Contractor questions

Five questions we hear on every bid walk.

Plain-language answers to the objections that come up before a contractor runs their first check. No legalese — just what the report does, where the data comes from, and what each verdict means for how you bid.

Why not just ask for references?

References are great when the client has them — and we weigh them too. But references only cover past jobs the client wants you to see, and a curated shortlist tells you very little about how the rest of their projects played out. An outside check reads court filings, payment postings, and permit history that the client doesn't curate, so the picture doesn't depend on how chatty they are.

What if the client is a first-time homeowner with no history?

That's exactly the case the check is built for — the verdict will often come back as a clean Go with a thin file. A short history just means fewer signals to flag, not a worse client, and the price is the same per check whether the file is thick or thin. You still get the property-side checks on the address itself, so the home's record does most of the talking.

How fresh is the data — is a clean result the same as safe?

Every line on the report carries a filing date, and the homeowner can pre-register their project through Attest so their own record picks up new activity before you bid. A clean Go is a 'no red flags today' read — not a guarantee — and why it isn't a guarantee is worth understanding before you stake your margin on it.

What if the client finds out I ran a check on them?

That's fine — and it's the whole point. TradeSafeJobs is built on Attest, the public channel where the homeowner pre-registers the project and sees the same public-record pull you'd see on your side. So the check isn't a back-channel snooping step; the client already knows it's part of how bids are vetted, and the data you read is the data they can read too.

What does TradeSafeJobs actually check?

The check sweeps five signal categories: open liens and judgments on the property, court filings on the owner, permit and code-case history at the address, contractor-board complaints where the GC is the subject, and payment-posting patterns from prior jobs. Each line item on the report names the source, the filing date, and the signal category it belongs to, so you can read the verdict line by line and decide for yourself.