Consumer reporter Roseanne Colletti shows how a new rating service in the tri-state area that can help you avoid the wrong person for the job, and find the right one.

Angie's List is not new, but is new to our area. There are a lot of reliable contractors and craftsmen out there, but sometimes finding one is more a matter of luck. One homeowner we met had run out of luck.

It sits on a pretty street in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, but the picture inside Niko Diehm's townhouse isn't so pretty. Diehm said he bought the ailing property two years ago with big plans to renovate. But so far, those big plans have become a big, and expensive, pain.

"We've had two contractors walk off the job and so we're on our third now," said Diehm.

The wiring isn't finished and the plumbing isn't done. There are no doors or floors, and Diehm, his wife and his child are still squeezed into a one-bedroom apartment a few blocks away.

"Now we're almost two years into it and we're out almost double what it was supposed to cost us in renovations," said Diehm. "And we still don't have a house."

Getting personal recommendations is the best way to avoid a disaster like this -- something no homeowner or apartment dweller wants. Now there is a new service in the tri-state area to help check out references.

Angie's List is an online subscription service that rates more than 250 home-related businesses from contractors, to pet care.

"It's all based on consumer experience -- who gets A's and who gets F's and what the consumer experience is," said Angie Hicks of Angie's List.

The woman behind the list said she started with door-to-door subscriptions in Columbus, Ohio, 11 years ago. Angie's List is now in 39 cities and is just expanding to the tri-state.

"Before we even opened in New York, we surveyed thousands of consumers in the area, to get their ratings on plumbers and electricians and handymen," said Hicks. "And we already have ratings on about 16,000 companies in the tri-state area."

Subscribers can look up businesses and see how consumers grade them. They can also can post grades of their own -- something not lost on new subscriber Diehm. "I put my last contractor on Angie's List so if somebody else goes looking for him and wants to compare people, you can do that, too," said Diehm.

Angie's List is not free. Subscribers pay $5.95 a month. Right now there is a free trial period for consumers in the tri-state area.