Editorial Standards & Verification Process

License Verification

Every contractor must hold an active, valid state license

How We Verify Licenses

Daily Automated Scraping: We scrape state licensing databases including Florida DBPR and Texas TDLR to capture real-time license status, expiration dates, and disciplinary actions.
Expiration Monitoring: Our system runs a daily cron job at 2:00 AM UTC to check license expiration dates. Providers with expired licenses are immediately hidden from search results.
Kill Switch Protection: If a license expires, becomes inactive, or shows disciplinary action, the provider's profile is automatically removed from all public directories until the issue is resolved.
Re-verification Cycle: Licenses are re-scraped every 24 hours to ensure ongoing compliance. We normalize and fuzzy-match scraped data to existing providers to maintain data integrity.

All license data is sourced directly from official state regulatory agencies. We do not accept self-reported license information without verification against the primary source database.

Insurance Verification

Proof of adequate insurance protects homeowners from liability

How We Verify Insurance

Certificate of Insurance (COI) Upload: Contractors must upload a valid Certificate of Insurance (COI) showing general liability coverage of at least $1,000,000 per occurrence.
Manual Review Process: Our team manually reviews each COI to verify policy numbers, coverage amounts, effective dates, and that the contractor is listed as the named insured.
Minimum Coverage Requirement: We require $1M minimum general liability coverage. Contractors with additional coverage (errors & omissions, workers' comp, pollution liability) receive higher tier rankings.
Expiration Tracking: Insurance expiration dates are tracked in our system. Contractors receive reminders 30 days before expiration to upload renewed policies.

Uninsured contractors are marked as Tier C and clearly labeled as "Unverified Insurance" on their profile. We recommend homeowners only hire insured professionals to protect against property damage and liability.

Rating & Review Verification

Real customer reviews from Google Places API

How We Verify Ratings

Google Places API Integration: All ratings and reviews are pulled directly from Google Places API. We do not host our own review system to prevent manipulation.
Minimum Review Threshold: To qualify as "Rated" (Tier A), contractors must have at least 5 reviews with a 4.0+ star average. This prevents single glowing reviews from inflating rankings.
Weekly Sync Schedule: Ratings are synced from Google Places weekly via background jobs. This keeps reviews fresh without overloading API quotas.
No Self-Reporting: Contractors cannot edit their own ratings. All review data is read-only from Google's authoritative database.

We rely on Google's spam detection and review verification processes. If Google removes a review for policy violations, it automatically disappears from our platform on the next sync.

Three-Tier Ranking System

Transparent rankings based on verification level

Tier A: Fully Verified

Requirements: Active license + $1M+ insurance + 4.0+ stars (5+ reviews)

Tier A contractors have passed all three verification checks and demonstrate proven quality through customer reviews. These are the most trusted professionals on the platform.

Tier B: Licensed & Insured

Requirements: Active license + $1M+ insurance (insufficient reviews)

Tier B contractors meet legal and insurance requirements but don't yet have enough reviews to qualify for Tier A. They may be newer businesses or operating in areas with less online review activity.

Tier C: Licensed Only

Requirements: Active license only (unverified or no insurance)

Tier C contractors hold valid licenses but have not uploaded proof of insurance. We recommend homeowners request proof of insurance before hiring and verify coverage directly with the insurer.

Important: The tier system is calculated automatically by our backend system based on real-time verification data. Contractors cannot pay to improve their tier - rankings are 100% merit-based.

Data Freshness & Update Frequency

How often we refresh verification data

Update Schedule

License Scraping: Daily at 2:00 AM UTC via Apify actors (FL DBPR, TX TDLR)
License Expiration Checks: Daily cron job scans all licenses for expiration
Rating Sync: Weekly background job pulls latest reviews from Google Places API
Insurance Verification: Manual review within 48 hours of COI upload
Tier Recalculation: Triggered automatically after any trust signal change (license update, insurance approval, new reviews)

All scraping and enrichment tasks are orchestrated via Inngest background jobs to ensure reliability and error handling. If a scrape fails, the system automatically retries with exponential backoff.

Data Source Transparency

We believe in full transparency about where our data comes from:

• State Licenses: FL DBPR, TX TDLR (official state databases)
• Business Information: Google Places API, Sunbiz (FL Secretary of State)
• Ratings & Reviews: Google Places API only (no proprietary reviews)
• Insurance: Direct uploads from contractors (manually verified by our team)

Questions About Our Verification Process?

We're committed to transparency. If you have questions about how we verify contractors or want to report an issue with a provider's credentials, please contact us.

Contact Our Team