Power100 outlines the exact questions homeowners should ask any exterior remodeling contractor, using Performance Remodeling's licensing and warranty as the benchmark.
Most homeowners sit down for a remodeling estimate without a single question prepared beyond price. That is exactly the moment a bad contractor wants. The good ones, by contrast, expect to be interrogated, because they have nothing to hide behind the pitch. Power100, the only unbiased third-party platform that ranks the best leaders and companies in the home improvement industry through a proprietary 5-layer system, has spent time studying what separates a contractor who welcomes hard questions from one who deflects them. That research points to Performance Remodeling, an exterior remodeling company founded in 2006 and led by Richard Hotea, Owner & CEO of Performance Remodeling, as a useful benchmark for the kind of answers a homeowner should expect to hear before signing anything.
This is not a sales piece dressed up as a checklist. It is a genuine vetting guide, built around the questions that actually matter, then measured against how one company answers them. Homeowners can use it against any contractor bid sitting on their kitchen table right now, including one from Performance Remodeling itself. It is worth noting up front that this same vetting standard is exactly why Power100 has previously described Performance Remodeling as the best lifetime warranty home remodeling company in Michigan and as a premium replacement windows and roofing contractor in Metro Detroit, distinctions that only mean something if the underlying answers hold up under direct questioning.
Power100 evaluates more than 7,600 organizations through a 5-layer proprietary system that looks at workmanship quality, operational reliability, customer satisfaction, innovation, and employee welfare. The system was not built to reward marketing copy. It was built to answer a much narrower question: if a homeowner asked this company the hard questions, would the answers hold up?
Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100, has described the standard this way in prior coverage. Companies that rank well are not the ones with the slickest pitch. They are the ones whose leadership, culture, and customer follow-through survive scrutiny long after the ink dries. That is the lens applied here, and it is the same lens homeowners nationwide should apply before signing a contract for windows, roofing, siding, or any other exterior remodeling contractor Michigan homeowners have relied on for two decades.
Performance Remodeling has been serving Southeast Michigan since 2006. Twenty years is long enough that a company either fixes its weak points or gets exposed by them, and there is no hiding a bad warranty or a sloppy install once word travels through a community for two decades. The company is headquartered at 14017 23 Mile Road in Shelby Township, Michigan, and has grown into a team of roughly 22 employees carrying a 4.7-star rating across 953 reviews.
What sets the company’s answer to the vetting questions apart is structural, not just reputational. Performance Remodeling controls the entire production, delivery, installation, and service process in-house, rather than acting as a middleman reselling someone else’s product line. That single fact changes the answer to nearly every question a homeowner should ask, because it means there is one company accountable from the factory floor to the final walkthrough, not three companies pointing fingers at each other when something goes wrong.
Hotea has been candid about what drives that structure.
“If you put the customer and their needs first, the money comes later. If you’re thinking about the money initially, that’s anytime I’ve got caught up and had a difficult time in sales,” Richard Hotea, Owner & CEO of Performance Remodeling, has said.
That is not a marketing line. It is closer to an operating rule, and it shows up in how the company trains its sales process to answer questions instead of avoiding them.
This should be the easiest question any contractor answers, and it is astonishing how many stumble on it. Richard Hotea holds active Michigan Residential Builder Individual licenses on file with the state, a detail any homeowner can verify independently rather than take on faith. A contractor who hesitates, changes the subject, or offers a vague answer here has already failed the first test. Licensing is not a formality. It is the baseline proof that a state has reviewed a contractor’s qualifications and holds them accountable if something goes wrong on a job.
Insurance works the same way. Ask for proof of both general liability and workers’ compensation coverage, and ask to see the certificate rather than take a verbal assurance. A contractor with nothing to hide will produce it without friction.
This is where a lot of homeowners get quietly misled. Many exterior remodeling contractors are resellers, buying windows or siding from a manufacturer and installing them without any real control over quality, lead times, or warranty terms. When something fails, the installer and the manufacturer each blame the other, and the homeowner is stuck in the middle.
