Building Trust in Contracting

Ever wondered why there's no safety net for homeowners dealing with contractors? That gap is exactly what Randy Hurtado and John Stewart Hill are addressing with The Good Contractors List—a revolutionary concept changing how contractors and homeowners interact across America.

This compelling conversation reveals how a life-altering heart attack became the catalyst for creating the first contractor guarantee service backed by real financial commitment. "Do you want to stay or do you want to go?" That divine question in the ICU transformed John's life purpose, leading him to build a company that has now backed over $5 billion worth of contracting jobs.

Randy shares his remarkable journey from IT security specialist to roofing company partner, growing DT Roofing from under $2 million to over $30 million in annual revenue. His partnership with The Good Contractors List gave him such a competitive edge that he convinced John to take the concept nationwide—creating what they call "safe contractor communities" across the country.

What makes this concept truly revolutionary is the financial guarantee. Every contractor on their list is backed by a $25,000 guarantee on every job, giving homeowners unprecedented protection. Unlike other referral services that simply connect people without accountability, The Good Contractors List puts their money where their mouth is. When disputes arise, they become the "voice of reason," helping resolve conflicts and rebuild relationships between contractors and homeowners.

The vetting process ensures only quality contractors make the cut—requiring at least three years in business, five years of industry experience, positive online reviews, and comprehensive background checks. Surprisingly, about 60% of applicants don't meet these standards.

Want to experience the peace of mind that comes with hiring guaranteed contractors? Visit goodcontractorslist.com to find vetted professionals in your area. If you're a contractor looking to stand out from the competition, the entry fee is just $250 monthly outside the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with Limitless Roofing Group members receiving 10% off onboarding fees.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
All right.
Welcome to the Limitless RoofingShow, where we give you a seat
at the table as we talk withindustry leaders and owners so
that you can learn from theirjourney and get the tips, the
wisdom, the tactics you need totake your own company to the
next level.
And I'm really looking forwardto this conversation today
because I've got an old friendon the show, Randy Hurtado, and

(00:22):
I've got a new friend, JohnStewart Hill, that's doing,
they're both doing some reallyinteresting stuff in the
industry.
I think you guys are going towant to hear about.
But before we get into all that,Randy and John, welcome to the
show.
Thank you.
It's great to be here.
Yeah, now Randy, Randy's been onbefore, and Randy's been a
speaker at our event, which wehave coming up for those of you
listening on October 15th.

(00:43):
Randy's been a speaker at theLimitless Roofing Summit.
Uh, he's got a roofing companyin the Dallas, Fort Worth, and
Greater Area, commercialroofing, residential roofing.
So before we get into all ofthat, Randy, why don't you give
a little bit of background forthose who haven't heard about
you, just on what you're doingabout your company?

SPEAKER_00 (01:00):
Yeah, absolutely.
So I have been uh a part of thisgreat industry for now going on
almost just under 10 years.
Came into it in 16, uh, into anestablished company that was
struggling because uh, much likemany roofing companies, they
know how to do their craft well.
But the business side of thingssometimes is a struggle for

(01:20):
some.
And uh that was the situationwith uh the company that I came
into, is they knew how to put agreat roof on.
They knew how to take care ofthe customer, but uh finding
those customers, uh making surethat everybody knew they
existed.
So when they needed the service,uh they knew where to go.
That was the biggest struggle ofDT roofing uh back in 16.
Uh we were established in 2009,and again, it was it was

(01:44):
chugging along every year, butit just could not break that$2
million mark.
Uh, I came on completely a godstory.
I was an IT security softwarespecialist and I had an office
next door to DT Roofing.
You know, things happened where,you know, after 24 years of that
job, uh, the company that I hadmy biggest contract with got
bought out for from privateequity, and they just didn't

(02:06):
need anyone who wasn't on uh asan employee of that company.
They weren't gonna carry thosepeople on.
And so I found myself uhchanging careers.
I was gonna go back just toLinkedIn and find another
company that wanted to use thetalents that I had in the IT
security space, but I decided,you know, I think I'm gonna
completely make a huge shift.
Uh, it was an answered prayer byuh from God.

(02:27):
And I came on as uh asalesperson for DT Roofing
initially, and from there grewinto management, managing the
sales team, then going intooperations, then proving that I
was an adequate partner.
I put plenty of sweat equity in.
And uh ultimately my nowpartner, Derek, the the DT in DT
Roofing, Derek Tanner, trustedme as a partner and gave me

(02:47):
equity in the company.
And uh from there, we've grownthe company uh the last year,
closing over$30 million inrevenue.
Uh, we've also started fourother companies in the uh
Granberry Hood County area.
Uh, fortunate to be verysuccessful in those companies as
well.
Um, in fact, just recently whereit was announced that we won all
of the best of Hood Countycategories for all of our
companies, including our ourgutter company.

(03:09):
Those are our newest company.
So yeah, we've just been reallyblessed.
And uh as part of that journey,back in 19, we actually joined
the good contractors list, whichis the company that John founded
as a contractor.
And at first, honestly, it madecomplete sense to me right out
of the gate.
It just made sense to be able toget backed by a third party

(03:30):
because look, everybody talksabout themselves well.
You're never gonna get a rooferto sit in front of a customer
and say, I'm a mediocre rooferand I'll answer my phone most of
the time.
They're always gonna talk aboutwe have this many five-star
reviews and we've been inbusiness this long, and we have
this accolade, and we won that.
And so they forget the other twocompanies the customer's talking

(03:51):
to is talk saying the exact samething.
They're pointing out all thegreat things.
And so what we're doing by beingon the good contractors list is
we're having a third party thatis backing us that's saying, no,
everything they just said aboutthemselves, we back, and so much
so that we put our money whereour mouth is.

