Marketplace FAQ

Yes. You can search from the HomeHeroLocal homepage or /marketplace by service, location, and radius. Guests see privacy-safe aggregated service buckets, such as how many matching providers are available in a service category near the searched area. Contractor names, profiles, quote requests, quick chat, favorites, and reviews unlock after signup or login.

Aggregated service buckets are grouped availability previews. For example, HomeHeroLocal may show that plumbing, cleaning, or HVAC providers are available near your search area without showing individual contractor names or contact details. This gives you a useful preview while keeping contractor profiles protected until you create an account.

Yes. Match counts should come from marketplace-visible contractor availability for the selected service, location, and radius. HomeHeroLocal should not show fake counts or fake contractor cards when no guest-safe availability data exists.

HomeHeroLocal keeps contractor profiles, quote requests, conversations, and project history organized in one place. Creating an account lets you reveal matched contractor profiles, compare options, and request quotes through HomeHeroLocal.

No. Guests can preview local service availability, but contractor identity and contact details are hidden. Guest previews must not show business names, contact names, phone numbers, emails, website URLs, exact street addresses, identifying logos, or direct contractor profile links.

No. HomeHeroLocal keeps exact service-location coordinates on the server for radius matching, sorting, distance labels, and optional driving-distance calculations. Browser map pins show approximate service areas instead of exact contractor latitude and longitude, and guest previews stay masked and anonymous.

No. Quote requests and quick chat require an account. After you sign up or log in, you can request quotes and message contractors through HomeHeroLocal where your conversation history stays organized.

HomeHeroLocal keeps chat history available while a request is active and for a period afterward so customers and Heroes can refer back to job details. Older completed or cancelled chats may become read-only, and older photos, files, or voice messages may eventually expire. We still preserve important marketplace records like request history, completion status, reviews, and support/audit information as needed.

You will be sent to sign up or log in. When possible, HomeHeroLocal should preserve your search context, such as service, location, radius, and return path, so you can continue from the same marketplace search after authentication.

If no matches are found, try expanding your radius, adjusting the service type, or searching a nearby category. HomeHeroLocal should not show fake contractor cards or fake match counts when no guest-safe availability data exists.

No. Favorites and reviews require an account. Reviews also require an eligible marketplace interaction and must follow HomeHeroLocal review policies.

HomeHeroLocal protects contractor profiles and keeps quote requests inside the marketplace. Guests can confirm that local service availability exists, then create an account to reveal contractor profiles and continue through HomeHeroLocal.

Starter is $49.99/month and includes 100 qualified appearances per subscription cycle. Growth is $99.99/month and includes 200 qualified appearances per subscription cycle. Unlimited is $199.99/month with Unlimited qualified appearances. Growth is recommended for active Heroes, but no package is automatically selected.

A qualified appearance is recorded when your real contractor card is included in the final search results served to an authenticated customer with a valid service need in a supported market. Guest previews, direct profile visits, favorites, existing chats, quote comparisons, contractor self-views, admin activity, unsupported searches, and searches without valid service intent do not count. Equivalent searches across web and mobile within 30 minutes are deduplicated. An appearance is not necessarily a lead, message, quote request, booking, or completed job.

Every subscription-relative trial month includes 200 qualified appearances—the same monthly capacity as Growth. During signup, you select the package you want scheduled after the trial. Your selected post-trial package does not change the trial allowance, and you may change it before activation. No payment method or live charge is required during the current simulated-billing MVP.

No. Packages control qualified appearance capacity only. Organic ranking continues to use service relevance, supported market, service area, distance, availability, profile readiness, ratings, reviews, and other marketplace quality factors. Customers do not see your package as a badge or trust signal, and a higher-priced package does not purchase a better organic position.

When Starter or Growth reaches its cycle limit, your profile stops receiving new qualified search appearances until a new cycle begins or you upgrade. Existing conversations, quote requests, active work, completion workflows, reviews, and account history remain available. Reaching the appearance limit does not delete or close existing customer relationships.

Yes. During the trial, changing your selection updates the package scheduled after the trial. After activation, upgrades take effect immediately without resetting appearances already used. Downgrades begin with the next subscription cycle, and cancellations normally take effect at the end of the current cycle.

Your contractor dashboard shows your current or trial package, scheduled package, cycle dates, appearances used, remaining capacity, and visibility status. Package selection and changes are managed from the contractor web billing page, while the mobile Contractor Home provides a read-only summary. If package selection is required, new discovery may pause at the deadline, but existing conversations and history remain available.

No. HomeHeroLocal does not add lead fees, reply fees, message fees, quote fees, or job commissions to these packages. Billing is currently simulated for the MVP, so package selection, cycle amounts, and payment-history simulations do not charge a live card, bank account, or external payment provider.