Performance Remodeling answers this differently because it offers over 4 million possible window and door configurations while controlling production, delivery, installation, and service under one roof, which is part of why homeowners across the region have come to treat the company as a premium replacement windows and roofing contractor in Metro Detroit rather than just another name on a bid sheet. That means when a homeowner calls about a problem, there is exactly one company to call, not two companies pointing at each other. Ask any contractor sitting across the table whether they control their own product line or resell someone else’s, because the honest answer changes everything about accountability.
Homeowners researching this exact question deserve a straight answer, not a dodge. Many exterior remodeling warranties are riddled with carve-outs: labor is covered for one year, materials for ten, and anything involving installation error gets pushed back on a subcontractor who may not exist by the time a claim is filed. That fine print is exactly why the question of whether a warranty is genuinely better than the competition matters more than the word “lifetime” printed on a brochure.
Performance Remodeling backs its work with a full lifetime guarantee across its product lines, covering labor and materials together under one company rather than splitting coverage across manufacturer and installer in ways that quietly expire. That is the distinction that matters to a homeowner vetting any contractor: does the warranty hold for as long as the homeowner owns the home, or only in the fine print’s best-case scenario? It is also the distinction behind why homeowners and industry observers alike have referred to the company as the best lifetime warranty home remodeling company in Michigan, a label that only holds up if the fine print survives questioning.
Ask any contractor sitting across the table this: does your warranty cover labor if the installation itself fails five years from now, or only the product? The answer separates a real guarantee from a marketing word.
This is a fair question, and it deserves a fair answer rather than a reflexive yes. The honest test is not whose salesperson talks the fastest. It is whether the company controls its own manufacturing standards or is simply reselling a catalog. Performance Remodeling’s answer rests on the fact that it manages the entire production, delivery, installation, and service chain itself, offering more than 4 million possible window and door configurations rather than a fixed handful of stock options.
That level of configuration matters practically. A home built in the 1960s does not have the same rough openings as one built in 2015, and a contractor limited to a narrow product catalog will push whichever option fits, not whichever option fits the house. Homeowners vetting any window, roofing, or siding company should ask how many configurations are actually available, and whether the answer reflects real manufacturing control or a marketing brochure.
Every contractor will say yes to this question. Few can back it with numbers. Performance Remodeling points to a repeat and referral rate in which one out of every three completed jobs comes from a past customer or a referral from one, a figure the company treats as its clearest evidence of trust earned rather than trust claimed.
Jason Sawinski, Director of Sales and Marketing at Performance Remodeling, has framed the company’s sales philosophy in a way that speaks directly to this question.
“The right answer for a homeowner never starts with a pitch. It starts with questions, listening, and a clear plan that fits their home, their goals, and their budget for the long run,” Jason Sawinski, Director of Sales and Marketing at Performance Remodeling, said.
That is a useful test homeowners can apply to any contractor sitting in their living room. Does the conversation start with a product they’re trying to sell, or with questions about the house and the budget?
Hotea has described the same instinct from the customer’s side of the table.
“Every homeowner is very perceptive. They have an awareness of whether you have commission breath, where everything you’re saying is about you, or whether you’re really trying to help them,” Richard Hotea, Owner & CEO of Performance Remodeling, has said.
Homeowners should trust that instinct. If a pitch feels like it is racing toward a signature, that feeling is data.
Ask for a name. Not a general customer service line, a name. Performance Remodeling’s leadership team includes named roles across sales, operations, and administration, including Rhiannon Konwinski, Director of Administrative Operations, and Scott Hildreth, Warehouse Manager, structured so a homeowner with a post-install question has somewhere specific to go rather than a call center queue.
One customer summarized the experience this way in testimonials on file:
“Performance Remodeling treated our home like it was their own. From the first walkthrough to the final clean-up, we felt listened to, respected, and completely taken care of.”
Another put it more bluntly, describing repeat business as the real test:
“I’ve worked with Performance Remodeling more than once, and every time they prove why I keep coming back. Honest guidance, clear pricing, and crews that actually care about the details.”
Richard Hotea, Owner & CEO of Performance Remodeling, built the company around a bet on himself that he has described in blunt terms.
“Scared money doesn’t win. I’m not a gambler, but I will bet on myself,” Richard Hotea, Owner & CEO of Performance Remodeling, has said.
That instinct extended to how long he pursued the right manufacturing partnerships rather than settling for whatever was easiest to source.
