Namir

How to find customers for flat renovation and home jobs

We assume that people decide on a flat renovation more slowly than on a small repair, so we suggest that the first reply should not sell but find out the scope of work. It starts with a post asking to recommend a crew or a tradesperson.

Next to the big renovation there are small call-outs: a plumber or an electrician called into the same flat. Their requests are shorter and more urgent, and the reply to them is different.

This is advice, not measurement: the project corpus holds only one post about building, and it is not a request. The phrases below come from the query list.

Updated

How they ask for a crew and for tradespeople

Nine phrases from the project query list: five about renovation and builders, four about the plumber and the electrician.

  • порадьте бригаду на ремонт квартириIn English: recommend a crew for a flat renovationThe person looks for a crew, not for one tradesperson. If you do everything yourself, say so honestly.
  • шукаю майстра на ремонт квартириIn English: looking for a tradesperson for a flat renovationHere the person looks for a tradesperson for the renovation and the limits of the job are not named. It is an invitation to find out the scope, not to name a price.
  • хто робить ремонт квартирIn English: who does flat renovationsA question to everybody at once, with no city. The city and the type of housing have to be found in the text.
  • порадьте будівельниківIn English: recommend builders«Builders» is a wider word than flat renovation: it can mean walls, foundations or a roof. Reply only if your kind of work is named in the post.
  • шукаю будівельниківIn English: looking for buildersThe same with the verb «looking for»: the decision has not been made.
  • порадьте сантехнікаIn English: recommend a plumberA plumber is looked for both in advance and when something leaks. A calm post and an emergency post need different replies.
  • шукаю сантехніка терміновоIn English: looking for a plumber, urgentlyThe word «urgently» usually asks for a shorter reply: whether you can help, not a presentation.
  • порадьте електрикаIn English: recommend an electricianAn electrician is recommended as a specialist trusted with wiring. Concrete detail about what you work with counts here.
  • терміново потрібен електрикIn English: an electrician is needed urgentlyAn emergency electrician: a short reply and one question about what exactly happened.

The project corpus has one post about building that only looks like a request: the person asks what is not worth saving on and is not looking for a contractor. The words match but there is no job. Skip such a post.

A big job: the first reply asks a question

A post about a flat renovation often lacks what you need to size the work: what is already done, the state of the walls and floor, whether there is a plan. We suggest asking about that, not promising.

Two questions are enough to begin: the scope (one room or the whole flat) and the stage the flat is at now (bare walls or finishing).

Plumber and electrician: a different rhythm

Here people often ask not for a crew but for one person for one job. The reply is short, and the main question is what exactly happened or what needs doing.

If you do both renovation and small call-outs, answer each post separately, under its own intention. One draft for an emergency call and for a planned renovation reads like a template.

When to stay silent

Stay silent where a person asks for advice rather than a contractor, and where your kind of work is not named. A hesitant «maybe we can do it too» does more harm than silence.

What to reply to a big job and a small one

What to reply

  • Name the kind of work you do in the post’s words: «tiling», «electrics in a flat».
  • Say which city you work in and whether you take a job of that size.
  • Ask for a short description of the work: what is done and what is needed. One question, not a questionnaire.
  • Write that you can look at the scope, and do not name a sum before that.

What never to say

  • Do not name a price per square metre and do not write «turnkey for an agreed sum»: there is no sum yet, because you have not seen the scope.
  • Do not promise deadlines, for example «we will finish within a month».
  • Do not praise yourself with epithets. For a big job, trust comes from describing what you have already done, not from adjectives.
  • Do not reply in a thread where people advise each other what not to save on: there is no customer there.

A worked example: the post, the lead and the draft

Example

The post and the reply are invented for the example, translated from Ukrainian: neither the crew, the customer nor the accounts exist.

Rivne. We are renovating the bathroom: tiles and plumbing, the old fittings are not yet removed. Please recommend a crew.

Why this is a lead. It names the room, the kinds of work (tiles and plumbing) and that demolition is still ahead, and the request is to recommend a crew. It is a big job with a known starting state.

Draft reply

Hello! We renovate bathrooms in Rivne, tiles and plumbing together. Please write the approximate floor area of the bathroom and whether demolition is needed: then we will understand whether it is a job for us.

Why this reply. The reply names neither a sum nor a deadline. It asks for the area and the demolition, because the scope depends on them, and only then can cost be discussed.

Starter phrases for renovation

Within renovation there are neighbouring services that the section above does not hold, and each phrase is a request for a service. How many replies each brings will be shown only by your own count.

  • порадьте меблевикаIn English: recommend a furniture makerFurniture is a separate job next to renovation: the person looks for someone to build a wardrobe or a kitchen.
  • хто робить меблі на замовленняIn English: who makes furniture to orderThe same as a «who makes» question: the object here is made-to-order furniture.
  • порадьте вантажниківIn English: recommend moversMovers are needed before a renovation and after it; the person who writes this phrase has a concrete task.
  • терміново потрібні вантажникиIn English: movers are needed urgentlyThe urgent version: the reply here has to be even shorter.

Phrases that do not work

These phrases seem natural when a renovation is going badly. But the project query list marks them as failed.

  • допоможіть будь ласкаIn English: please helpIt is a general cry for help: collections, animal shelters and referral spam answer it, not contractors.
  • готова заплатитиIn English: I am ready to payIt sounds like a customer ready to pay for a renovation, but in Threads search the phrase finds only a few posts: readiness to pay for a renovation is rarely written on Threads.

Try it on your own post

Found a post in your city about a renovation that fits your kind of work? Paste it: the draft will ask about the scope instead of naming a price.

Find a post on Threads and paste its link and text: Namir checks the match, scores it and prepares a draft. You read it, copy it and publish it on Threads yourself, from the post opened by that link. You can start free, no card. Automatic search for your phrases is switched on as soon as Meta allows it.

Start freeWhat it costs