Hey, here’s something cool: the nice people at Angie’s List have offered me a discount that I can share with you guys. I’m not getting kickbacks on it or anything, so even if you don’t like me, feel free to stroke it, bore it, and cram it where the sun don’t shine use the discount code for your own benefit anyway.

Angie’s List is a website we signed up for a while back, and recently I’ve found it really useful. The official scoop on what the company does is as follows:

Angie’s List is where thousands of consumers share their ratings and reviews on local contractors and companies in more than 250 different categories. Currently, more than 375,000 consumers across the U.S. rely on Angie’s List to help them find the right contractor or company for the job they need done. Members have unlimited access to the list via Internet or phone; receive the Angie’s List magazine, which includes articles on home improvement and maintenance, consumer trends and scam alerts; and they can utilize the Angie’s List complaint resolution service.

Basically, it’s a place where you can find reviews on local businesses. If you’re looking for a carpet cleaner, clickety click on Angie’s List and boom, you’ve got a list of companies that are either recommended or blasted by your fellow local community members (and you can sort by proximity, grade, company name, number of reports, etc). A few weeks ago, I had to find a dog kennel at the last minute because our normal place was booked, and thanks to Angie’s List I discovered a great place just a few miles from our house. In fact, I think we’re going to switch to that vet altogether because they were so much more professional than the place we’ve been going.

When I was looking for a housecleaning service last week, I found Four Seasons, with 18 customer reports and an overall grade of “A”. In the customer reports, the Four Seasons owner had personally responded to many of the comments and addressed any concerns posted. In reading each report, I could see what Four Seasons charged, and a 6-scale grade (Overall, Price, Quality, Responsiveness, Punctuality, and Professionalism). Also, Four Seasons had an offer of 12% off a first cleaning for any Angie’s List member.

Yesterday was the first day we had the cleaning service come by, and I am absolutely thrilled by the fantastic job they did. I wouldn’t have found them if it hadn’t been for AL, so I am pretty much thrilled with Angie’s List, too.

Here’s more info on how Angie’s List works, their Top 10 benefits, and some press mentions. A trial membership is not available but if you sign up for the annual membership you have a money-back guarantee.

Membership fees vary by your location, in Seattle a monthly membership is $5.95 and an annual membership is $53.00. Membership signup fee is $10, UNLESS . . . you use this discount code:

SUNDRYBUZZ

That gets you a $10 discount which waives the signup fee for annual memberships, so you pay only the membership cost.

(Note: in cities that aren’t well-established—that don’t have a ton of reports or members yet—it’s actually free for homeowners to join, for the first year. So check out your city, you may get a free ride.)

One last thing, I can’t speak for how many contractors/businesses are being reviewed in other cities, but here’s a screenshot of the long, long list I have available to me as a Seattle member. I think we’ll be using Angie’s more often in the upcoming months, especially since we’re looking at another house remodel.