Don't Become Another
Contractor Horror Story.
Run a Carfax on Your Contractor Before You Hire.
Scout searches licenses, insurance, permits, lawsuits, reviews, public records, ownership history, and more — so you know exactly who you're hiring before signing a contract.
Powered by authoritative public-record sources
- State License Boards
- CourtListener
- OSHA
- DOL WHISARD
- Shovels Permits
- BBB
- Secretary of State
- Yelp · Google
Scout's Promise
Scout does the searching. You make the decision.
Hiring a contractor is one of the biggest financial decisions most families will ever make.
Scout was built to organize public information into one easy-to-understand report so you can spend less time researching and more time making confident decisions.
How it works
Three steps to confidence.
Enter your contractor's information.
Business name, phone number, website, license number, or address. Whatever you have, Scout works with it.
Scout investigates.
Scout searches connected public sources, licensing databases, business records, review platforms, permits, and other publicly available information.
Receive your BuildSafe Report.
A clear, color-coded report covering identity, license, business registration, BBB, reviews, court & lien indicators, permits, online presence, and Scout's recommendation.
What's in every report
13 forensic modules. One investigation.
Scout doesn't scrape a single page — he runs parallel deep-crawls across state license boards, federal courts, OSHA, DOL, BBB, Yelp, Google, permit databases, and corporate registries, then synthesizes the evidence with citations.
State board record pulled directly (TX, CA, OR, WA, FL).
CourtListener federal + state dockets, judgments, liens.
Shovels nationwide permit data — finalized, open, expired, failed inspections.
Shovels co-applicant mapping — who they actually work with.
Federal OSHA safety violations & inspection history.
Wage theft, back-pay judgments, federal DOL WHISARD data.
Rating, accreditation, complaint detail.
Headless review extraction, not just snippets.
Patterns, complaint themes, sentiment vs. volume.
Entity status, registered agent, principals, formation date.
Press hits, owner attribution, social presence.
Weekly re-scan with diff alerts on material changes.
Scout's evidence-weighted score and forensic verdict.
Sample report
What a BuildSafe report looks like.
Overall BuildSafe Score
Apex Construction LLC
Direct state-board record returned an active license with no disciplinary history. Shovels permit data shows 217 finalized permits across 14 subcontractor partners and no failed inspections. One settled court matter from 2019; no open OSHA or DOL judgments. Review NLP across 412 Yelp + Google reviews shows consistent communication signal. Scout recommends standard contract diligence and proof-of-insurance confirmation before signing.
BuildSafe surfaced an OSHA citation and two failed inspections the contractor never disclosed. Saved our flip from a $40k mistake.
We run every roofing vendor through Scout before approving claims. The license-board pull plus DOL wage records is exactly the diligence our adjusters needed.
The court & lien check caught a judgment that didn't show on Google. Plain-English verdict made it easy to walk away politely.
Pricing
One simple price. No confusing packages.
Scouts Contractor Investigation™
- Direct License Board Audit
- Court & Docket Search (CourtListener)
- Permit History (Shovels)
- Subcontractor Network Mapping
- OSHA Citations
- DOL Wage & Hour Records
- BBB / Yelp / Google deep crawl
- Review NLP Analysis
- Secretary of State + News / Social
- Weighted Trust Score + Scout Verdict
Professional plans
For teams who investigate contractors every week.
Scout Pro
- 25 Scouts Contractor Investigations™ / month
- Snapshot monitoring with weekly diff alerts
- Additional reports discounted
- Priority processing
- Dashboard with saved reports
- Export PDFs · Share reports
- Team accounts
Scout Enterprise
- Unlimited usage
- BuildSafe API access (Starter / Growth / Scale)
- Webhook callbacks + snapshot feeds
- Organization dashboard · multiple users
- Custom branding & white-label PDFs
- Priority support + dedicated onboarding
- SLA + named CSM (Scale tier)
Why BuildSafe
Confidence, trust, and transparency.
Hire with Confidence
Know exactly who you're hiring before you sign.
Reduce Risk
Surface red flags before they become expensive problems.
Protect Your Investment
Make a major financial decision with clear information.
Built for Homeowners
Plain-English reports anyone can understand.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
- What is a BuildSafe contractor background check?
- A BuildSafe report is a forensic investigation of any U.S. contractor. Scout pulls the contractor's state license-board record, court & lien filings, OSHA citations, DOL wage judgments, building permits, sex-offender / felony registries, BBB, Yelp, and Google review intelligence into one cited $79 report — usually in under 5 minutes.
- How much does a contractor background check cost?
- One Scouts Contractor Investigation™ is $79. Scout Pro is $199/month for unlimited investigations and auto-monitoring. Developers can hit the same engine through our API starting at $299/month.
- How long does a report take?
- Most BuildSafe reports finish in under five minutes. Deep court-record or multi-county permit pulls occasionally take longer; you'll see live progress for each of the 13 forensic modules as Scout works.
- What data sources does Scout investigate?
- 13 modules: state license boards, Secretary of State, CourtListener federal & state dockets, mechanics liens, OSHA citations, DOL wage-theft judgments, Shovels permit history, subcontractor network, sex offender & felony registries, BBB complaints, Yelp, Google Business, and Scout's full public-source web sweep.
- Is BuildSafe legal? Is this a credit / FCRA background check?
- Yes — BuildSafe only uses publicly available records and information you provide. We are not a consumer reporting agency under the FCRA and reports cannot be used for credit, employment, tenancy, or insurance decisions.
- What's a Trust Score and Scout's Verdict?
- Trust Score is a 0–100 weighted score combining license status, court history, OSHA, DOL, complaints, and review signal. Scout's Verdict is a one-line plain-English recommendation (Hire with Confidence, Proceed with Caution, or Do Not Hire) backed by the Top 5 Findings and direct evidence links.
- Can I share or download the report?
- Yes — every report has a public share link and a print-ready PDF export with all 13 modules, citations, and the Scout Verdict intact.
- What if Scout can't verify a contractor?
- "Unable to verify" is treated very differently from "Verified" — Scout will explicitly flag missing license records, mismatched names, or data sources that returned nothing, so you know exactly what was checked and what wasn't.
- Do you monitor contractors after the report?
- Scout Pro and API customers can enable auto-monitoring: Scout re-runs the investigation weekly and emails you when something material changes (new lawsuit, license lapse, OSHA citation, etc.).
- Does BuildSafe work in my state?
- Yes — Scout works in every U.S. state. We have deep direct-board adapters for TX, CA, FL, OR, and WA, with NY and the rest of the country covered through Secretary of State, court, permit, OSHA, and DOL pulls.
Before you hire a contractor, let Scout investigate.
Get your BuildSafe Report in minutes. One simple price.