(04:12):
And so, yeah, that's that'swhere we were.
And so I had such a greatsuccess with the good
contractors list after just oneyear being on it that I
approached John and I said,Listen, this service is DFW
based only.
You need to go nationwide withthis.
This problem exists everywhere.
Homeowners are being screwed bycontractors everywhere, not just
in DFW.
And while obviously him beingthe visionary of the very first

(04:34):
company in 2011 that had aguarantee-backed uh solution, he
just he didn't know what thatwould look like, taking it
nationwide.
He knew how much time and effortit took just to build DFW out.
And uh so at the time it wasn'ta good fit.
And I can let John talk a littlebit about the the founding of
the company and why he did it,and then we can kind of pick it

(04:55):
up from there if that helps.

SPEAKER_01 (04:57):
Well, yeah, I'd love to talk a little bit about it.
I know that uh it was notbecause I had this genius idea
and had all the skills in theworld to do it.
Um Frankly, uh, if you don'tmind me telling a little bit
about my story, uh I had justhad a heart attack in 2011, in
February of 2011, that left mewith congestive heart failure

(05:17):
and quite quite weak.
And uh when it happened, uh Ireally felt like God was trying
to get a message across to me.
And uh, one of the things I feltlike when I was heading to ICU,
I didn't even know it was aheart attack.
They originally thought it waspneumonia because my lungs were
filling with fluid and it wasduring a big freeze.
And on the way to ICU, I feltlike God said, Well, do you want

(05:40):
to stay or do you want to go?
It was so powerful in my spiritthat he was giving me the chance
to stay or go.
And frankly, in the where I wasin life at that point, I I
didn't have much I didn't havemuch hope.
I was pretty uh pretty deepdepression and had been praying
that God would kill me for thelast two months.
And here was my chance.
I mean, so this is where mymindset was, and so if if when

(06:04):
people look back at how did thisthing start, it did not start
because I'm a genius of somesort, you know, or that uh or I
have any kind of skill.
It literally started with Godsaying, I'll be with you.
And you know, in that hospital,I was I was really close.
I said, you know, if this isdying, it really isn't that bad.

(06:24):
I'll probably just fade off.
I can uh I can repent for allthe sins that I've ever had, and
I can just I'm gonna go spendeternity in heaven.
But I was really lost at thetime.
But whenever he said, make upyour decision, and it and so it
took me about an hour before thecardiologist could come in.
It was like three o'clock in themorning during like the biggest
freeze DFW had ever had.
So they had no hope for meliving.

(06:45):
I'd had a massive heart attack.
And as I was laying there, I Ijust started thinking about, you
know, who's gonna remember me ifI'm around?
You know, I what have I done inthis earth at all that that
people would remember me for?
And so I I came back to God andI said, you know, I'd like to
stay if that's okay with you.
But I want to be remembered fordoing something good.

(07:07):
I want to live every day, notjust be alive.
And I want to touch as manypeople as I can while I'm on
this planet.
And all I can say is I I mean,I'm prepared for surgery, they
they didn't know what was gonnahappen, but I felt like I was
laying on that bed and I feltlike God was dancing around my
bed.
If I could see into the spiritroom, it was like that's my boy.
Yes, and I'll be with you.

(07:28):
And that's all I knew coming outof there.
I had no idea what was about tohappen.
And so after I I got out of thehospital, me and my wife, or my
girlfriend at the time, gotmarried the next week, and we
said, Our lives is for God now.
We're just gonna we're gonna dowhat he tells us to do.
And so I just started listeningevery day.
And within six months, I hadthis idea that just popped in my

(07:52):
head.
What happened, what would happenif I could find contractors that
I could guarantee did a goodjob.
You know, I used to do yellowpages in the back in the day,
and and I I ran into so manycontractors that made themselves
look really good on the in theyellow pages, but I wouldn't
send them to my parents, Iwouldn't send them to my
friends.
And I was like, man, there'sjust nobody protecting anybody.

(08:13):
And so this was my chance.
And so I went uh to my boss, Iwas selling uh coupons at Money
Mailer at that time, and uh Isaid, man, I'm gonna have to
quit because I don't want to useyour time to test this idea, but
I think I have something I'msupposed to do.
And I quit my job with no back II had one paycheck coming to me,
we had nothing in the bank, andI just went out and started

(08:34):
talking to contractors aboutbeing a part of a list that was
just good, that they all kneweach other, that they could be a
team and they could take care ofcustomers and all those things.
And it just resonated.
It was like the favor of God wason it from day one.
I was sitting down with a yellownotepad, I didn't have a
website, and contractors waslike, I want to be a part of

(08:56):
that, you know, and so uh I justdid everything I was supposed to
every day, made up my paperworkon Word, like I had no business
background whatsoever, had nomanagement background.
And so God used somebody with areally weak resume to start this
job.
That's all I can say is iswhenever I started it, it wasn't
to get rich, it was this is whatI have to do, this is what's in

(09:19):
my spirit to do, and I and I'vedone it every day.
And I can say, you know, what'sfunny is whenever I looked at my
logo and you see that good witha halo over it, I didn't I never
I didn't intentionally do that.
It was I put a halo therebecause of the way it was spaced
whenever I first did it, and Iwas like, oh, there's an empty
space right there between theeand good and all that.
And so I said, let's put a halothere, and it you know, it kind

(09:40):
of morphed into good contractorswith a halo over the top.
I mean, one day I was just likesitting there and I felt like
what what was the thing that youasked me, John?
And I I looked at that thing aslike if I that I want to be
remembered for doing somethinggood, and I'm like, if this
actually becomes something, I'llbe remembered for the word good
with a halo over it.
You know, and so it it becamemore of a mission, it was more

(10:03):
of a movement to me that thatGod was creating to to really
protect homeowners and to givecontractors a really safe place
to join together where they cansay, you know, because
homeowners are always asking,who do you know?
Who do you know that does this?
If they like you, they're gonnaask.
And now, hey, listen, the goodcontractors list, they vetted
them, they you know, they'vedone everything, they're backing

(10:25):
with a guarantee.
This is a safe place for you.
And so creating a safe place incontracting, I think was like I
said, it was God.
It was a miracle.

SPEAKER_02 (10:35):
Man, thanks for for sharing that story.
That's that's powerful.
That's wild.

