What does "five per city" actually mean?

TradeCraft Builds accepts a maximum of five contractors per trade in each metropolitan area — five plumbers, five HVAC contractors, five electricians, and so on. Once the fifth slot in a trade fills, we stop selling that trade in that city to new contractors. As long as the existing five members stay active, no new direct competitor can buy in. If a member cancels, the slot reopens to the waitlist.

Who builds the website?

The senior team at Fifty & Five — the same agency that has built 222+ brands since 2008, including work in adjacent categories for Appliance Parts Pros, UTI Transportation, and Enterprise Holdings. AI accelerates production; senior strategists and creatives lead every build.

Is this AI-generated or human-built?

Both, by design. Brand judgment, copy direction, creative review, and customer relationships stay with the senior team that has built 222+ brands over eighteen years. AI handles the throughput — site production from intake, schema and AEO entity work, directory submissions across 40+ platforms, review automation, and monthly performance reports. The operating model is what makes a ten-day sprint at this price point possible without compromising on craft.

What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?

Answer Engine Optimization is the discipline of structuring a brand so that AI assistants — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude — cite it when answering buyer questions. When a homeowner asks "who is the best plumber in Orlando?", the AI returns a short list of named businesses. AEO engineers your presence to be one of them.

How long does the build take?

Ten calendar days from the moment intake is completed. Monopoly tier ships in seven. If the site is not live within ten days, the setup deposit is refunded in full.

What happens if I cancel?

The exclusive slot opens to the next contractor on the waitlist for that trade in that city. Cancellation is straightforward — we make it easy by design. The structural consequence is that the territory passes to a competitor, which is the intended retention mechanism of the model.

Is the setup deposit refundable?

The setup deposit is applied to the first month of service. If we do not deliver the live site within ten days of completed intake, the deposit is refunded in full.

How is this different from Angi, Thumbtack, or HomeAdvisor?

Lead marketplaces sell the same lead to three to five contractors at once; close rates run below 15%. TradeCraft Builds builds a property the contractor owns — domain, site, reviews — where leads arrive uncontested. Close rates typically run 40–60%.

What is included in the social media add-on?

For $499/month, the Fifty & Five social team produces and publishes twelve posts per month across Facebook, Instagram, and Google Business Profile. Captions written in the contractor's voice, approved monthly in five minutes. A separate Google Ads management add-on is also available at $399/month plus your ad spend.

Where is TradeCraft Builds based?

TradeCraft Builds is headquartered in Orlando, Florida, and operated by 5ifty & 5ive LLC. The parent agency Fifty & Five has operated out of Orlando since 2008.

Who owns TradeCraft Builds?

TradeCraft Builds is a product of 5ifty & 5ive LLC, founded by Lucas Vandenberg, who also founded the parent agency Fifty & Five in 2008.

What does TradeCraft Builds cost?

Three tiers: Territory ($499 setup + $699/month), Dominator ($999 setup + $999/month), Monopoly ($1,999 setup + $1,499/month). Setup deposits are applied to the first invoice. Optional add-ons: Social Media ($499/month) and Google Ads management ($399/month plus your ad spend). Annual contracts receive a two-month discount on any tier.

How does TradeCraft Builds compare to Scorpion or Hibu?

Scorpion and Hibu are large enterprise-scale agencies. They will sell to you and to the competitor across town. TradeCraft Builds is a productized, sprint-delivered offering with territory exclusivity (five contractors per trade per city) and Answer Engine Optimization as the lead discipline.

How does TradeCraft Builds compare to Angi or Thumbtack?

Angi and Thumbtack are lead marketplaces that sell the same inquiry to three to five contractors simultaneously, with close rates below 15%. TradeCraft Builds builds a digital presence the contractor owns; leads arrive uncontested and close at 40-60%.

Do I own my website at the end?

You own the brand, the copy, the domain, and all customer data and leads. The site is hosted on infrastructure we maintain as part of your monthly service, which keeps the SEO and AEO optimization current.

What if my city is not on the current list?

