A sales rep on r/RoofingSales who reports a 34% close rate checks the county building permits when a homeowner goes silent after the estimate, and “half the time I do see that another roofer got the job.” Many of the rep’s customers said they’d contacted ten or more roofers before three would answer, call back or come out.
A homeowner who goes quiet is often collecting bids, as regulators advise, and some may be waiting on an insurance check or stalling over what the claim leaves them to pay. The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) tells homeowners to get at least three bids. The FTC tells them not to automatically choose the lowest bidder and to “ask for an explanation if there’s a big difference among the estimates.”
Put that explanation into your estimate before anyone asks, naming the shingle and listing the scope, and time your follow-ups to the dates the insurance claim already sets. A same-day signature won’t hold the job by itself, because federal and Texas law both give a homeowner who signs at home three business days to cancel. In Texas, a roofer who pays or waives the deductible without the insurer’s consent commits a Class B misdemeanor, and you can say so. Check your own callbacks as well, since the silence can start on the roofer’s side.
I went through 135 posts and transcripts on closing roofing jobs and losing them, 119 of them from the Reddit roofing forums and most written by sales reps. Zentora hasn’t measured a close rate for any client, and our work stops once a new caller has heard from you inside the first minute. Most of the state law below is Texas’s, where our own numbers come from, so check your state’s or province’s version with an attorney.
Name the shingle on your estimate so a cheaper bid shows what it changed
An owner on r/Roofing wrote in 2026, “The moment the approval came through she called me asking for a ‘quote.’” The owner never heard back, and later found her Yelp review calling the prices astronomical. A roofing contractor on r/RoofingSales now leaves measurements off the estimate and puts them only on the contract, because homeowners used to hand the estimate to the next roofer, who undercut the price and always switched to a cheaper shingle. A roofing sales rep on r/Contractor hears the other side every week: homeowners say everyone who comes out leaves a price with no information.
The contractor and the rep pull in opposite directions, and the FTC has told homeowners which one to expect. A written estimate, it says, “should include a description of the work to be done, materials, completion date, and the price.” Name the shingle and list every item in the scope. When a cheaper bid comes in, the homeowner has yours to hold it against, and the FTC has already told them to ask why the prices differ.
I found no count of how many bids a roofing homeowner collects, so plan on at least three. An owner on r/Roofing with hundreds of five-star reviews wrote that being shopped doesn’t hurt the business, since homeowners who compare find newer roofers under his price and others with similar reviews above it. How to Win Roofing Jobs Without Being the Cheapest Bid goes further into holding your price.
An approved homeowner may be waiting on a check, or dreading what’s left to pay
With replacement cost coverage, TDI tells homeowners, most insurers pay twice: a first check after the adjuster’s visit for the estimated repairs, minus depreciation and the deductible, and the depreciation check once they get the bill for the finished job. With a mortgage, the check usually goes to the mortgage company. A homeowner waiting on a lender can look a lot like one who has gone cold.
A DFW roofing owner we work with says some homeowners get nervous about the cost and put the roof off to hold on to their money. On an insurance job, the coverage sets what’s left to pay. In an example TDI gives, a 10-year-old roof costs $10,000 to replace with a $2,000 deductible. Replacement cost coverage pays $8,000, while actual cash value coverage, valuing the roof at $7,000, pays $5,000, leaving the homeowner $5,000 to find instead of $2,000. TDI also warns that “As roofs age, some companies will switch to actual cash value.”
In Texas, waiving the deductible to win the job is a crime
“I’ve lost 4 deals this year because I wouldn’t ‘pay’ their deductible and they wouldn’t budget,” a rep working Austin and DFW wrote on r/RoofingSales in 2024. In Texas, paying, waiving, absorbing or rebating a deductible without the insurer’s consent is a Class B misdemeanor (Business and Commerce Code 27.02). Any contract of $1,000 or more expected to be paid from a property insurance claim has to tell the homeowner, in at least 12-point bold type, that Texas law requires them to pay their deductible.
Under Insurance Code 707.004, an insurer with replacement cost coverage can also hold back the depreciation payment until it sees reasonable proof the deductible was paid. A canceled check, a money order receipt, a credit card statement or a financing contract all count. When a homeowner says another roofer will cover the deductible, show them the notice on your own contract and explain that their insurer can withhold the depreciation check until they prove they paid. Outside Texas, ask your attorney whether your state or province has a rule like it.