SPEAKER_00 (10:38):
And I've heard that story probably three or four
dozen times, and every time itgets me because of the mission
behind it.

SPEAKER_02 (10:46):
So now that's powerful, man.
When you have a choice, it'sfine.
I just finished reading the bookfor the second time, Imagine
Heaven by John Burke, and hetakes thousands of near-death
experiences and compiles them inthis book, and it's just
incredible.
And uh, you know, it'sincredible what what people go
through, and some of the some ofthe people in the book do have

(11:07):
that.
It's kind of the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 (11:08):
Like, do you well the interesting part about I've
I've actually read a summary onthat, and the interesting part
is that people from all walks oflife and every uh religious uh
disposition uh ex uh described avery similar encounter, which is
very interesting.
Like that kind of shows you, youknow, whether they're in the

(11:29):
Middle East.
Yeah, and they're whetherthey're in a Middle East where
they're in a in an Asian uhpopulation where Buddhas, you
know, it didn't matter.
They all were describing likethe exact same thing, which was
pretty interesting.

SPEAKER_02 (11:43):
Yeah, yeah, they're describing what the New
Testament describes.
So it's like, okay, whether youtake the Bible out of it.
If you you got these Hindus andatheists and atheist professors
who have a lot on the line tosay, I went to heaven and saw
Jesus and to look like thelaughing stock in front of all
their colleagues.
I mean, the book's phenomenal.
If you're a skeptic listening tothis, I highly recommend it.

(12:05):
But man, I yeah, that's that'sjust really so when you did that
and you decided, okay, I want toI want to give my life to God, I
want to walk with the Lord, Iwant to do something good.
You you dropped everything andstarted this.
What's the what is it?
Like, what is the goodcontractors list?
Because I think a lot of guyshaven't heard of it, and I know

(12:26):
it's extremely valuable,especially in a place like Texas
where there's no licensing, andit is hard to differentiate
who's solid and who's not.
So what what is it?

SPEAKER_01 (12:35):
It really is, I mean, the name is just explains
it all.
Like we we truly only want thegood guys on here, and because
we put our money where our mouthis, we ha we have
responsibility, which issomething that is not in
marketing.
Like there's no responsibility,you know.
They're they're gonna get asmuch money from as many people
as they can.
They don't, you know, at theend, the homeowner can go write

(12:57):
a bad review, it doesn't reallymatter to them.
The marketing company has zeroskin in the game, and so that
was the the first thing is thatif I'm going to put together a
team and I kind of look at itlike like it's like like just
think of it as like a footballteam.
You're gonna want the bestplayers, you're gonna want to
want players that work together,and you want to be able to coach

(13:18):
them in a way knowing that yoursame goal is to make that
customer happy.
That's the goal line, you know,is let's make sure that that
customer is happy, and ifthey're not, they have they have
somebody else that they can goto.
And like Randy was saying, sincethe beginning of time, as long
as we've been aroundcontracting, there's really only
been that two-way agreementbetween a homeowner and a

(13:39):
contractor.
And we've heard all the horrorstories, you know, every one of
those started with a two-wayagreement.
There's never been a third partythat takes financial
responsibility for anything.
So here was a big thing, islike, and and I got laughed at a
lot in the beginning.
They're like, Oh, that's theworst business model I've ever
heard, because I actually havelimited positions available.
You know, it's not like everyroofer can be on this thing, or

(14:00):
every, you know, every playercan be on there.
So I limited how much money Ican make, and I put myself at
greater liability on every jobthey do.
So they were like, that's thedumbest thing I've ever heard.
You're not gonna be able to makeit a year before you go
bankrupt, but you'll be payingout all the time.
But you know what what I foundis that there's a lot of really

(14:20):
good contractors out there, andthey're you know, there's not
there's gonna be greatcontractors who are never on my
list.
But what I figured is that if Ican pull the guys in that really
care about their reputation,that care about their customers,
that want to leave a legacy,then those those guys have the
heart to do the right things.
And you know, so I've I've nothad to be stuck with a whole lot

(14:42):
because the guys that I guess wepick, they've they've been in
business long enough, so we haveto we have to have them in
business for at least threeyears uh with a minimum of five
years experience becauseanything can happen and they
they may they may be good atputting on a roof, but they may
not be great at running acompany.
So we we've taken all thosethings in consideration.

(15:03):
Uh we do a deep backgroundcheck.
We have we spend quite a bit ofmoney every month on FBI level
software that does backgroundchecks, and we can see who their
friends are, we can see wherethey ran, what other companies,
um, because there are somepeople who will start a new
company and their old one wentbankrupt because they did all
the wrong things.
So we want to know what'shappening.

(15:23):
So it's pretty is a pretty safebet, and and then we follow up.
So it's like every customer thatgets called through the good
contractors list gets a callback from our our staff.
We have a staff of people whowho handle disputes and all
those types of things and callsback every homeowner to make
sure that we've picked the rightguys.
But what I found in thebeginning especially was that

(15:46):
the contractors were saying, ifso and so is on this list, I
don't want to be on there.
And I was like, Wow, that'sdifferent.
You know, I mean, because I soldyellow pages, it didn't matter
who was on there, they theyfigured everybody was gonna be
on there.
But I was saying this is thegood contractors list, and so
they were real adamant abouthey, there's some guys, there's
some crooks in the in town thathave a lot more money than than

(16:06):
I do that could buy a spot onhere, and are you gonna let
those guys on?
No.
You know, so so there we we liketo say that we kind of target
the honest guy in the middle.
You know, it's like we don'thave the the buck in a truck
that doesn't have insurance andjust barely makes his car
payment every month, you know.
That that guy's very dangerousto a homeowner because he if he

(16:29):
if something bad happens, hedoesn't have any way to fix it.
Then you have the megacontractors who are so big on
upselling and and really tryingto manipulate situations because
they have sales texts that areinstead of regular text, they
have sales techs that are outthere, you know, trying to
upsell the the person more thanthey are r really caring about

(16:50):
their problems.
So they're we kind of found thathappy medium where we try to
find guys that just do thehonest work and that uh really
want to take care of thatcustomer.
And so we've we're the firstthat I know of to separate the
good guys from the bad guys.
That's the simplest way we canput it, is we've managed to do
that, and we know we havebecause we backed every job and
we run radio and TV ads out inDFW.

