How to vet a contractor in Michigan before you sign anything

Most renovation horror stories are hiring failures, not construction failures. The work went wrong because the wrong person got hired, and almost every warning was visible before the contract was signed. Here is what to actually check.

1. Verify the builder license yourself

Michigan requires a residential builder license for most work over a small dollar threshold. The Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs publishes a public license lookup. Search the company name, confirm the license is active rather than expired or cancelled, and confirm the name on the license matches the name on the quote. A contractor who hesitates to give you their license number has told you something.

2. Ask for the certificate of insurance directly from the insurer

General liability and workers compensation both matter, and a screenshot of a policy is not verification. Ask for a certificate of insurance sent from the agent, listing you as certificate holder. If an uninsured worker is hurt on your property, your homeowners policy is the next thing anyone looks at.

3. Get three quotes, then throw out the cheapest reflexively

Not because cheap is always bad, but because a quote well under the others usually means a scope that is missing something. Compare what each one includes rather than the number at the bottom. If one bid excludes permits, disposal, or the electrical work the job obviously requires, it is not actually cheaper.

4. Read the scope, not the price

A real scope of work names materials, quantities and allowances. Vague language is where change orders are born. "Install tile" is not a scope. "Install owner selected tile at a $6 per square foot allowance, 180 square feet, standard offset pattern" is one.

5. Understand allowances

An allowance is a placeholder for something you have not selected yet. It is normal and useful, but it is also how a quote gets artificially low. Ask what each allowance actually buys at current prices, and whether it is realistic for what you have described wanting.

6. Keep the deposit reasonable

A deposit covering materials and mobilization is standard. A demand for half the job before anyone shows up is not. Payment should be tied to milestones you can see, with a final payment held until the punch list is closed and any final inspection has passed.

7. Confirm who pulls the permit

The licensed contractor should pull it. If a contractor asks you to pull the permit as the homeowner, understand what that means: you have just become the responsible party for code compliance on your own project, and their license is no longer attached to the work. This is a common way unlicensed work gets done legally on paper.

8. Ask for recent addresses, not just references

References are pre selected. Ask instead for the addresses of the last three jobs of a similar type and when they finished. A contractor doing good work will not mind. Photos help, but photos are also the easiest thing to borrow from someone else.

9. Watch for these specific signals

• Pressure to decide today, or a price that expires this week
• Cash only, or a discount for paying without a contract
• No written scope, or a quote that fits on one line
• Reluctance to provide license number or insurance certificate
• Door to door solicitation after a storm
• Asking you to pull the permit
• No physical business address or a phone number that is only ever a voicemail

What a good contract contains

Names and addresses of both parties, the license number, a detailed scope, a materials and allowance list, a payment schedule tied to milestones, a start date and estimated completion, how change orders are handled and priced, warranty terms, and how either party can cancel. Michigan also provides a right to cancel window on many home solicitation sales, so read the cancellation clause rather than assuming.

None of this guarantees a good outcome. It does eliminate most of the ways a project goes badly wrong, and it takes an afternoon.