Atlanta-based Home Depot is expanding the reach of its online handyman referral service Redbeacon to more states, the service’s chief executive officer said recently.

The platform, created by three Google veterans, lets Home Depot customers search and book pre-screened contractors for home maintenance, repair and remodeling needs. Readbeacon, which Home Depot acquired in January 2012, is based in San Mateo, Calif.

After its expansion over the next two years, the Redbeacon service, which is currently available in metro Atlanta and other major cities, will be available in 11 states, CEO Anthony Rodio told Bloomberg News last week.

Redbeacon was founded in 2008 by Yaron Binur, who led product development at Google News, Aaron Lee, a founding engineer at Google Video and Ethan Anderson, who launched and managed Google Video. Binur is now president of Redbeacon and Lee is chief technical officer. Anderson left the company to start MyTime, which allows users to find and book open appointments online.

Pros make up a small percentage of Home Depot customers but are responsible for a third of its sales, the company told the AJC last year. The pro referral service is partly designed to encourage pros to do more of their shopping at the retailer by providing incentives in the form of points that can be used to pay for Redbeacon jobs.

Redbeacon uses a proprietary algorithm to recommend professionals, who undergo extensive background checks, the service said. Home Depot stands behind the work.

Investors' buying binge drives metro home sales

Investment companies are snatching up a large chunk of the most desirable and reasonably priced homes on the market in metro Atlanta, a buying trend that has some observers anxious.

According to a premium report by business reporter Arielle Kass in the Sunday edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, investment companies, rather than individuals, have bought nearly 40,000 homes across metro Atlanta in the past 18 months.

Not only did the companies account for one in four purchases in the first quarter of this year, compared with one in 10 a year earlier, according to data from RealtyTrac, 13 counties in Georgia have the largest impact on sales among the top 25 nationally. The top six are in metro Atlanta.

A short-term benefit of the investor sales has been a rise in home prices. Such sales also have benefited communities hit hard by foreclosures and homes left in derelict conditions. The rise in prices, however, also has placed homes out of reach for some individual buyers and has put a squeeze on available homes on the market.

There is also concern about the impact on communities if the housing market slows and investors suddenly become scarce. Don’t miss Kass’ report, and check out this related premium story about how investors make their choices

Nominate your workplace for top honors

For those of you who think you work for a great company, why not nominate it for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s fourth annual Top Workplaces recognition. Nominations are open to all businesses, including nonprofits, with at least 50 employees in a 15-county metro region. The counties are: Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Coweta, Hall, Henry, Paulding, Rockdale and Walton. To nominate your company, go to: ajc.com/go/topworkplaces or call 404-671-9425. Deadline for nominations is Oct. 25. A special section will be published in the AJC in March.