Verify if they are running a legit business.

Verify for how long they have been in business.

Ask for a writing proposal.

Never ever do business without a writing proposal and without a service agreement AKA Service Contract.

Service agreement is a guide which will tell you the products that will be used, how many pieces of plywood are included and the terms and conditions.

If your roofing contractor needs money to buy materials he is not a trusted roofing contractor. Unless it is a special shingle order and the contractor wants to make sure that you won’t back out.

Down Payment, How do we handle it? We only ask for the downpayment when the materials and our crews arrive. We don’t ask for money in advance unless it is a special shingle order.

Never ever write a check to a person, always write the check to the roofing company. Don’t take this recommendation lightly for numerous legal reasons especially if someone gets hurt in your house during the roofing installation.

Verify Insurance Certificate; are two insurance coverage the most important ones.

1- General Liability Insurance

2- Workers Compensation

How do you verify the Insurance Certificate information; every insurance certificate has the producer phone number and you can call and verify the coverages and if the policy is active.

Roofing has so many branches and takes years to develop and master certain roofing skills. Beware of those companies that are claiming that are shingles master installers and tile roofers are very few companies that can say that.

When the work is completed and you’re ready to make final payment make sure to ask for a non conditional waiver of lien. This can be a very helpful resource in case your roofing contractor didn’t pay the vendors and contractors.

Check references if you can call customers that have reviewed the business will be the ideal. Because if they’re lying regarding reviews means that is not trustworthy.

Verify in google if they have an office and a Google Business profile and reviews.

Check if your contractor is BBB accredited.

Check if they have an established location.

The reason that information is important, because you don’t to do business with a roofing company that is not established a roofer without an office is like hiring homeless and believe that he is going to be there on a rainy and freezing day, on the winter time when you roof is leaking and roofers doesn’t have business because the nature of the business, nobody wants to do roofs when is cold and freezing you need an established and dependable roofing contractor that you can count on.

What’s the reason that Google My Business Profile and Reviews are important?

Because now Google doesn’t let you create a Google Business Profile if you don’t have a commercial business address and the reviews are going to tell you if the company is legit and the work that he is doing.

The importance of Roofing Google Reviews

Roofing Google Reviews always will tell you a lot about your roofing contractor, will tell you about his business practices, how he resolved complaints and warranties, reputation and integrity.
Never associate integrity with numbers of reviews, because if he has a lot of reviews but he is buying those he is not a person of integrity and stays away from him.

When you read those reviews and you can tell the same writing style, 10 or 20 reviews write in the same day similar ethnicity on the google reviews name.

The Better Business Bureau is constantly monitoring businesses and their information is very accurate in the majority of the cases.. A trusted local roofing company understands how to maintain their overhead without sacrificing quality and basic things like an office and proper insurance coverage, a bad business owner will be too flashy with cars and eccentricities that end up out of business when not able to handle their lifestyle, so please never follow in the trap that they don’t have an office, don’t have insurance because they are trying to keep their overhead low and pass the savings into you.

If the business does not exist in BBB, could be because the business only has a few weeks of being created or doesn’t exist as a registered business. This is a small list of information that you will be receiving from the Better Business contractor profile.

How long they have been in business.

Numbers of complaints.

How they resolved their complaints.

Who owns the business?

1. The importance of the longevity of a business is that running a Roofing Company is very challenging and only the 80% of the roofing business will be survive to the first 5 years and only the 98% will be survive to the first 10 years and required a certain numbers of skills such as:

Be a good business administrator

People Management skills

Good Business practices

Product knowledge

Roofing Knowledge

Construction Knowledge

2. Numbers of complaints; always a business will be have a complaints, but beware if you see complaints very often for products and services in BBB what’s this is telling you that they are not very responsive on their complaints because you expect to file a complaint in BBB when is not resolved for your roofing company.

3. How they resolved their complaints; If the roofing company is not willing to resolve the customers complaints they don’t deserve your money and your business.

4. Who owns the business; In states like Texas Roofing is not a License Trade in other words anyone can have a roofing business without any type of expertise in the trade or business. At least with a BBB business profile you can have accurate information of who owns the business.

When you’re in the process of hiring your roofing contractor it is important that you make sure that your contractor is insured. This is something that you must take seriously because it is one of your duties as a policy holder.

Your homeowners insurance carrier literally can deny you coverage if you hire a roofing contractor and he is not insured or he is not properly insured in case that’s an accident or damage to your property resulting of the roof install, like a fire or if rains when the installation is in process and you don’t have the roof yet and your house get flooded, in most of the cases your coverage will be denied; every insurance certificate has the producer phone number and you can call and verify the coverage and if the policy is active.

Verify Insurance Certificate asking your roofing contractor for his declarations page and make sure that it’s not expired. After you receive and review the insurance declaration page is time to do your homework like calling the contractor insurance producer. These are two most important insurance coverage:

1. General Liability Insurance
2. Workers Compensation insurance

Keep in mind that there are several shingles manufacturers and some are basically contractor rewards programs. Other roofing shingles manufacturers like GAF take very seriously to whom they handle their credentials, especially their GAF Master Elite Certification.

The top shingles manufacturer that you can take seriously are: GAF and Owens Corning.

This Shingles Manufacturer has 2 levels of certification that are:

GAF

1. GAF Certified Contractor
2. GAF Master Elite

OWENS CORNING

1. Owens Corning Preferred Contractor
2. Owens Corning Platinum Contractor

In both shingles manufacturers have an entry level that the requirements qualifications to earn are very minimum like having an office, registered business, general liability insurance, etc.