(17:12):
And believe me, if we've donesomething wrong, the people will
make a big fuss about it.
So I'm accountable, I'm I'mresponsible, and so are and and
so are all the contractors onour list, and that's the type of
people that we look for.

SPEAKER_02 (17:26):
So what's the crit what's the criteria, Randy, for
joining this list?
He mentioned five years ofexperience, three years in
business.
What else?

SPEAKER_00 (17:34):
So you also have to have a good online presence.
So when we say that, we meanwhen we're checking out your
Google My Business profile, whenwe're checking Yelp, when we're
checking all the places,Facebook, that the majority of
the content that people arefeeding back is positive.
You know, yeah, you're you weall know as contractors, you
can't please everyone.
We've all dealt with the Karenout there that it doesn't matter

(17:55):
what you do, they're not goingto be happy.
But, you know, a good onlinerating generally will say, you
know, it's not an exactrequirement, but a 4.5 or higher
is going to be a minimumrequirement.
Uh that's been the case from thebeginning.
And then of course, you have tohave a professional website.
Well, why does that matter?
Well, because most homeowners,we have to look at it from a
homeowner's lens.
And most homeowners consider acompany established and

(18:16):
professional if they have anonline presence.
And so a website that'sprofessional that can be
navigated so that I canunderstand as a homeowner who
this company is about, what youknow, what services they offer,
what guarantees they offer,things of that nature.
And then the company and thenthe owners have to pass a
background check, as Johnmentioned.
And so going through thatbackground check, yeah, we're
checking for criminal.

(18:37):
Look, at the end of the day,we're not looking, we always ask
our contractors, tell usanything we're gonna come
across.
Cause this is an FBI uh levelbackground check.
So tell us what we're gonna comeacross.
But just know that, you know, ifyou did something stupid when
you were 17 years old, it's notnecessarily gonna keep you from
the list.
We just are trying to, as Johnmentioned, we're trying to make

(18:57):
sure that the contractor we'regonna put in front of our
customers, we would send to ourgrandma's house.

SPEAKER_01 (19:02):
And so one other thing to add there is, you know,
if a lot of people said, Well,what happens if if I mess up?
Well, it then you're human.
You know, we we we get involvedin every situation, and you know
there's a lot more homeownersout there than there are our
contractors.
So the fact that there are moreunscrupulous homeowners out
there that'll try to takeadvantage of the contractor,

(19:25):
manipulate them through reviews,we've seen it all.
Yeah.
But what we'll be is we like tocall ourselves the voice of
truth going into this because wedon't want to keep a contractor
on our list that's gonna cost usmoney.
So we're looking to see if thisguy's quality is bad.
We're looking to see is this guyis this the guy we want?
We're gonna pay for it once, andthat's it.

SPEAKER_00 (19:45):
Yeah, John's used examples in the past where we
went out and you know, we we getto the point where we have to go
on site to look at and thenwe'll get out there with the
owner of the company and we'lland he it's his first time on
the job as well, and we'll go,is is that your quality?
And he'll, oh my gosh, no.
I'm sorry they even got to thispoint.

(20:05):
Apparently, the crew we had outhere did not sleep well the
night before.
This is not our quality, ma'am.
I apologize, we will make thisright immediately.
And then other times you'll getout there and it's well, ma'am,
what's the concern?
Well, I hired this paintingcompany to paint my house this a
color gray, and I'm not happywith the color.
Okay, well, let's look at thecontract.
Contract says they're gonna useuh Sherman Williams SW3245, and

(20:30):
according to the paint cans,that's exactly what they used,
ma'am.
They've done nothing wrong here.
They they did exactly what youasked them to do.
The fact that you don't like theend result has nothing to do
with them.
They're the their their art isputting the product on the
house.
They don't get to choose whatyou like.
That's why there's an initialnext to the color you chose.
You have a responsibility too inlook going online and seeing

(20:52):
that a color applied to a houseand seeing if you actually like
it, you know, not just a colorsloth from Home Depot.
Um, so oftentimes we'll come tothe contractor's aid and say,
no, ma'am, they've done nothingwrong here.
There is no claim, and yeah, youneed to pay them for their
services.
They could lean your property.
We're, as John said, the voiceof reason.
And uh this has worked so wellin the last uh 11 or 14 years

(21:16):
now, coming up on 14 years, thatum we've backed just over five
billion dollars worth of jobsjust in DFW alone.
And um, and so taking thisnationwide is a no-brainer.
It really is a no-brainerbecause it's it's a grand
experiment, a proof of conceptthat has been proven.

(21:38):
And so we're taking thatblueprint and we're taking it
into every state in the union.
And uh, yeah, it's been it'sbeen a great experience just in
the last month that we'veannounced national uh or taking
it with nationwide.
We've already broken into 18 newstates and and we're growing
daily.
Today we just announced ourfirst Floridian uh contractor.

(21:59):
And and what happened tends tohappen is once a few contractors
get into that area, then we'llstart advertising in that area
as well.
And that's where our marketingdollars start to trickle in, and
then contractors from all thewalks start to reach out and
say, Hey, I want to know moreabout this, because they're
realizing that I'm one of thegood guys.
I want to be able to separatebecause think about it.
The good guys really don't havea voice in the industry, right?

(22:23):
We turn on the news every dayand we find a new contractor who
ripped off an old lady for$11,000,000, walked away from a
project, never to be heard fromagain, or he got halfway through
the job, left the house, youknow, the roof completely in the
roofing uh space, left the roofcompletely uh exposed, and
stopped answering this phone,walked off with their money.

