We asked AI 1,200 times which builder to hire.
73% never came up.
Original research across 15 US metros. 235 small builders and remodelers, each confirmed by hand, checked against every answer.
Most local builders never come up in AI search. We asked Perplexity 10 buyer questions, 8 times each, in 15 US metros in September 2026, for 1,200 answers. 171 of 235 confirmed local builders, 73%, were never named. No cost question named any company, so those questions are open to whoever answers them plainly first.
We asked an AI search engine 1,200 questions about hiring a builder in 15 US cities. Most of the local builders we checked never came up once.
Ten questions a homeowner asks before hiring a builder or remodeler. Each one asked eight times in every city, because an AI answer changes from one ask to the next. Every answer stored word for word.
Then we took 235 small residential builders and remodelers in those cities, each one confirmed by a person reading its website, and counted how often each was named.
The numbers
Perplexity, September 10 to 11, 2026. 15 metros, 10 questions, 8 asks each.
| Measure | Result | Read it as |
|---|---|---|
| Confirmed local builders never named | 171 of 235 | 73% never appeared in 80 answers about their own city |
| Range across the 15 metros | 58% to 93% | No city was close to even |
| Builders named at all who were named in 8 or more answers | 49 of 64 | Once a builder is named, it keeps getting named |
| "What does a remodel cost per square foot?" answers that named a company | 0 of 120 | The first question a buyer asks has no company in it |
| "Who is the best custom home builder?" answers that named a company | 120 of 120 | Every time, from a short list |
| Distinct companies named per city across all "who is best" answers | About 40 | That is the whole shortlist for a metro |
What we found
Most local builders are invisible in AI answers about their own city
Each builder had 80 chances to be named: ten questions about hiring a builder in its own metro, eight asks each. 171 of 235 were never named once. The best city in the set left 58% of its builders out. The worst left out 93%.
These were real, working firms with websites. A person read every one to confirm it builds or remodels homes. Being invisible here is not about being small or new. It is the default.
What this means for a builder: a homeowner who asks AI for a builder in your city is very likely getting a list you are not on, and you have no way to see it happen.
Visibility is close to all or nothing
Of the 64 builders that were named at least once, 49 were named in 8 or more of their 80 answers. The median named builder showed up 8 times. Only 5 were named just once or twice.
In this data, the engine either knows a builder well enough to recommend it repeatedly, or it does not mention the builder at all. That makes a one-time spot check misleading in both directions. Ask once and miss, and you might be on the list. Ask once and hit, and you might have caught a rare mention.
The practical test: ask the same question at least eight times before deciding where you stand.
The questions buyers ask first name nobody
Questions shaped like "who is the best" named a company almost every time: 93% to 100% of answers. The questions that come earlier in a project named almost no one.
- "What does a whole-home remodel cost per square foot?" 0 of 120 answers named a company.
- "What does a custom home cost per square foot?" No company named when we read the answers by hand.
- "What should I look for when hiring a home builder?" About 5% named one.
The engine still answered. All 240 cost answers gave dollar figures. None of them named a company to call.
Why this is the opening: on "who is best", a builder competes with about 40 names already on the list. On cost and planning questions, the list is empty in every city we tested. We cannot promise that publishing a clear local cost answer gets a builder named. It is the only slot we measured where nobody is in the way.
Each city's AI shortlist is about 40 companies long
Across all 48 "who is best" answers in a metro, the engine named roughly 40 different companies. Each metro in our source data held about 400 firms tagged as builders or remodelers, before we filtered out the ones that were not.
The shortlist also rotates less than it looks. The five most-named companies took close to 30% of all mentions in a typical city.
What this means: the question for a builder is not "how do I rank higher". It is "how do I get onto a list of 40 that the engine keeps returning to".
The ten questions
Asked in every metro, with the city name filled in. Eight asks each.
| Question | Named a company |
|---|---|
| Who is the best custom home builder in [city]? | 100% |
| Who are the top luxury home builders in [city]? | 100% |
| Which builders in [city] specialize in ADUs and home additions? | 100% |
| Who are the most trusted kitchen and bathroom remodelers in [city]? | 100% |
| Who is the best design-build remodeling firm in [city]? | 98% |
| Who is the best general contractor in [city]? | 93% |
| How long does a whole-home remodel take in [city] and what permits are required? | About 33% |
| What should I look for when hiring a home builder in [city]? | About 5% |
| What does a custom home cost per square foot in [city]? | 0% (by hand) |
| What does a whole-home remodel cost per square foot in [city]? | 0% |
Metros: Austin, Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Nashville, Orange County, Phoenix, Portland, Raleigh, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, Seattle and Tampa.
How we ran it, and what it does not show
Read this before quoting any number above.
Every answer came from Perplexity's API with web search on, which is how it runs by default. That is a close proxy for the consumer app, not the same thing. We did not measure ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI Overviews here. Results on those engines may differ.
We started from small companies (1 to 50 employees) tagged as home builders, custom home builders, remodelers or design-build firms in a commercial B2B database. Tags like these are unreliable, so a person read each firm's website and kept only residential builders and remodelers: 235 of 579 screened. Commercial contractors, designers, roofers and agencies were dropped. Firms without a working website never made the list, so if anything this sample is easier for an engine to find than the average builder.
A builder counts as named when its company name appears in the answer text. The share of answers naming any company, and the count of about 40 companies per city, come from automated name extraction and are approximate. The cost-question results were checked by reading the answers.
Confirmed builders per metro ranged from 4 to 33, so we report the overall rate and the range, not a ranking of cities. No individual firm is named on this page. They are small businesses that did not ask to be part of a study.
Run the same check on your own business
You do not need a tool for a first read. Pick the three questions a buyer in your market asks before they call anyone. Ask each one eight times in the AI assistant your customers actually use, in fresh chats. Write down every company named.
Or start with the free AI Visibility Check. It asks once and reads your site, so treat it as a first look, not the eight-ask read described here.
If you never appear, you are with the 73%. If competitors appear in most answers and you appear in none, you now know exactly which questions to work on.
This study was run with the same tracking MarqueeOS uses for client work: repeated asks, every answer stored, named and cited counted separately. Cite it as MarqueeOS, "Which Local Builders Does AI Name?", October 2026, and link to this page.
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