Handyman customers from the Oakland flats to East Bay valleys
Finding handyman customers in Oakland and the East Bay starts with a free profile. Leads that fit your trades arrive by text with the job and the area, and each one you buy puts you in touch with a homeowner who asked for help.
- Homeowners who asked for help
- Their contact details once you buy
- Nothing taken from your jobs
How leads reach you
Sign up on this page
Confirm your email and mobile number, then pick your trades and the areas you cover.
A job arrives by text
When a homeowner in your areas asks for your kind of work, the text says what and where.
Take the ones you want
Pay only for a lead you choose. No subscription, no bidding, no cut of the job.
Call the homeowner
You get their details and agree the price and the time with them directly.
Start getting leads
Six short steps, about five minutes. Have a photo of yourself ready.
To sign up, call or text (415) 449-8213.
You're signed up, .
Leads that match your trades and areas will come by text from (415) 449-8213. Save the number so you know it's us.
Jobs are waiting: check your texts now.
Texts are off for this number because it replied STOP before. Text START to (415) 449-8213 to turn lead texts on.
Your profile is also waiting for review for jobs inside the HandymanNow app. Log in with when the app opens to everyone.
Why East Bay handymen join
Customers who came looking
Every lead starts with a homeowner who asked for help through The Handyman SF's website pages, its phone line or a text. You are answering a request, not knocking on doors or cold-calling.
Cross the tunnel when you choose
Bayside cities and inland valleys are different drives and different jobs. The area is in every text, so you decide before buying whether a Danville fence repair or a Berkeley plaster patch fits your week.
A profile homeowners can see
Your sign-up email and password also open the HandymanNow app. Once your profile is reviewed and approved, homeowners who request work through the app can see your trades, experience, bio and photo when you take their job.
Work East Bay houses generate
A ridge splits this region into cool bayside cities full of old wood houses and hot valleys of newer suburbs. The Hayward Fault and two big hill fires add jobs of their own.
Shingles and plaster in the flats
The Oakland and Berkeley flats kept many First Bay Tradition houses, shingled in local redwood between the 1880s and the early 1920s. A century on, doors and sash stick, plaster cracks, floors slope and original hardware wears out. Most owners want old trim and shingles matched, not pulled out and replaced with something new.
Cracks along a creeping fault
The Hayward Fault creeps steadily along roughly 74 miles of hillside base, from Richmond to Fremont; the end walls of Memorial Stadium have moved 13 inches since 1923. Hairline cracks, binding doors and gaps opening in trim are patch-and-adjust work. Cracks that keep coming back or reach the foundation are for a licensed contractor or engineer.
Ember season on the hill streets
Fire tore through the Berkeley hills in 1923, taking 584 houses, and the 1991 Oakland Hills firestorm destroyed 2,843 houses; shake roofs and blowing embers carried both. On the rebuilt streets, the yearly asks are debris out of gutters, new mesh on vents, gaps sealed and wood fences detached from the house.
Sun-worn valleys past the tunnel
Past the Caldecott Tunnel, which opened in 1937, farmland in central Contra Costa and the Tri-Valley turned into suburbs, and summer afternoons there can go above 100 degrees. Heat beats on paint, fences, decks and door seals, Rancho San Miguel in Walnut Creek holds more than 300 Eichlers, and many associations set rules on fences and exterior colors.
Questions handymen ask
Can I stick to Oakland and Berkeley and pass on the valleys?
Yes. Every text names the job's area, so you can let a Dublin or San Ramon lead go by and buy the one in Temescal. You only ever pay for the leads you pick, and nothing is owed for the ones you ignore.
What if a lead turns out to be fault damage?
Talk it through with the homeowner once the lead is yours. Patching drywall or plaster, adjusting a sticking door and closing trim gaps are handyman work. Cracks that reopen, extend into the foundation or arrive with a floor that tilts a bit further every year mean the ground is moving, and that belongs with a licensed contractor or engineer.
Do I need a smartphone app for East Bay leads?
No. Leads are plain text messages from (415) 449-8213, readable on any mobile phone. The HandymanNow app is an addition: its Android version is rolling out to everyone and iPhone is coming soon, and it is where approved profiles take requests from app users.
Who sets the price on a Rockridge job?
You and the homeowner, directly. There is no bidding and nothing to quote through The Handyman SF, and no commission comes out of the job. Buying the lead gets you the contact details; the scope, price and visit time are yours to agree.
I've stopped doing hill work. How do I change what I get?
Text the change, dropping gutter cleaning or outdoor work from your trades or removing a region, and later leads follow the new list. If you want to stop hearing from (415) 449-8213 entirely, reply STOP at any time.
Your jobs, in the HandymanNow app
Leads by text start the day you sign up. The app adds jobs from homeowners who book inside it, once your profile is reviewed.
- Go online when you want work
- Get requests from homeowners nearby
- Message customers and navigate to the job
- Update the job as you go and see your activity