A signature at the kitchen table can be canceled for three business days
An owner in California wrote on r/RoofingSales in 2024 that the company had never won back a job after a cancellation. In the US, the FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule covers a sale of $25 or more agreed at the buyer’s home, even one that follows an inspection the homeowner booked. The buyer can cancel until midnight of the third business day, and the FTC counts Saturday, so a Friday contract can be canceled until midnight Tuesday. You have to hand over a dated contract and two copies of a Notice of Cancellation form.
Texas gives the same three business days on a sale over $25 solicited away from your place of business, and using the FTC’s forms counts as complying. Section 601.101 of that law says “A merchant is not entitled to compensation for services performed under a consumer transaction canceled under this chapter.” Anything you build in Texas before the window closes is work you may not be paid for if the homeowner cancels. California gives three days, and five for homeowners 65 and older.
The FTC rule leaves out a real emergency the homeowner called you for, if they waive the right in their own handwriting, and a repair visit they asked for, though anything extra sold on that visit is still covered. States can add rules of their own, so ask your attorney which apply to you.
Texas warns homeowners about signing anything before they see an estimate
TDI lists “A contractor asks you to sign something before giving you an estimate of repairs” as a common contracting scam. It also tells homeowners “Don’t sign contracts that say, ‘Homeowner agrees to the listed repairs for the value of insurance proceeds.’” A contingency signed after the inspection and before any estimate looks like what TDI describes, so a homeowner who has read TDI may back away from yours. If your contingency uses wording like that line, have your attorney look at it.
Minnesota goes further: a contractor there can’t give an insured homeowner an agreement authorizing repairs without an itemized, good-faith estimate, or interpret the policy or advise on coverage without a public adjuster’s license.
Texas lets you explain the claim to a homeowner who has never filed one, and stops you at handling it for them. TDI says a roofer can’t act as a public adjuster on a claim it’s also doing the work on, and lists filing or negotiating the claim for the homeowner as improper (Insurance Code 4102.163).
The insurer’s deadlines give your follow-up real dates
Texas Insurance Code chapter 542 puts each claim on a calendar, and TDI adds one for the lender:
- By the 15th day after notice of the claim, the insurer must acknowledge it, start investigating and ask for what it needs.
- By the 15th business day after it has everything it asked for, it must accept or reject the claim in writing, or by the 45th day if it says it needs more time.
- By the fifth business day after saying it will pay, it must pay.
- Within 10 days of getting the check, a mortgage company must contact the homeowner, and it has 10 days from getting the repair information to release money.
Each date is a reason to call with a real question, like whether the adjuster has been out or the first check has come. Use a filing deadline for urgency only when it’s in the homeowner’s policy. TDI says some policies give a year to file and TWIA wind and hail policies give a year from the date of damage, and no single rule covers every Texas policy. Outside Texas, look up whether your state or province sets deadlines like these.
I found no benchmark for how many follow-ups it takes or when to call a homeowner dead. Close rates posted in the threads I read include 18%, 20%, 40% and 65%, each counted a different way, so I won’t give you a target.
Sometimes your own office is the one that went quiet
When we put call tracking on the same DFW owner’s website in September, the first real call it logged was an existing customer chasing a callback about an inspection report that was already done. It’s one call, and in it the customer was the one waiting. When we pulled his CRM pipeline that month, 1 of 38 jobs marked as quoted had an estimate built in it. Some may have been written elsewhere, but the CRM couldn’t say what each homeowner had been given. At our first meeting in August he estimated it held about a thousand people who never got past an inspection, and he had no text follow-up in place. Missed Calls Cost Roofing Jobs: How Fast to Answer and How to Follow Up covers the first call back.
Start with the homeowners who had an inspection and never signed
Pull everyone who had an inspection this year and didn’t sign, and note four things for each: whether they got a written estimate, when someone last spoke to them, where their claim stands, and whether a permit has gone up on the house. In Dallas, for example, replacing a whole roof or large areas of one needs a re-roof permit, so a job that went to another roofer should leave a record. I haven’t tested whether the city’s online search shows who pulled it, and other cities set their own rules. Roofing CRM Software: What It Costs and When You Need One covers keeping that list.
If you’d like to see where you show up when homeowners search Google Maps, run Zentora’s free Google Maps heatmap. Pick your Google profile and a search, and in a few minutes you’ll see your rank at 49 points around your office.