You are about to hand someone five figures and the keys to your house. This is the fifteen minutes of homework that separates a good decision from an expensive one — and it applies to us as much as to anyone else.

1. Check the HIC registration

Anyone doing residential contracting on an existing one-to-four unit owner-occupied home in Massachusetts must hold a Home Improvement Contractor (HIC) registration. It is a consumer-protection registration, not a skills licence, and it matters for a specific reason: it is your route to the Guaranty Fund.

2. Understand what the Guaranty Fund does

If you hire a registered contractor, win a judgment against them, and cannot collect, the Guaranty Fund may reimburse you up to $25,000 (Mass.gov). If you hire an unregistered one, you have no access to it at all. That single fact is the strongest practical argument for checking.

3. Ask for two certificates, not one

• General liability — covers damage to your property. Ask to be named as an additional insured; it costs the contractor nothing.
• Workers compensation — covers injury to their crew on your property. This is the one that gets skipped, because it is expensive in Massachusetts. If a painter falls off a ladder on your house and there is no workers comp policy, the exposure can land on your homeowner’s policy.

Certificates should come from the insurance agent, not as a PDF forwarded by the contractor. Any legitimate company will arrange that in a day.

4. Read what the law already requires in your contract

For work over $1,000, Massachusetts requires a written contract containing:

• The contractor’s name, address and HIC registration number
• A complete description of the work and the materials
• Start and substantial completion dates
• Total price and the payment schedule
• A three-day right of rescission for contracts signed away from the contractor’s normal place of business
• Notice of the arbitration option

The deposit is capped. A contractor may not require more than one third of the total contract price up front, or the actual cost of special-order materials, whichever is greater (MGL c.142A §2). Final payment is due on completion, not before.

5. If the house predates 1978, ask about lead

See the lead paint guide. In short: ask whether the rules apply, ask to see the lead-safe licence, ask who the on-site certified supervisor will be, and ask for it as a line item.

6. Compare the proposals, not the prices

Put the three quotes side by side and check each one names:

• The specific product line and sheen, not “premium paint”
• The number of coats, in writing
• What surface preparation is included — scraping, sanding, priming bare wood, caulking
• What is excluded — this is where the cheap quote hides
• The warranty, in years and in writing, with what it covers
• Who your single point of contact is
• Clean-up obligations and property protection

Once those seven lines are filled in for all three, the prices usually make sense.