(22:43):
You don't get the guy that said,you know, I showed up to their
house, I did exactly what I saidI was gonna do, they love the
end product.
Maybe they got a good Googlereview, but the news isn't
picking it up.
And so the masses, thehomeowners, they hear about all
the good or about about the badguys.
Nobody's talking about the goodguys.
And so what the good contractorslist does is it gives homeowners

(23:04):
a chance.
And as we build this outnationwide, it'll be it'll model
what we've done in DFW.
Where in DFW homeowners know togo to go to the good contractors
list to find all of theircontractors because we don't
just cover roofers.
We have 49 other trades that wecover: modelers, plumbers,
electricians, HVAC.
Don't go anywhere else.
Stop going to Google and playingcontractor roulette.

(23:25):
Go to the list, find thecategory that you're uh you
need, put in your zip code, andthe list of contractors that
have been vetted by us, thatevery single job they do is
backed by a$25,000 guarantee isright there.
Now it's just a matter of yougoing in and choosing the
contractor that missed bestfits, you know, you.
You know, maybe there's somelittle, you know, maybe at that
point, maybe the the accoladesthat they always lead with make

(23:48):
a difference.
You know, I like that thiscompany has 35 years experience,
this one has five.
I'm gonna go with the guy with35 years.
That's fine.
But at least the playing fieldis level.
You know, going as a homeownergoing into the list that no
matter who I choose, if I justcover my eyes and and point, I'm
going to get somebody who'sbacked by somebody else.
So I'm not taking the risk.
Because when a homeowner thatgets ripped off for$11,000 goes

(24:12):
to the Better Business Bureau,all the Better Business Bureau
is going to do is lower theirgrade and maybe put a bad review
on the site.
They're not going to give thecustomer their$11,000 back.
Right.
We're the only we're theoriginator of the guarantee to
put our money where our mouthis.
And we've been pretty good atit.
Like I said,$5 billion.
If we were really bad at it, wewouldn't be having this
conversation right now.

(24:33):
And so taking it nationwide wasjust a natural solution to
fixing this problem.
You know, you're not just buyinglead from a contractor
standpoint, you're not justbuying leads and then hoping
that something comes of them.
You're using our guarantee totake those leads you're buying
and close them.
Because, like I tell contractorsall the time, I've never paid my
electric bill with a lead.

(24:53):
I pay it with money.
And so being able to close moredeals because you give a
customer, a homeowner, a peaceof mind that you've chosen the
right contractor is how youclose business so that you can
actually increase your revenueand grow your company.

SPEAKER_02 (25:08):
Yeah, that's great.

SPEAKER_01 (25:09):
Yeah, that was my strongest things about what we
have to offer here is what we'recalling collective authority.
Is like here in Dallas FortWorth, our contractors network
together, they know each other,not not all of them, obviously,
but but we interact as a as afamily, like we're a team.

(25:30):
And so everybody's trying to saythe same thing.
Listen, if you have a problem,go to the try try the good
contractors list first.
Obviously, we won't have 50different services immediately
in all the different cities thatwe're reaching outside of DFW,
but we can.
And what I'm looking for, uhwhat we're really hoping to find
is contractors who see thebenefit of working with all the

(25:51):
other services, and they startcoming together and they start
they start building this amazingstrong team of contractors that
they're all referring eachother.
And what's great about this isuh they will register at the
good contractors list uh for theguarantee.
And every homeowner that theroofer signs up will become the
plumber's customer later.

(26:13):
You know, every every customer,the plumber signs up, and the AC
guys, and you know, itcross-pollinates, as Randy likes
to say.
I like I I love that that that'skind of how he says it, is that
when we all work together tomake it better, eventually
homeowners start catching windabout the good contractors less.
We throw a little bit ofmarketing in that in each market
as they start growing out.

(26:34):
But we're trying to develop uhwhat I call safe contractor
communities.
So if we have a safe contractorcommunity in San Antonio that
there's enough services that canhandle just about anything for
your home, we're gonna we'regonna start putting marketing
money into that into that placeand try to get homeowners going
there and getting that buzzcreated because the truth of the

(26:55):
matter is they're not gonna findanything safer than this.
And we are gonna really try ourbest to make sure that they have
everything they need when theygo to the good contractors list.

SPEAKER_02 (27:07):
Yeah, that's great.
Yeah, I was when I when Randyfirst told me about this, you
know, the Limitless RoofingGroup, our group has almost 700
companies in it for collectivebuying power to save money on
materials and services andstuff.
And so my first question was, isthis nationwide?
Because we have members all overthe US.
I mean, it's it's heavy inTexas.
So I think we've got about 200companies in Texas alone, but

(27:28):
they're spread out all over theplace.
So, so how does how does acontractor join the list?
Like what does that look like?

SPEAKER_00 (27:37):
Well, the first thing they do is they reach out
to us.
There's an option on the goodcontractors list to become a
contractor.
And you you click on that andyou just fill out the basic form
that reaches our uh sales team,which then we'll reach out to
you and explain exactly they'llbasically explain everything
that we just did in regards tothe requirements.
And what we like to tell ourcontractors is in the DFW

(28:00):
market, in established markets,leads are a positive byproduct
of being on the list, but we arenot a lead company.
As I mentioned earlier, ourcontractors are using our
guarantee to close leads thatthey get from other resources,
you know, whether it be theirFacebook ads, whether it be
their home advisor or theirAngie or wherever they're
getting their leads, they useour guarantee to put them over

(28:22):
the top and close those deals.
So they would reach out to oursales staff, they'll go they'll
go over this very the truth isis when I tell people what the
requirements are, that a lot ofthem will go, that's it.
I'm like, I know.
What's weird is that a lot ofpeople don't fit those
requirements.

SPEAKER_01 (28:38):
Well, about 60% don't that come to us.
Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 (28:41):
And so we have to tell them, like, you know what,
you haven't been in businesslong enough for our standard,
but I'm gonna put your birthdate, which is three years old,
on my calendar and we'll followup with you.
And at that time, if you fit allthe other requirements beyond
just being in business longenough, then we'll get you on
the list.
But we have a very specificformula that we use, and it's
worked really well for ourhomeowners because our claim

(29:02):
rate is extremely low because wepick the good guys.

