Porch.com is one of the most interesting startups in the real estate field right now. It aggregates historical home improvement data about millions of U.S. homes, which allows it to tell you information about who the most popular contractors in your neighborhood are or even — in partnership with Realtor.com — what kind of work a previous owner did on the house you want to buy.
Since January, Porch also had a limited partnership with home-improvement chain Lowe’s that turned it into a resource for Lowe’s employees to help their customers find professionals for services the chain itself doesn’t currently offer. Think handymen, painters, landscapers, etc. Starting today, that partnership will roll out to all of Lowe’s 1,700 stores. This will give Porch far more reach and will also motivate professionals to sign up for the service and add their projects to its database. They do, after all, want this exposure, given how many homeowners walk through Lowe’s doors every day and ask for help with their projects.
Today’s launch also compliments the launch of Porch Premium earlier this month. This paid service allows professionals to feature their services and highlight them to customers in specific ZIP codes.
Porch currently features more than 1.5 million professionals on its service and data for over 100 million projects.