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For contractors · San Francisco

San Francisco Contractors — AskBaily Partner Program, Zero Lead Fees, Soft-Story + DBI Verified

SF licensed CSLB Class B contractor partner program. Zero lead fees vs Angi's $60-100 SF premium. Live CSLB + SF DBI permit verification, MSR soft-story retrofit experience, Victorian + Edwardian + tower-condo specialties, 1-to-1 matched routing. Apply at askbaily.com/for-pros/apply.

Regulator: CSLB + SF DBI · What is it?

San Francisco is the most-compressed renovation market in California — 49 square miles, 360,000 housing units, the heaviest concentration of pre-1940 wood-frame stock west of Boston, a separate building department on top of CSLB licensing, the only mandatory soft-story retrofit ordinance of its size in North America, and a Planning Department that treats every facade-touching scope as discretionary until proven otherwise. Average SF residential project values run 2-3x the California average. Your competitive set is unionized GCs running $5M+ books, small-shop owners, and a thinned-out post-pandemic field where the tradesman shortage is acute enough that homeowners wait six months for the right partner. AskBaily's SF program is built around four local truths: CSLB Class B is table-stakes (the real gates are SF DBI permit history and Planning fluency), MSR soft-story is a permanent demand floor, Victorian + Edwardian stock requires craft most out-of-market platforms can't match-route, and Angi economics run higher in SF than any other West Coast metro. Zero lead fees, 1-to-1 matched routing, live CSLB + SF DBI verification. Apply: askbaily.com/for-pros/apply.

SF lead economics — the Angi premium

SF Angi leads run the highest on the West Coast — $60-100 per lead, high-value scopes (kitchen, ADU, soft-story retrofit) clearing $120+. Reported SF close rates sit 12-20%, lower than Phoenix or Austin because SF homeowners shop deeper and the discretionary-review overhang kills more deals at Planning than anywhere else in our coverage. Midpoint: $80 ÷ 0.16 = $500 CAC per closed job. SF Thumbtack runs $10-50 per contact, 5-8 contacts per close — same $80-400 range.

On a $90K SF kitchen, $500 CAC is 0.55% of revenue — survivable. On a $500K Victorian restoration, 0.10% — invisible. The numbers look fine until you account for structure: four leads you didn't close = $320 dead weight per close, 3-5 GCs competing on every shared lead, and Angi has zero awareness of Mills Act districts or lapsed MSR deadlines. That shows up as PM hours your shop burned on estimates that died at SF Planning.

AskBaily's structure breaks the front-loading: nothing is owed until a job closes. Full comparison at askbaily.com/tools/lead-economics.

How AskBaily SF matching differs

Baily, our scope-discovery agent, runs a structured intake before any contractor is contacted. SF homeowners get the questions that actually determine match feasibility: building type (Victorian / Edwardian / mid-century / modern condo / tower / multi-family soft-story), parcel address (which Baily looks up against SF Planning's Property Information Map for historic district + zoning + Prop M overlay), MSR retrofit completion status if multi-family, the SF DBI permit class likely required (over-the-counter, in-house, or full plan check), and operating constraints — neighborhood preservation overlays (Alamo Square, Haight, Pacific Heights, Mission, NOPA), tight-lot access, parking-permit reality for material delivery, and HOA rules in the tower-condo segment.

Baily produces an SF-specific scope document. The matching engine filters partners on six axes:

  1. CSLB Class B (or appropriate C-specialty) license active and in-good-standing, verified live at cslb.ca.gov. California is a single-issue licensing state and SF rides on top of it.
  2. SF DBI permit history — closed permits in the last 36 months, searchable on the SF DBI Permit Tracker — and zero open notices of violation.
  3. Building-stock experience — pre-1900 Victorian framing is not the same job as a 2015 SOMA tower-condo; we route by demonstrated history, not self-reported categories.
  4. MSR (Mandatory Soft-Story Retrofit) experience if any portion of scope touches the ground-floor lateral system on multi-family stock.
  5. Planning Department fluency — discretionary-review record, neighborhood-association familiarity, Mills Act experience for landmarked parcels.
  6. Worker comp + GL minimums that meet SF HOA, condo board, and historic-district requirements.

