Run these seven checks before you dial. Each one takes under a minute, and any single failure is reason enough to keep looking.
1. Pull up the profile and read the "in business since" or profile age indicator. If the business claims 15 years of experience but the profile shows activity starting eight months ago, that gap is the whole story.
2. Copy the listed address into Google Maps Street View. Look at what's actually there. A real contractor has a shop, a yard, a house, or at minimum a residential address that matches a name. A UPS Store, a vacant lot, or a shared virtual office suite is a warning.
Checks 3 through 5: The Review Timeline
3. Sort reviews by "newest" and then by "lowest rated." Read the one-star reviews first, not the five-star ones. Look specifically for the owner's replies. A contractor who responds to a bad review with a defensive rant is showing you exactly how they'll treat you during a dispute.
4. Check the dates on the five-star reviews. If 20 glowing reviews all landed within the same two-week window, they were bought or solicited in a batch. Healthy review timelines are spread out — a few a month, year over year.
5. Click on the reviewer profiles for the most enthusiastic reviews. A reviewer with exactly one review ever written, posted the same week the profile filled up, is a fake account. Real customers have review histories for restaurants, shops, and other services.
The reviews that matter aren't the perfect ones. They're the two-star reviews where the owner actually shows up in the replies.— common advice from consumer protection offices
Checks 6 and 7: License and Cross-Reference
6. Find the license or registration number — it should be listed in the profile description or on the linked website. Then plug it into your state's contractor license lookup (search "[your state] contractor license lookup"). Confirm the number is active, matches the business name, and has no suspensions or complaints attached.
7. Ask for the physical business documents before you meet: a copy of their license, proof of general liability insurance, and a W-9. A legitimate operator sends these without hesitation. Stalling, excuses, or "I'll bring it to the walkthrough" is a tell.
The One Red Flag in Almost Every Bad Hire
A Google Business Profile that was created within the last few months — with a fresh flood of reviews and a mailbox-store address — is the single most reliable signal of a bad hire.
Contractors don't rebuild their online presence from scratch because business is good. They do it to bury the old profile: the one with the lawsuits in the reviews, the license complaints, the customers who never got their deposits back. A brand-new profile isn't proof of a new business. Often it's proof of an old one that needed to disappear.
When the profile checks out but you still want a layer of protection between your money and the work, the smartest move is to never hand over a full deposit up front. Match with contractors who agree to hold your payment in escrow, so funds only release when the job meets the terms you both agreed to.