It would have been nice if you would have mentioned your city.

Anyways, this site specializes in actually screening such local
merchants that provide home care services to consumers. They do make
sure they have proper licenses, insurance, and referrals before they
hit our website/directory. Please go to:

www.doneright.com

Hope this helps.

50 SOMETHING GAL wrote:
I'm looking for websites and/or forums where I can research licensed
and/or independent HANDYMEN and CONTRACTORS (eg. plumber, roofer,
electrician etc.) --LOCALLY.

I have visited the site CONTRACTORS.COM but I'm a bit put off by what
appears to be a highly-commercial website. I guess I inherently
distrust a site that claims to "screen" all of its contractors. This
service cannot possibly be performed free of charge -- the contractor
obviously must pay money to the site to be "screened" and therein lies
the conflict of interest. I don't blame this site for their model
(indeed I don't see how they could do it any other way) but I would so
much prefer a Public, Open, Free, consumer-interactive FORUM that
allows individuals to rate ANYONE -- and post to a searchable database
BY LOCALITY on such factors as the type of job done, quality of work,
estimate vs. final cost, licensed vs. unlicensed, and credit cards
welcomed, to name a few.

There is a model in place for just this -- the Forums on CRAIGS LIST --
but to my surprise CL has not one forum dedicated to this
urgently-needed resource. Even LOCAL.COM doesn't have Forums.

The best resource for hiring (almost anyone for almost anything) is a
personal referral. But I don't have that luxury, and need a more
publicly-accessible resource. Thanks in advance for pointing out any
sites you may know of.

50-sumpin'