Urban Referrals

Urban Referrals referred me to two tradesmen who failed me — and their basic response was «tough.»
I switched to Angie’s List, which has made tradesmen follow through with the work promised.

I called on 20 October, 2015 and was told several contractors would call me within a few hours. Needless to say, no one called me.
I called again on 21 October and was told that they had no record of my call from 20 October. An hour later, someone called me back. This individual, a woman, was very rude. Also, the number she called me from – 202−491−5466 – is not listed as the phone number of Urban Referrals. Instead, according to a Google search, it belongs to «Steel Management Group.»
I do NOT recommend using this fly-​by-​night operation under any circumstances.

I just bought a condo and had no idea who to turn to with certain home improvement projects. A friend highly recommended Urban Referrals to me. Initially, I wanted to re-​paint some walls and install new flooring. I called UR and Sarah answered promptly, asked many detailed questions, and sent me several names of painters/​flooring companies. All of the companies followed up very quickly to set up a time for estimates. UR also checked in a few days later to see if everything was going well and whether I had any more questions.
Next, a few unexpected projects (such as removing spilled paint) came up and I called UR again. Instead of referring me to a company, Sarah just passed on my questions to her trusted contractors and then followed-​up with me to tell me that I can actually easily take care of the projects on my own. She gave me detailed instructions and saved me a lot of time and money.
Finally, I have a list of other odds and ends that I want to take care of around the condo. When I called UR this time, Sarah recommended that I send a list of those items to her with my priorities and she will help me determine whether I can just have a handyman come by or if I need to hire specialists. So far, I have had nothing but great experiences with UR and I am sure that I will call them more in the near future.

I wish I knew about this 9 months ago!!! Urban Referrals are AWESOME! They have successfully connected me with an electrician and a couple of contractors. Really prompt to return emails and calls.

Years later, I still cannot believe how highly regarded/​rated UR was, which is why I chose them. They got me a contractor list. I ended up with a fly by night contractor to say the least, though the work looked good… I’ve spent $ and years (5) fixing issues. Leaking toilet, sub-​par tile work, expensive cabinets not assembled correctly, and still on the horizon-​wiring as all new work was wired TOGETHER: bathroom, recessed lighting in kitchen, dishwasher, disposal, sockets…
Marla ducked and dodged addressing the issue of vermin in my home shortly after the renovation and eventually just excused herself. Oh, and that added up to about 2 years and 20 mice later until it was discovered the contractor turned a broken piece of drywall upside down — behind the cabinets, making for easy access from my neighbor.

I sought this service based on the reviews here. I live out of state & needed some paint retouching & tile replacement & small drywall repair in a small bathroom. They referred me to a company that quoted me (gasp) $ 2,500 for these relatively minor repairs.
When I told the woman with Urban Referrals about the company’s $ 2,500 quote, her response was that they had sent many other customers to this service & most people were happy. I was somewhat shocked the woman didn’t even seem to have a reaction to this outrageous quote. She wasn’t able to assess for herself whether it was reasonable. She seemed utterly brainless.
I found a nice, reliable contractor through my management company who is charging me about $ 550 for the above repairs, + blind replacement & additional painting (CHRIS SLARK, 301−706−0434)!!!

This service is awesome. We needed a contractor to do a small project in our kitchen, but we weren’t completely sure what the work was, and the thought of bidding out contractors was stressing us out.
Marla recommended a designer and a contractor. We never would have thought to talk to a designer, and that consult was really useful! We got two contractor bids and went with the one who received Marla’s glowing endorsement. He was great! I can’t imagine NOT using UR for additional projects.

As a first time homebuyer with a 100 year-​old fixer upper, I am so happy that we used Urban Referrals to make the changes we needed to make in order to move into our new home.
Urban Referrals staff were prompt and courteous, and made sure that they understood exactly what we needed. Then they gave us several options to choose from and we ended up with a reliable, customer service-​friendly contractor.
The work we had done was high quality, timely, and the crew was a pleasure to work with. We got everything we wanted done, and then discovered some additional improvements that we hadn’t even thought of (or originally budgeted for) that our contractor made affordable.
I honestly won’t ever go anywhere else for any of our other home improvement projects. For peace of mind and quality customer service, don’t look any further. Seriously. It sounds corny, but really — just call them now and thank me later.

I am so pleased that I stumbled across the first review for Urban Referrals on Unilocal and decided to give them a try. I was in a real time crunch, buying a house and in need of a contractor asap to submit an estimate for my 203k project. I filled out their online questionnaire and Erin called me about 15 minutes later. She talked to me for a while and really listened. She picked up on how a lot of my ideas centered around energy efficiency and green building (even though I hadn’t ever thought of it that way), and within the hour she gave me the contact information for a great company that I am so excited to be working with! She sent me another referral the next day.
So I contacted Urban Referrals on Wednesday, and by Friday I had contractors out bidding on my project.
I couldn’t be more thrilled with this service, and plan to go through them for every project I have in the future.

Marla is making my life so much more pleasant by taking care of finding good folks to do work on my house and property! My realtor, Troy Patterson of Brandon Green & Assoc. (also reviewed), suggested that I contact Urban Referrals for help with some repairs on our new 1940s brick home.
I admit that I tried finding people myself off CraigsList first, in hopes of some cheaper prices on good work. That turned out to be a bad idea, as 75% of them failed to show up when scheduled, often without calling. It makes me glad that they never came, since their attention to customer service is so poor.
Enter Marla and Urban Referrals to save the day! She called me back within minutes of my online request to clarify details and explain the process to me. They’ll even take care of screening for quality and credentials — which is something that usually doesn’t happen with CraigsList jobs. Within a day I had someone lined up to clean the gutters and am setting a date with an electrician. To my joy, Marla is now taking care of finding a mason so I don’t have to keep calling around and hoping for the best. She has called to make sure referrals are getting in touch with me (plus all info is emailed), and will take care of it if they fail to call or show up. I’m in heaven, and can now spend my time on my own business instead of frustrating myself over repairs. All of this is at no cost to me, and the prices are comparable to what I found on my own — the difference is that these people are following through and I’m calm and happy.
Thanks so much, Marla!

I did not have a good experience with Urban Referrals. I had a problem with my contractor and Marla, one of the owners, didn’t even have the courtesy to return my phone call. This is what I feel is the least that could have been done. You are paying more to use a contractor through them ostensibly for some kind of «security» that if an issue does arise, they will do their best to help mediate.
Also I found the quality of the folks they referred to me to was generally low. I interviewed 3 or 4 of their referrals. The contractor I did pick, was supposed to be one of their best and I found his work sub-​par and despite assurances to the contrary, just another bad contractor who didn’t really want to complete the job properly.
Based on my experience, I really don’t think you gain anything from this service except a higher bill. Try as best you can to get personal references from people you personally know. Over the years I have had some good contractors and some bad ones. This last experience through Urban Referrals was definitely a very bad one.