SPEAKER_01 (29:05):
Yep.
And we have a great resolutionprocess.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (29:08):
There, yes, there are plenty of limitless roofing
contractors that are on the listalready.
Some of them are gonna watchthis and go, yes, that's me.
I'm already on the list.
DT Roofing is obviously one ofthem.
A Davis Roofing out inWeatherford is is on the list
already.
Vin Mark is in the middle ofgetting on the list right now.
They're also in the Weatherford.
They heard that DT roofing wason it and that Davis and and so

(29:28):
they're now looking into it.
That's what we want.
We want to create a FOMOsituation where the good guys
go, I want to be on that listbecause I'm tired of competing
against Riffraft that think thatthey're a roofing company the
day after a hailstorm.
They don't have any insurance,and now I'm on their customer's
roof a year later, and theircustomers are saying, Yeah, I
can't get a hold of the guy thatdid the roof, but it's leaking.

(29:49):
And now they're paying mylegitimate company that treats
their customers like they matterto fix.
Now they're paying me to fixthat Riffraft's work.
And so we're we're ultimatelycreating.
Creating a like like John said,a safe uh contractor community
where homeowners can go to andsay, it doesn't matter if it's
HVAC, if it's flooring orlandscaping, I'm gonna go to the

(30:10):
list and find the contractor inmy area or within 50 miles of my
area because sometimes you knowyou'll have a specialized
service, like you know, wherewhere you know, maybe there's
not a guy in your zip code, butwithin 30, 40 miles, he's there,
but he's on the list and hiswork's guaranteed.
So heck, he'll drive out to you.
And yeah, so that's that'sessentially our mission is to
protect homeowners.

(30:31):
That's ultimately our mission.
And through that, we're gonnafind the contractors that truly
understand that in order to dothat, you have to be in an
isolated community wherehomeowners can find you.
And it's not on a lot of theselead generation services that
are just they just care aboutselling leads.
They don't care about thehomeowner.
That's the truth.
They're about turning a hugeprofit on selling leads.

(30:53):
They can care less that thecontractor is successful on
those leads that they sell them.
And uh, so what we're saying isyou know what?
If that's the only way thatyou're getting your leads, use
our guarantee to try to closethem because you're spending a
lot of money on leads.
And our cost is reallyinexpensive.
And wide, outside of DFW, itcosts you$250 a month to be on

(31:14):
our list.
That's it.

SPEAKER_01 (31:16):
Every percentage back about every single job
we're backing in.
Every one.

SPEAKER_00 (31:21):
$35,000 guarantee on every single job that you do,
and it costs you$250 a monthtotal.

SPEAKER_02 (31:27):
But what does that mean?
What is the guarantee?

SPEAKER_00 (31:29):
Like if I'm a roofing, yeah, if I'm a roofing,
what that means is that meanswhen you're sitting in front of
the customer and you've got a$40,000 roofing uh bid in front
of them, and you're explainingto them, you know, every little
detail and everything, and we'rethis and we're that.
And we're a member of the goodcontractors list.
And what that means to you, siror ma'am, is that every single
job we do is backed by a$25,000guarantee.

(31:51):
Now, that the natural questionwould be well, Randy, you just
mentioned that it's a$40,000contract that you're signing.
What's a$25,000 guarantee goingto do?
Well, in our in our history,what we've learned is one, when
things do go awry and acontractor doesn't want to do
the right thing and fix it, veryfew of those are the entire job.
It's it's an aspect of the job.

(32:13):
You know, they did my siding onmy entire house, but the front
looks like it was put on by across-eyed three-year-old,
right?
And I want that fixed.
And if the contractor is notwilling to fix it, we come in
and we pay another goodcontractor to fix it.
And it's not gonna cost$25,000,right?
So an aspect of the jobgenerally is what that goes
wrong.
Because we have remodelers onour that are doing$300,000 jobs

(32:36):
that, you know, the good, butagain, that oftentimes doesn't
happen because we're doing agood job picking the good guys
that they literally tell us,even upon application, you're
never gonna have a claim withus.
And our response is that's whatwe're banking on.
We're banking on that we madethe right decision to back every
job you do.
Because think about just take DTroofing for an example.

(32:57):
$30 million worth of jobs lastyear was backed by the good
contractors list.
Now you can understand how itcan get to five billion really
quick over 14 years.

SPEAKER_02 (33:06):
And it doesn't cost the homeowner anything.

SPEAKER_00 (33:08):
It doesn't cost the homeowner a penny.

SPEAKER_02 (33:10):
See, I like that because if I'm I got into the
industry four years ago sellingroofs and think about that as a
sales tool, Dylan.
Yeah, just being able to go tothe door and say, and by the
way, anybody you talk to, and Iwould always do this like
whether you work with us or not,here's all the things you need.
And then I would put the burdenof proof on any competition.
Anyone else who comes to talk toyou, they need to check this

(33:33):
box, this box, this box, thisbox, all these boxes.
And at the end of that, thehomeowner's like, well, what do
we need to do?
Like, we don't that this isgetting kind of scary to be able
to go in and say, and and by theway, we're part of this list.
Anyone you work with needs to beon this, this saves you in case
this contractor's you understandit already.

SPEAKER_00 (33:51):
If you were a roofing company that we were
trying to onboard, you alreadyunderstand the messaging is
ma'am.
Even if you don't go with us,get choose from the list because
there's no reason to takeunnecessary risk.
My guys use this not only forclosing deals, they close, they
use it for door knocking becauseoftentimes a homeowner's had a
bad experience with a roofingcontractor, and they're like,
no, no, no, the last guy Iworked with totally screwed me,

(34:14):
walked away with whatever.
No, ma'am.
No, we understand that'sactually the reason why we've
partnered with the goodcontractors list and we've met
their requirements so much sothat they back every job we do
with a$25,000 guarantee.
So you have no risk working withour company.
I just want to get up there andtell you if you have a potential
for a leaky roof in the next sixmonths.
And they'll get on the roofbecause the customer goes, Oh,

(34:34):
that's different.
Okay, yeah, tell me what youfind.

