The $80 background check rule that saved me from a nightmare remodel

I almost took on a big kitchen reno from a guy who seemed great on the phone. Then I spent $80 on a basic court records search and found he had two active liens from other contractors. He even tried to pay me 50% upfront in cash, which I realized later was a red flag, not a blessing. That $80 felt painful at the time but it kept me out of a 6 month payment fight. Now I run one on every new customer before I even send a quote, cheap insurance if you ask me. Anyone else had a small cost that paid off way bigger than it should have?

2 comments

2 Comments

nancyramirez4d ago

Three years back I ran a lien search on a property flipper and found out he had a judgment from a flooring supplier in another state, not just a lien. That turned up a pattern of him dissolving LLCs every 18 months to dodge payments. The $80 search basically showed me his whole playbook before I ever stepped foot on the job. Now I tell my clients to check the actual court records, not just the credit report, because those don't always show contractor liens. I also look up the business entity status on the state website, costs nothing, but it weeds out folks who are one bad job away from shutting down. That little bit of digging saved me from a 4 month wait on a bathroom tile job.

the_mary4d ago

That $80 search paid for itself a hundred times over, and I bet most folks would be shocked how often the state entity records show a contractor with three or four dissolved LLCs all under the same owner. @nancyramirez is spot on about court records too, I've seen a credit report look clean while a separate county judgment tells the real story, so it's worth the extra ten minutes every single time.