I used to use yelp to find the best-reviewed contractor in my area. However, that's no longer a tenable strategy, because in my opinion, those contractors are

I used to use yelp to find the best-reviewed contractor in my area. However, that's no longer a tenable strategy, because in my opinion, those contractors are flooded with easy and profitable requests and have no need to prioritize a schmoe like me. It's genuinely hard to get top-rated contractors to give me the time of day. Once it took me 2 weeks of trying a guy, waiting for him to not reply, trying the next guy, waiting for him to cancel my appointment, trying the next, etc. I tried picking one at random, and I got a couple of jamaican stoners with super-charming accents who did a shitty job and then poured paint thinner on my lawn (poisoning the area for about 3 years) while cleaning their equipment. It's a hard problem in some areas.