Ask Each Roofer Where Your Lead Came From Before You Book

Before you compare two roof numbers, find out how each roofer got your name. A roofer who called you because you asked for a bid is in a different position from one who got your address from a lead service, a storm list, or a neighbor who was paid to send work their way. The answer does not make one roofer better than another. It does change what the bid has to cover, and it tells you who else may be selling your address while you wait for the quote.

Why the lead source changes the bid

A lead that a contractor paid for has a cost attached to it. Some lead services charge per name, some charge per contract, and some take a percentage of the job. Referral programs pay a neighbor, a realtor, or a former customer for each signed contract. Those costs do not disappear. They are either absorbed by the contractor, passed into the price, or traded for a smaller scope or a shorter warranty. If you do not know which, you cannot tell whether the lower number is a lower roof or the same roof with a fee taken out somewhere else.

Lead sources also matter after a storm. In the spring and early summer, hail and wind events across St. Louis County and St. Charles County bring a large number of door knockers, mailers, and online ads into the same neighborhoods within a few weeks. Some of those callers are local companies that have worked the area for years. Others are sales crews working through a list of addresses that a storm report flagged. The lead source tells you which situation you are in, and that affects how much weight to give the first conversation.

Four questions to ask before you book

Ask the same four questions of every roofer on your list, and ask them in writing if you can. A short email is enough. Keep the wording the same for each company so the answers can be compared directly.

1. How did you get my name and address? Look for a specific answer: you called us, you filled out a form, we were referred by a named person, we bought a lead from a named service, or we knocked on your door after a storm.
2. Was my information sold or passed to anyone else? Ask whether your name, phone number, or address went to a lead aggregator, a financing company, or a partner that will call you as well.
3. Is there a referral fee or lead fee on this job? If a neighbor, agent, or former customer sent you, ask whether that person is paid and whether the payment is part of the contract price or paid by the company out of its margin.
4. Who is my point of contact if I have questions about how I was found? A company that answers this clearly will name a person or a role, and give you a phone number or email you can use after the sales visit is over.

What a referral fee can do to a price

A referral fee is not a red flag by itself. Many honest companies pay past customers or agents to send work, and that is a normal way to find jobs. What matters is whether the fee shows up somewhere in your bid. If the number is low because the fee was cut from the materials, the scope is thinner than it looks. If the number is high because the fee was loaded in, you may be paying a sales cost that never reaches the roof.

Compare two bids that came from different sources. A bid from a roofer who got your name from a neighbor's referral and a bid from a roofer who bought your name from a lead service may look similar on the first page. Read the proposal line by line and check whether the scope, the materials, and the cleanup match. A difference in lead cost is usually easiest to see in the overhead or the sales line, and it is worth asking the roofer to show you how the number was built if the spread between bids is large.

How to log the answers

Write each answer down with the date, the name of the person who gave it, and the company. Keep the notes next to the bids so that you can read them together when you make the decision. If a roofer gives you a vague answer on the first call, send the same question in writing and note how long it takes to get a reply.

• The company name and the name of the person who answered
• The date and time of the call or the email
• The lead source in the roofer's own words
• Whether any fee was named, and whether it is in the price
• Any contact name or number given for follow-up questions

Storm season leads in the St. Louis area

If your roof was visited after a storm, the first contact may have come before you thought about a bid at all. Those visits can be useful, but they also tend to move fast. Ask the caller how they came to your street, whether they were working from a storm report, and whether they are paid per signed contract. Then take the bid to the office, not to the porch. A written scope with photos and measurements gives you something to compare against the next roofer's scope. Keys documents damage, puts a written scope with photos and measurements in the homeowner's hands, and attends as the contractor while the homeowner deals with their own insurer. Missouri law bars a roofing contractor from representing or negotiating a homeowner's insurance claim, so a roofer who offers to handle the claim for you is outside what the statute allows.

When the answer is vague

A vague answer is information too. If a roofer says they cannot share how they found you, or that the lead is confidential, you can still ask whether any third party was paid on your job and whether that payment is in the bid. A company with nothing to hide will answer that question in one sentence. If the answer stays vague after a written follow-up, weigh that against the bids that answered plainly. You do not need a perfect answer from every roofer, but you do need enough to know what you are comparing.

If you want to ask Keys directly how a lead reached your address or how the price was built, call the office at (314) 220-2333. Ask for the answer in writing, and keep it with the rest of your comparison notes.