SPEAKER_01 (34:36):
Well, you know what's funny too is you know,
for 14 years I've been talkingabout this.
We're backed, you're you'rebacked by a thousand dollar
guarantee, and that wordguarantee is so common that I
think people sometimes glazeover it.
You know, the way I like toexplain it to a homeowner is is
just simply saying there's athird party that takes financial
responsibility for this job upto$25,000.

(35:01):
It's like insurance for thehomeowner.
It's like, wait a second.
No, no, yeah, there's a there'san actual responsible party, in
addition to me, that will paymoney if this isn't done right.

SPEAKER_00 (35:11):
That's right.

SPEAKER_01 (35:12):
Wait a second.
That it blows your mind.
It's like that's never it'snever been that way.
You know, it's always been justone person against the other,
and having that third partythere to be able to not only do
we cover the the cost of it ifthey leave or do something like
that, but we're a guarantee onquality.
That is not like generalliability insurance.

(35:33):
People have general liabilityinsurance just in case there's a
catastrophic event, but theyhave no quality insurance and
there's no way to even prove itbecause who's gonna come out to
their house?
Well, the good contractors listwill.
You know, we do.
And we've and if it gets to thatpoint, but you know what I found
it why there are so many horrorstories isn't always necessarily

(35:55):
because there were badcontractors involved.
Fear of the unknown is by farthe worst enemy a contractor
has.
I mean, I've watched it for allthe all these years, and as soon
as a third party's inserted intoan escalated situation, it gets
de-escalated.
Because they feel so alone, theydon't know who to call, and as

(36:18):
soon as they call us and weactually do something, they're
like, Oh, y'all really y'allreally do get involved?
Yes, we're real people, we careabout your job, and we care
about whether or not we have theright contractor on here.
Of course we're gettinginvolved.
You know, and so all a homeownerhas to do is register for free.
It costs nothing.
And so we but that's but that'swhat we're finding is that a lot

(36:40):
of the horror stories that youhear about is homeowners who got
scared, they start nitpicking,they start cussing out the
contractor, running them out oftheir house, says they can't
come back, and we have a halfwaydone job because the homeowner
said they couldn't come back.
Not necessarily because thecontractor wouldn't have come
back.
They're trying their best to getthe thing done, but they're
thinking, oh, this is a crazyperson.

(37:01):
You know, but as soon as thatthird party gets in there and
reason happens, you we I I thinkwe do more counseling than
anything else.
It's like we rebuildrelationships, is what the good
contractors list is great at.
That's that's the reason ourprocess works so well is that we
get two people who are beingunreasonable or being angry, we

(37:22):
de-escalate it and we rebuildthe relationship and say,
Listen, you're gonna have to letthis contractor get to the end
of the job.
And at the end, if it isn'teverything you dreamed of, then
we will come out to your houseand finish the job and get the
job.
And be the voice of reason.

SPEAKER_00 (37:37):
And be the voice of reason because again, we know
that there are some people thatyou will never please.
And if we get out there andthat's another benefit of
working with us, is a lot of ourstaff are contractors that they
understand what they're lookingat.
And if we don't know what we'relooking at, we will engage
another contractor from the listto consult on the project.
This is the deal, though.

(37:58):
This conversation almost doesn'thappen, like it's so infrequent
that almost sometimes we have tolook at our own process and go,
okay, what do we have to donext?
Because we just don't deal withit a whole lot.
Most of the time, it's solvedwith a phone phone call or an
email.
It's like, no, ma'am.
What he just told you, I 99% ofthe time, that's all it is.

SPEAKER_01 (38:17):
Just one other person inserted.
Yep.

SPEAKER_00 (38:19):
Here's a prime example.
I'll give a real life example,and it deals with the roofing
industry.
And that is we had a customerlast week that wrote in about a
contractor who literally justsigned with us a month ago.
And her and the contractor told,and every roofer on here will
understand this is thecontractor told the customer,
ma'am, the insurance companydenied your roof, but we believe

(38:40):
that you have a case here.
So you need to hire an appraiserto come out.
Now, you and I, and all of usknow in the roofing industry,
that is the proper process.
We, as the roofer, are notallowed to hire an appraisal or
get a PA involved.
That's illegal.
They're not representing us,they're representing the
homeowner.
Well, this customer called inand said, Well, my roofer told

(39:02):
me, you know, the roofer I gotoff of your list told me that I
had to go and hire my ownappraiser.
And I have other roofers tellingme that they take care of the
entire process if I went withthem.
So the reason why I'm callingyou is because your roofer is
being unreasonable.
Well, guess what who they got acall from?
Another roofer.
And I said, ma'am, this is Randywith the good contractors list.

(39:23):
I read your complaint.
I want to verify a couple ofthings and make sure you
understand what you said.
And then I want to educate you alittle bit.
Davis Roofing, and I'm going tocall them out because they were
the good guy in this case.
They were right.
Those other people that whetherthe customer made it up or they
were actually told incorrectlyby other roofers, she was just
ignorant to the process.

(39:44):
And Davis Roofing was followingthe law.
And so we stood on their sideand said, no, everything that
they said was accurate.
In the state of Texas, you'renot allowed to represent that
you're going to fix the problemwith an appraiser or a PA.
You they can point you to someresources, but that's all.
If we do anything more, the lawgets involved.

(40:05):
The Texas Department ofInsurance gets involved, and we
can hurt our business.
And she understood ultimately.
And so um, that is a real lifeexample of when we get involved
and we educate the customer,everything's relaxed.
Now now that's all resolvingitself on the back end, and
she's not happy because she waswrong, but at the end of the

(40:26):
day, we can't control that, youknow.

