Contractor Vetting Checklist
Vet the general contractor on a construction or rehab loan before you close
Install it in one line — paste a single command into Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor and it writes the skill into your project.
Free, and about thirty seconds: a work email and a six-digit code.
Downloading shares your name, firm, role, and email with The Helvetica Group. That introduction is what keeps every skill here free.
What this skill does
Checks out the contractor who will actually spend your construction money — license, insurance, past work, how many jobs they already have going, the contract, and any liens or lawsuits — and gives you a rating and a list of what to require before closing.
What it does
- Walks through license and business-entity verification at the source, and checks that every name matches
- Reviews insurance certificates and lists what to confirm with the agent
- Checks completed projects and gives reference questions that surface real problems, including calls to suppliers
- Compares the contractor's current workload with the size of this job
- Explains who carries cost-overrun risk under the contract type, and sets out the lien, judgment and lawsuit searches to run on past jobs
When to use it
- A construction or rehab loan is in underwriting
- The borrower is using a contractor you have not worked with
- The borrower wants to act as their own general contractor
- You need a replacement contractor on a stalled project
What to have ready
- The contractor's exact legal name and license details
- Certificates of insurance
- The bid or construction contract
- A list of completed and current projects
How to use it
- Download it with the button above. You'll sign in with a work email — that's how the creator knows who is using their skill.
- Copy the install prompt from the "Run it in Claude" box, and paste it into Claude along with the file. Claude installs the skill, fills in your firm's details where the file has
[BRACKETED]placeholders, and runs a quick test with you. - Then just ask in plain English. Claude picks the skill up on its own when a request matches it. Anything it still needs, it asks you for — it won't invent a number.
"Vet [CONTRACTOR NAME] for the [PROJECT TYPE] at [ADDRESS] — bid is [AMOUNT], license [LICENSE NUMBER] in [STATE], COI attached."
What you get back
A contractor vetting report rated acceptable, acceptable with conditions, or not acceptable, showing what was verified and where, what was not checked, numbered conditions, and a draft request list for the borrower.
Good to know
- Output quality tracks input quality. A missing figure is flagged as missing — it is never estimated to fill a gap.
- Every draft is a starting point for your own review, not a finished decision.
- Runs anywhere Claude does: the Claude app, Claude Desktop, or Claude Code.
- It treats licensing, insurance exemptions and lien rules as state-specific, and marks any search not actually run as not checked rather than clear.
Legal disclaimer
This skill drafts; it does not decide. Its output is not legal, tax, accounting, appraisal, or investment advice, and using it creates no attorney-client, fiduciary, or advisory relationship. Nothing it produces is a commitment to lend or an offer to sell a security. Verify every number, date, citation, and conclusion against the source documents, and have a qualified professional licensed in the relevant jurisdiction review the work before you rely on it or send it to a borrower, investor, counterparty, or regulator. Laws, rates, and market data change. The final work product is yours.
Inside this skill
The actual file you get. Members can read it in full before saving it.
Contractor Vetting Checklist
On a construction or rehab loan the lender is underwriting two borrowers: the one who signs the note and the one who actually spends the money. A strong sponsor with a weak contractor still ends in a stalled job, a pile of subcontractor liens, and a cost-to-complete nobody budgeted. Most contractor failures were visible before closing — an expired license, a certificate of insurance for the wrong entity, six jobs running with one superintendent, or a "fixed price" contract with every risky item carved out as an allowance. This skill checks those things in order and tells the lender what to require.
Works for: general contractors and builders on ground-up, heavy rehab, and fix-and-flip loans, and borrowers acting as their own general contractor. Pair it with ground-up-construction-underwriter at underwriting and stalled-project-rescue-plan when vetting a replacement contractor.
Step 1 — Intake
| Input | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor legal name and entity | ✅ | Exact name — the license, insurance, contract, and bank account must all match it |
| Project and scope | ✅ | Type, size, budget, schedule; the job the contractor is being vetted for |
| License information | ✅ | License number, issuing agency, classification. Verify with the agency, not from a document |
| Certificates of insurance | ✅ | General liability, workers' compensation (or exemption), auto; umbrella if any |
| Bid or construction contract | ✅ | Price, contract type, schedule, allowances, exclusions, change-order and payment terms |
| Completed-project list | ✅ | Addresses, size, completion dates, owner or lender contacts |
| Current jobs | ✅ | Every active job, size, stage, and who supervises it |
| References | Helpful | At least two owners or lenders and two suppliers or subcontractors (illustrative default) |
| Relationship to borrower | ✅ | Arm's length, affiliated, or the borrower itself |
| Contractor financials | Helpful | For larger jobs: financial statements, bank reference, or bonding capacity |
Minimum viable: exact legal name, license details, insurance certificates, and the bid or contract. Without the contract you cannot judge who carries overrun risk — say so.
Step 2 — License and entity
Licensing is set by each state and sometimes by the city or county, and some jurisdictions do not
Reading the full skill counts as a download. The contributor receives your name, company, and email.
Ratings & reviews
No written reviews yet. If you run this on a live file, say how it went. The next lender reading this page is deciding whether to trust it.
Examination record
Run it in Claude
- Copy the install command above
- Paste it into Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor
- It writes the skill in, fills in your firm’s details, and test-runs it with you
Prefer the file? The prompt above is for a package you already downloaded.
Details
More from The Helvetica Group
They publish here under a verified work email. Their other skills, and how to reach them, are on their contributor page.