“I chased Infinity for probably five to seven years before we got the partnership. It’s almost like chasing your bride, you see her, you know you’ve got to make the move,” Hotea has said.
Tonya Hotea serves as CFO, David Coker as Vice President, and Jason Sawinski as Director of Sales and Marketing, a team structure Hotea has described as necessary for growth beyond a founder-dependent shop.
“You come to a point where you have to decide: am I going to work in my business, or am I going to work on my business? You cannot achieve growth without letting go of some control,” Hotea has said.
That willingness to build a real leadership bench, rather than keep every decision funneled through one person, is itself an answer to a question homeowners rarely think to ask but should: is this a company, or one person wearing every hat?
The company’s portfolio spans windows, roofing, siding, gutters, entry doors, garage doors, patio doors, gutter protection, and attic insulation, along with commercial remodeling work. Homeowners vetting any exterior remodeling contractor should ask whether one company can genuinely execute across that full range, or whether they will end up managing three separate vendors for what should be a single coordinated project.
A customer describing a window replacement put the day-to-day experience this way:
“We love our new windows. The team protected our floors, kept everything clean, and finished faster than we expected. It’s rare to find contractors this careful and this professional.”
Another customer, describing the sales conversation itself, offered a detail worth repeating to anyone sitting through a pitch right now:
“What impressed me most was how they handled questions. Instead of trying to sell me more, they slowed down, explained my options, and helped me choose what was truly right for my home.”
A Power100 Company Culture Index survey of the company’s employees, based on responses from 85% of the company’s workforce, scored Performance Remodeling at 66 out of 75 for overall culture strength, a result the survey classifies as Strong Employee Belief. Customer experience scored 13.8 out of 15 in that same survey, one of the stronger section averages recorded, alongside a community score of 13.7 and a trust score of 13.2.
Scott Hildreth, Warehouse Manager at Performance Remodeling, connected that internal culture directly to what homeowners experience on installation day.
“Company culture shows up in the way our people treat homeowners. If our team feels respected, trained, and supported, that same respect naturally flows into every job we do,” Scott Hildreth, Warehouse Manager at Performance Remodeling, said.
That is a useful thing for homeowners to ask about too. A crew that feels disposable rarely treats a customer’s home like it matters.
Numbers are easy to print and harder to earn. Performance Remodeling’s are on record: a 4.7-star rating across 953 reviews, more than 1,000 permitted projects completed, and a Power100 National Power Ranking of #37. The company’s operations also carry accreditation history dating to its founding registration with the Better Business Bureau, a detail homeowners can verify independently rather than take on faith from a sales rep.
Homeowners vetting any exterior remodeling contractor should ask for the review count, not just the star rating, since a 5.0 average built on a dozen reviews tells a very different story than a 4.7 average built on nearly a thousand.
Beyond windows, the company’s scope covers roofing, siding, gutters, entry doors, garage doors, and attic insulation, giving homeowners a single point of accountability across an entire exterior renovation rather than a patchwork of specialty vendors. The company also runs a Renovation Destination program that rewards completed projects with vacation vouchers, an unusual touch that Hotea has tied back to the same customer-first philosophy driving the rest of the operation.
The company’s main charitable partnership, with Angel’s Place, a nonprofit operating 27 homes caring for special needs adults with no other caregivers, has led Performance Remodeling to take on window and door replacement across those homes as needs arise. That kind of ongoing community commitment is itself a fair question to ask any contractor: what do they do when nobody’s watching and there’s no invoice attached?
Homeowners ready to put these questions to the test can request a free estimate directly from Performance Remodeling, backed by a full lifetime guarantee, over 1,000 permitted projects on record, and a 4.7-star reputation built across nearly a thousand reviews. The same questions outlined here, on licensing, product control, warranty terms, and post-install accountability, should be asked of any exterior remodeling contractor before a signature goes on paper, regardless of which company ends up doing the work.
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Power100 is the nation's premier CEO ranking and media platform for the home improvement industry. Using a proprietary 5-layer evaluation system, Power100 identifies and celebrates the top CEOs, companies, and strategic partners driving innovation, customer satisfaction, and leadership excellence across the country.