SPEAKER_01 (40:28):
And think about what a homeowner does.
They're gonna that homeowner isgonna go, uh, you know, your
uncle, isn't he a roofer, ordoesn't he work for a roofing
company?
Let's talk to him.
And then, you know, if they tryto talk to another contractor,
that contractor is gonna try towin their business.
They're not there to to reallygo, oh, you know what, he was
doing it right.
So they that's exactly whathappened is she talked to

(40:50):
somebody else in the industry,and they're they're like, Oh,
yeah, I wouldn't use him, and itwould only take me two weeks to
do this, and I you know, I mean,and so so as soon as they hear
that, they think, Oh man, I gotripped off.
And they he's been on our list am not even a month yet, and she
made sure to call us.
She like I'm telling you, peopledo not like to get but with
Randy there being able to givethe truth to her, she's like,

(41:13):
Oh, okay, well, what can I doabout that?
Um it's it's it's the reality.

SPEAKER_02 (41:18):
Oh, I like it.
I mean, as a as somebody whocame into the industry from the
outside, you know, as ahomeowner, if you would have if
a roofer would have approachedme before I got into roofing,
you don't know what to believeor not believe.
And then you've got an insuranceadjuster, you know, telling you
stuff too, and it's it'sextremely confusing.
And then you're dealing with alanguage barrier too, because
roofers use language homeownersdon't understand, and they talk

(41:40):
about that is a big problem inour industry, by the way.
Decking and all this crap.
And I'm like, before I got intoroofing, I would have called
decking plywood because that'swhat it is.
It's plywood, but in roofing,it's decking.
Drip edge, what the heck is youknow, it's just well, not only
the roofing terminology normallanguage.

SPEAKER_00 (41:59):
Yeah, not only the roofing terminology, but they
jump in with all of theinsurance terminology with
depreciation and and you know,uh deductible and all these all
the D words.
They're like, I don't even knowwhat all that means.
That's one of the things whenI'm mentoring other roofing
company owners and their salesteam.
I always say, like, listen, youneed to speak the customer's
language and not use yourroofies because you're used to

(42:20):
speaking that all day long,every single, but they don't
understand.
This is their first time everfiling a claim.
They don't understand thisentire process.
You need to dumb it down, andnot from a standpoint of, you
know, the customer's not smart.
It's just they don't know thisprocess.
You deal with it on a dailybasis.
You have to treat them likethey've never done this before
and put it in layman terms.

(42:41):
And so, yeah, that is that is uhdefinitely something that we
could do a lot better in theroofing industry to communicate
better.

SPEAKER_02 (42:47):
But you guys are a buffer because that that
communication gap creates a lotof trouble.
And you guys are a buffer whenthat does occur, and it's going
to.
And I think, but I think part ofthat's the the sales process
too.
You know, you should be doing anexcellent job communicating,
setting expectations.
And if you start to see yellowflags or or red flags with a

(43:08):
homeowner as a sales guy, youhave the right to not work with
that person.
I mean, I I've talked to acouple of people over the years
that I said, you know what?
The more we talked, like, youknow what, I'm already starting
to see how this is gonna go.
Yeah, it's not gonna be good, nomatter how good of a job we do.
I I've told a couple of people,you know, I just don't think
we're the best fit for you.

(43:29):
And that's smart.
That's good.
Well, no, no, wait a second,wait a second.
No, it's okay.
I uh we're really not the bestbecause I've been through those
too.
I had one guy that was uh workedfor a bank and had the mind of
an engineer, and I mean, he wasasking me questions about why is
the drip edge that wide and thethis and the that?
And I'm just like, oh my gosh.
And it was questions and textsand emails and phone calls, and

(43:51):
it's just like, man, it's notworth it at the end of the day.
So, how do guys what's the we'rekind of coming up on the end of
our time here?
What's the best next step for acontractor to take if they want
to talk to y'all?

SPEAKER_00 (44:05):
So, based on this, you know, you you've heard
you've heard our requirements.
If you believe that you fitthose requirements, you reach
out to us, go to thegoodcontractorslist.com.
In the top right corner, you'llsee become a contractor.
Click on that, fill out theform.
We'll follow up with you.
If you're in the roofingindustry, you're gonna hear from
me directly because I I toldthem I said, I want to deal with
my brother, and you know, andthen all the other trades will

(44:27):
be handled by the rest of oursales team.
For limitless members, if youare currently a limitless
member, uh you will receive 10%off of your onboarding fee.
So that's important for you tomention that you heard about us
from Limitless.
If you're not a limitless memberand you are watching this
podcast, it is free to join.
It's the easiest membership thatyou can get into.
It's a group buy.

(44:48):
I've been a member at DT Roofingfor since its inception.
And that's the reason why Ibelieve in it so much that I'm
willing to fly out on my dimelast year in Kansas City to
speak in front of a bunch ofother roofers about the
importance of various things inthe roofing industry, is because
I believe in what Dylan andMiller are doing with this
company and organization.
They have amazing, if you don'tknow about it, they have amazing

(45:08):
group buy uh discounts alreadypre-negotiated with a lot of
vendors, including distributors.
And so there's a lot of benefitsto being part of Limitless.
And with the good contractorslist, if you're a member, uh
you'll get that 10% off theonboarding fee.
If you're not a member, join andthen and then get that 10% off.
Uh but yeah, that's that's thenext step that uh that folks can

(45:30):
do.

SPEAKER_02 (45:31):
Yeah, that's great.
No, thanks for the shout out.
Yeah, for those of you guyslistening, if you haven't heard
of the Limitless Roofing Group,we're a buying group.
We save roofers money onmaterials and services.
So, step one, if you're not onthe good contractor list, is
join Limitless for free.
Go to the limitlessroofinggroup.com, sign up for free.
We're gonna give you access tonational programs and discounts.

(45:52):
Then go to the good contractorlist and get 10% off your your
uh guys.
Thanks a lot.
I I just love what you're doing,and I love that you're leading
with your relationship with Godat the center of it.
And I think you know, it's gonnabe really cool to see what
happens over the next few yearsand how big this thing gets.

SPEAKER_01 (46:09):
We're very excited.
He's got plenty of thank you forthe opportunity.

SPEAKER_02 (46:13):
All right, guys, thanks a lot.
Talk soon.

SPEAKER_01 (46:15):
Appreciate it.