Anyone can call themselves a pro. Proving it is harder.
A licence number takes ten seconds to check and almost nobody checks it - which is precisely why the trade attracts people who would rather you did not. We are building the checks that do it for you. They are not running yet, so this page tells you exactly where we are, and then shows you how to run them yourself.
HomeMatchup does not yet verify contractors, and you should not treat a match here as a safety check. Today a company applies with its business details, trade and service area, and we pass your job to a small number of local companies. Your details go to those companies and nowhere else - that part is real. Licence, insurance and complaint checks are the standard we are building; each one will appear here with the date it was performed, and until it does we will not claim it. In the meantime, the six checks below are the ones we would run, and you can run them yourself in about ten minutes.
How do you check a contractor?
These are the checks we are building into the match. Until they run, here they are as a homeowner performs them - roughly ten minutes, and they remove most of the risk.
Look up the licence yourself
Ask for the number, then check it on your state contractor board's public register. Confirm the name matches the company, that it is active, and that the classification covers your job.
Get the insurance from the insurer
Ask for general liability and workers' comp certificates sent to you by the insurance agency directly. A PDF forwarded by the contractor proves nothing about whether the policy is live today.
Check the complaint history
Search the state board and your state attorney general for the business name and the owner's name. A company that rebranded after complaints still shows up under the old one.
Get the warranty in writing
The manufacturer covers the material; only the contractor covers the installation. Get the length, and what voids it, in the contract rather than in conversation.
Read the reviews about problems
Five-star reviews tell you little. Find the ones describing something going wrong and read how the company answered. That behaviour is what you are buying.
Compare three itemised quotes
Insist on line items, not one number. A quote well below the others almost always means a different scope rather than a better price.
What we do promise today
Your details are not sold
They go to the small number of local companies matched to your job, and nowhere else. Never onto a list, never to anyone who did not receive your job.
A few pros, not a phone storm
A handful of companies see your job, not everyone who bought the lead. That is the difference you feel in the first hour.
No pay-to-rank
A company cannot buy a better position in a match or in our rankings. Where we rank companies, the method is published and you can re-score them yourself.
We say what we have not built
This page told you we ran six checks that we do not run. It says so now instead, and every check will appear here dated as it goes live.
Where the editorial work is real.
The rankings and the cost data are researched, sourced and dated by a named team, and the method is published so you can re-run it. That is the part of this site you can lean on today.
Confirm the two things that actually protect you
In most disputes the layer that does the work is the contractor's own insurance and their written workmanship warranty. Confirm both before you sign, whoever introduced you - we are not yet in a position to confirm them for you. Tell us as well: a company's standing here depends on how it puts things right.
Get matched before you rush.
Free quotes from checked local pros.
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