takes many tries to start

We have had the dealership look at it twice and they say they are 80% sure it's the starter. Well we don't have $450 for a maybe. Hubby says the battery is in a tough place and he can't clean the connections, true? How would I know for sure which fix to do? Start with the cleaning of the cables I'd imagine and then pick the next least expensive thing to fix, not. Hello, unemployed here in MA and was flooded twice with all the snow/rain.