An online permit mapping project by a local startup now allows San Mateo residents to access information on every single remodeling and construction project that has taken place in the city for the past 10 years.
San Francisco-based BuildZoom released the building permit map of San Mateo earlier this month. It provides property owners with details on every home improvement project in their neighborhood, including a summary of the work, how much it cost and who did the work.
Through the map, individuals can also learn about the contractors who have worked in their neighborhoods.
The online portal shows which contractors have been deemed “naughty” and which who have been deemed “nice.”
The company’s goal is to bring transparency and accountability to the remodeling and construction industry.
BuildZoom also scores the contractors based on consistency of work, whether their license has ever been suspended and user reviews, said co-founder Jiyan Wei, a resident of Redwood Shores.
One negative review, however, will not change the score too much, Wei said.
The site is not like Yelp or Angie’s List.
“We are not relying on biased user reviews. The state has high standards for licensing and we are looking more at the public data, whether the license is in good standing and whether the contractor regularly passes inspections,” Wei said.
BuildZoom is taking its interactive map nationwide.
It currently provides access to more than 85 million permitted improvements in the nation from building permit departments from 500 cities and 100 counties.
The permits are matched to BuildZoom’s database of more than 3.5 million licensed contractors.
San Mateo is one of the newer cities added to the map project.
The map is not only used by property owners but other contractors, real estate agents and even insurance adjusters who use the information “to better understand the properties they are underwriting,” Wei said.
Wei co-founded the company with partner David Petersen. The two are childhood friends who grew up in Bethesda, Maryland.
They built the initial version of BuildZoom in 2011 and moved to San Francisco in 2013 to participate in the Y Combinator winter 2013 class. Y Combinator funds early stage startups and, after the two completed the program, they were able to raise $10.6 million in funding led by Formation 8, a venture capital firm.
The company now has 50 employees and a second office in Oklahoma City.
The service is also free to use.
Users simply key in their address and can instantly see the details of permitted projects in their neighborhoods. The map also filters projects by type such as electrical or solar.
It even shows what permits have been filed by SolarCity across the entire nation and details the rise of solar installations in charts.
The data BuildZoom uses is provided by city planning departments.
The company’s main goal is to help people find “great” contractors and to help people avoid “bad” contractors.
If a contractor does poor work, for example, they will be blacklisted from getting future leads from BuildZoom and a negative review will be posted on their profile.
BuildZoom not only selects the top performing contractors but works to ensure the contractors perform even better once they are on its platform.
Contractors on the platform are required to:
• Respond to all customer communication in a timely manner;
• Maintain a clean job site;
• Provide a fair, up front estimate of all costs; and
