Industry News

Modernize Releases Study on Homeowner Research Behavior

Window & Door
November 27, 2018
Markets

Modernize released its latest Modernize Homeowner Index, a quarterly research study that measures sentiment among over 2,500 U.S. homeowners, designed to help home improvement professionals better serve the market. This new study focuses on how homeowners educate themselves about the home improvement projects they are interested in, how they find and choose contractors to work with, and how they think about paying for their projects.

The study found that 75 percent of homeowners will do some level of research before beginning a project. Up to 64 percent of respondents educate themselves through online research. Though 17 percent learn how to plan their project through home improvement websites, 54 percent of homeowners use Google as their main research resource.

"The fact that so many homeowners search online for information and guidance on their home improvement projects points to the importance for contractors to have a robust online presence," says Jason Polka, CEO of Modernize.

Since 67 percent of homeowners feel less than "very confident" in their understanding of the cost of their project, it makes sense that the study found that almost 1/3 of them are looking for budgeting help online. The index discovered that financing is important to homeowners, and up to 2/3 of homeowners surveyed considered financing their project.

When it comes to selecting a contractor, the study found that 41 of homeowners said they would depend on website recommendations, and 29 percent would depend on online search results.