Twelve metropolitan areas are open at launch. Additional cities roll out across 2026. If your market is not yet open, reach out and we will prioritize it in the next launch wave.

Do you serve trades outside the five listed?

The current focus is plumbing, HVAC, handyman, electrical, and general contracting. Adjacent trades like roofing, painting, landscaping, and pool service are on the 2026 roadmap.

The TradeCraft Builds Methodology — How a 10-Day Sprint Delivers Agency-Grade Work

The operating model

TradeCraft Builds runs on a deliberate split between senior human judgment and AI-driven infrastructure. This is what makes a ten-day sprint at agency-grade quality possible at the stated price points. The judgment work stays with the senior team. The throughput work runs on infrastructure we built ourselves.

What the senior team does

Brand direction, tone of voice, conversion architecture, copy review, creative QA before launch, customer relationships, escalations, negative review responses, strategic recommendations and roadmap. These are the decisions that require eighteen years of agency judgment — the kind of work that Fifty & Five has done for 222+ businesses since 2008, including adjacent-category partners like Appliance Parts Pros, UTI Transportation, and Enterprise Holdings.

What the AI infrastructure does

Site generation from intake to a deployable build. Local SEO across the contractor’s city and target neighborhoods. Schema markup and Answer Engine Optimization entity work covering the seven AEO surfaces. Directory submissions across 40+ citation sources. Lead capture with SMS routing via Twilio. Review request automation. Monthly performance report generation pulling from Google Analytics 4, Google Search Console, and Google Business Profile Insights.

The 10-day sprint, day by day

Day 1 — Reserve and intake. The contractor selects trade and tier, pays the setup deposit, locks the exclusive city slot, and completes a focused fifteen-minute intake questionnaire. The 10-day clock starts when intake is returned.

Days 2 to 4 — Strategy and build. The senior team develops brand direction, writes copy for every page, and builds the full website. Every page is written for the contractor’s trade, city, and target customer — not assembled from a template.

Days 5 to 8 — SEO and AEO setup. Google Business Profile is created or claimed and submitted for verification. 40+ directory submissions are filed. Answer Engine Optimization entity work is configured for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Claude. Lead capture is wired to SMS. Review automation is connected.

Days 9 to 10 — Review and launch. The contractor reviews the complete build. Final refinements are applied. The site goes live on Day 10. Monthly management begins immediately. If the site is not live by Day 10 for any reason inside our control, the setup deposit is refunded in full. No conditions, no negotiation.

The six delivery disciplines

1. Custom website. A full multi-page site with services, neighborhoods, trust signals, and conversion architecture designed to the trade, the city, and the customer the contractor wants most.

2. Local SEO. City and neighborhood landing pages, optimized meta tags, schema markup, Google Business Profile sync, and submissions to the 40+ directory citation sources that influence local-pack rankings.

3. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). The seven AEO surfaces engineered for the contractor: trade-specific LocalBusiness schema, first-mention entity definitions, llms.txt, AI crawler allowlist, FAQPage schema, cross-site citation moat, and ongoing citation-rate monitoring. This is the discipline most contractors are not getting from any other agency.

4. Lead capture and routing. Every inquiry captured, scored by job value, and delivered to the contractor’s phone via SMS in real time. Automated follow-ups recover the leads that the contractor cannot reach immediately.

5. Reputation management. Automated review requests fire after every completed job. Positive reviews land on Google, Yelp, and Facebook. Negative feedback is flagged privately before it becomes public.

6. Monthly performance reporting. Plain-English performance reports covering traffic, rankings, leads, and revenue signals. No dashboards to learn. The contractor knows what worked, and what we are doing next.

The principle that holds it all together

Eighteen years of senior brand judgment, delivered at the speed and price that modern infrastructure makes possible — never at the speed that AI alone would settle for. The judgment is human. The throughput is modern. The combination is what makes this offering meaningfully different from both the templated DIY builders below us and the multi-month enterprise agencies above us.

Ready to put this to work in your city?

Five contractors per trade. Your slot stays yours while you’re an active member.

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