractor and insurance company about your claim and the repairs
Our verification service is free to homeowners and some insurance companies offer a discount on your deductible just by using a BuildSOS-verified contractor because they know the chances for fraud and poor quality work are significantly reduced.
Best of all, you’ll have peace of mind that you picked a contractor with integrity, and you have a digital paper trail for the entire process.
Stop Being Adversaries with Your Contractor & Insurance Company
If you’ve rebuilt after a disaster, you probably experienced the adversarial relationship that is often created pitting the homeowner against the contractor and the insurance company. You feel like they should be on your side because you hired them, but you start the relationship with your guard up making it harder to get through any bump in the road because the relationship lacks trust.
Additionally, every party involved including your mortgage company has safeguards to protect them and reduce their risk. These safeguards cause more time delays and drive up the cost for everyone involved.
BuildSOS created a structure that provides transparency after every step to expedite the rebuilding process because it reduces the risk for every party involved including you, the contractor, your insurance company, and your mortgage company. From the start, you can trust that you hired a verified contractor, you’ll have visibility into the progress of your repairs, and see where the insurance money.
This provides peace of mind, gets you in your home faster, and saves everyone headaches and money.
How BuildSOS Got Started
Instigated by the challenging rebuilding efforts of the 2016 floods that impacted Southeast Louisiana, a small group of contractors teamed together and created BuildSOS to help their neighbors get back in their homes faster so their communities could be together again.
The main reason rebuilding efforts took so long and cost so much was a lack of coordination and trust due in part to a lack of clear processes, shared data, and an environment where scammers could pretend to be builders and subcontractors.
BuildSOS empowers homeowners by giving them the control to identify good and fraudulent contractors through our verification process. BuildSOS also empower homeowners through education on what to expect in rebuilding and transparency in the process.
Contractor Verification
First of all, BuildSOS is not a lead source for contractors, and you as a homeowner do not have to pay anything for our services. Contractors cover the costs to get verified and may also pay a fee for our estimating and project management software.
Our self-verification process includes:
- Registered with the Secretary of State
- State Contractor License
- Valid Business Insurance
- Workman’s Compensation
BuildSOS does not verify the quality of work a contractor does on every job, that is done by your local permitting/building code office. However, BuildSOS do educate you on what to look for (and how to build stronger) and require photo documentation in our software for you to view and for your insurance company to verify before releasing funds.
What’s Next & How to Get Started
Register today before the next disaster strikes.
Once registered, you’ll have access to education about preparing for disasters and the rebuilding process. You will also be able to upload 8+ photos of your home and add specific details to expedite the insurance claims and estimating process.
Additionally, contact your insurance company to see what discounts they may offer you for using a verified contractor.