Methodology
HomeProsHQ lists home-service contractors vetted against publicly-available state and municipal licensing data. Each listing documents what we have verified, when we last verified it, and what we explicitly cannot verify on a homeowner's behalf.
Sources
Provider records are sourced from four categories of public or semi-public data:
- State contractor licensing boards — for license number, license type, status, bond posting, and the carrier of any required general-liability and workers-compensation insurance. State publishing varies widely; some states maintain comprehensive APIs, others publish only HTML lookup forms.
- Municipal contractor registries — where the city requires separate registration for specific trades or for work in the public right-of-way. Coverage is uneven by jurisdiction.
- Manufacturer-authorized installer lists — for HVAC, roofing, and window categories where major manufacturers (Carrier, Trane, GAF, Owens Corning, Pella, Andersen) maintain certified-installer directories. Authorization reflects training plus a sales relationship; it is not a quality endorsement but it indicates the installer is current on manufacturer-specific installation requirements.
- Better Business Bureau — for years-in-business signals and for surfacing publicly-filed customer complaints.
We do not accept paid placement. Provider corrections submitted through the contact page are verified against the upstream source before any listing change publishes.
Licensing scope and limits
A "licensed" badge in a listing reflects the most recent state contractor licensing board record showing the license as active. It does not verify:
- That the license covers the specific trade or service category the homeowner is hiring for. Some states issue narrow trade-specific licenses (HVAC vs general contractor vs plumbing); other states issue broad general-contractor licenses that cover most residential work.
- That the contractor's bond is in good standing and adequate to cover the project value.
- That municipal permits required for the specific project will be pulled correctly.
- That the contractor's license history is clean of past suspensions or violations not currently active.
For any meaningful hiring decision, verify the license number directly against the state board's live record. State-board lookup URLs are listed on the per-state pages on this site.
Refresh cadence
Listing data refreshes on a 90-day default cycle, with faster refreshes (30-day) where a state or municipal API supports incremental queries. Provider status can change between refreshes — licenses can lapse, insurance can drop, businesses can close — so any record older than 90 days carries an inherent staleness risk. The listing footer shows the last-verified date for the credentialing data and a separate last-updated date for the editorial commentary.
What we do not verify
The directory is a credentialing snapshot rather than a quality endorsement. We do not verify job quality on past work, project-management discipline, on-site safety practices, sub-contractor arrangements, change-order behavior, pricing fairness, or warranty performance. These are real and important hiring criteria, but they cannot be verified at scale from public data; they require homeowner-side reference checks, customer reviews, and direct conversations with the contractor and previous customers.
A correctly-licensed and insured contractor can still produce poor work on a specific job. The directory exists to filter out unlicensed and uninsured contractors at the gate; the homeowner's own due diligence (references, reviews, direct interview, written estimate review) handles the rest.
Coverage gaps
Cities and trades vary in coverage. Some states publish detailed contractor data through machine-readable APIs; others publish only HTML lookup forms that constrain refresh frequency. Some trades (HVAC, roofing) have strong manufacturer-authorized-installer data; others (handyman, general repair) have very little verifiable public data and are not listed at all. Where coverage is thin, the relevant city or trade page makes the gap explicit so a homeowner knows the directory is incomplete for their situation rather than that few contractors exist.
Frequently asked questions
Where does provider data come from?
Provider records combine state contractor licensing-board data, municipal contractor registries, manufacturer-authorized installer lists for HVAC and roofing categories, and Better Business Bureau directories. We do not accept payment for inclusion. Providers can submit corrections through the contact page.
How current is the data on a listing?
Listing data refreshes on a 90-day default cycle. Manufacturer-authorized installer lists (which change as installers earn or lose certifications) refresh more frequently when a feed is available. Each provider record shows the verification timestamp, and listings whose last-verified date is more than 90 days old are flagged.
What does "licensed" actually verify?
It means the state contractor licensing board's most recent published record showed the contractor's license as active at the last refresh. It does not verify that the license covers the specific trade or service category the homeowner is hiring for, that the bond is in good standing, or that any required municipal permits will be pulled. Verify license scope directly with the state board before signing a contract.
What does HomeProsHQ NOT verify?
We do not verify individual job quality, project-management reliability, on-site safety practices, sub-contractor arrangements, pricing accuracy, change-order discipline, or warranty performance. A correctly-licensed insured contractor can still produce poor work or take advantage of a homeowner on a specific project. The directory is a credentialing snapshot, not an endorsement of the work.
How should I use the directory before hiring?
Treat it as a starting screen: identify three providers with current credentials in the listing, then verify each one directly against the state board's live record, request proof-of-insurance certificates listing your address as additional insured for the duration of the project, and consult Google Reviews and BBB for customer experience. The combination of credentialing snapshot + direct verification + customer reputation produces a much better hiring decision than any single source.
Why are some cities listed in more detail than others?
Coverage depends on whether the state contractor licensing data is published in a machine-readable format and whether the municipality maintains its own contractor registry. Cities with strong state-level data publishing get more comprehensive listings; cities in states with thin publishing have fewer entries because we will not list contractors whose credentials we cannot verify against an upstream source.