ONE partner is introduced. No bidding war. Zero lead fees. Full SF + CSLB regulatory mapping at askbaily.com/regulatory/cslb.

SF-specific partner requirements

The SF bar is higher than most AskBaily metros because failure modes are more expensive — a Planning surprise can turn a 6-week kitchen into an 18-month entitlement fight. Required:

  1. Active CSLB Class B license (or appropriate C-specialty for single-trade work — C-10, C-36, C-39, C-42), verified live at cslb.ca.gov. Bond posted, workers' comp current.
  2. SF DBI permit history — minimum 5 closed permits in the last 36 months on the SF DBI Permit Tracker. Zero open notices of violation, zero unresolved complaints.
  3. Insurance meeting SF condo + HOA minimums. Tower boards in SOMA, Mission Bay, and Rincon Hill commonly require $2M GL, $5M umbrella, and named-insured certificates with 48-hour turnaround. Workers' comp non-waivable.
  4. MSR specialty (soft-story retrofit lane): documented completion of at least 3 SF mandatory soft-story projects, familiarity with the sfsoftstory.gov compliance pathway, and SE or AOR on staff or recurring retainer. SF DBI tracks ~4,800 buildings under the MSR ordinance and a substantial portion remain in non-compliance — this is a permanent demand category, not a closing window.
  5. Historic restoration specialty (lane): documented projects in Alamo Square, Haight-Ashbury, Pacific Heights, NOPA, or any Mills Act parcel, with photos showing period-appropriate trim, sash windows, and facade work that cleared Planning review.
  6. ADU specialty (lane): familiarity with California AB 68 layered with SF's own ADU program — including SF-specific density / parking / setback waivers for legalization conversions, and over-the-counter pathways for ADUs under 750 sqft. The partners winning here know which applications go OTC vs which trigger neighbor notification.

Exclusivity and category breakdown

SF is a ramping AskBaily metro as of 2026 with multiple Tier-1 categories open: MSR soft-story retrofit, full kitchen + bath remodels, Victorian + Edwardian restoration, ADU new-construction, ADU legalization-conversion, tower-condo fitout (SOMA / Mission Bay / Rincon Hill), and full-floor or whole-house renovation. The first 2-3 partners per category get category-exclusive routing for 90-180 days — every qualifying scope in that category routes to that small panel. Early Tier-1 signups hold first-right-of-refusal on overflow as the metro scales. If you're the partner we route Pacific Heights Victorian to in 2026, that slot stays yours as long as your close rate and CSAT clear threshold.

Take-rate economics

AskBaily take-rate is tiered by project value, paid at job completion, never at lead handoff or contract signature:

SF mean project size runs higher than national average. The 10% and 8% tiers dominate partner P&L: kitchens land $100-180K, Victorian restorations clear $400-700K, ADUs run $250-450K. On a $400K Pacific Heights restoration, 8% is $32,000 — only on a closed, paid job. Compare to Angi at 16% close: $500 CAC × 6 leads = $3,000 in lead fees burned over 4-6 months, independent of whether the project signs. AskBaily charges nothing on the five leads that didn't close. Risk shifts from lead-stage to close-stage, which means our matching engine has direct incentive to send only scopes you can realistically win.

How to apply

Submit at askbaily.com/for-pros/apply:

Verification turns around in 48-72 hours. Approved partners schedule a 30-minute intake covering category preference, neighborhood coverage, building-type specialty, and crew capacity. First matched homeowner in ramping SF categories arrives within 2-4 weeks of approval.

Why keep Angi alongside

We don't ask SF partners to drop Angi or Thumbtack on day one. SF kitchen and bath lead volume is real, and replacing a multi-year channel takes time. Most approved SF partners run all three in parallel for 90-180 days and measure closed-job CAC by channel on their own production data. The pattern that emerges in SF: Angi's shared-lead model creates pre-Planning disappointment (four bids on a Pacific Heights addition, three walk once the discretionary-review timeline lands, the fourth signs at a discount). AskBaily's building-type-matched routing puts one Planning-fluent contractor in front of one pre-screened homeowner whose scope and parcel actually fit your shop's permit history. Apply, run the comparison, decide on your own data.

Apply to join AskBaily in San Francisco →
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