Before you sign with a Phoenix contractor or partner, check them

Homeowner looking at an unfinished Phoenix kitchen remodel, a reason to check a contractor before signing

Phoenix keeps growing, and money follows growth. Remodels in Arcadia, restaurant buildouts in the Warehouse District, small investors putting cash into someone's flip in Maryvale or South Phoenix. Most of those deals go fine. The ones that don't usually share a cause: someone trusted a stranger because the stranger seemed confident and the paperwork looked official.

Due diligence just means checking before you trust. You can do the first layer yourself in an evening. A private investigator is worth bringing in when the money is serious or something in that first layer feels off.

The checks you can do tonight

Contractors

Arizona contractors are licensed by the Registrar of Contractors. Get the contractor's ROC number from their bid, their website or the side of their truck, and look it up on the Registrar's site. Check that the name on the license matches the person or company you are hiring, and that the license covers the kind of work you need. A pool license does not cover a kitchen.

Companies

For any business, look the entity up with the Arizona Corporation Commission. The record shows the legal name, whether the entity is active and in good standing, its formation date and its statutory agent. A company that was formed two weeks ago, or one that is listed as inactive, is not automatically a scam. It is a reason to ask a question.

Court records

Search the person's name and the company name in public court records. The Maricopa County justice courts have an online case search, and the Arizona courts' public access system covers many other courts. You are looking for patterns: several small-claims cases from customers, judgments from suppliers, a string of evictions, a prior business partner suing over money.

One lawsuit means very little. Seven means something.

When it's time for a private investigator

The do-it-yourself layer has blind spots. Names are common. Records are scattered across counties and states. People who have burned investors before sometimes change company names every couple of years.

A licensed private investigator is worth it when:

the amount at stake would hurt you badly to lose
the person's history is mostly outside Arizona
the story you've been told doesn't quite line up with what you found
you need a written report you can show a lawyer, a lender or a co-investor

What they add is mostly depth and confirmation. They can tie a person to prior companies under different names, find out-of-state judgments and liens, confirm whether claimed past projects actually exist, and sometimes talk to former customers or partners. In Phoenix, that last part can be as simple as driving past the "finished" project on the list of references and seeing whether it's a finished building or an empty lot.

What a good report looks like

You want facts with sources. "Entity X, formed in 2023, inactive since 2025, statutory agent at this address" is useful. So is "three civil judgments, listed below with case numbers." A report full of adjectives and no case numbers is not.

You also want the investigator to tell you what they could not confirm. A good private investigator will say plainly that a claimed reference never called back or that no record could be found for a degree. Gaps are information too.

Where the law draws lines

Background work runs into privacy law, and a careful investigator works inside it. They will not pull someone's credit report without a legally permitted purpose, get into bank records by pretending to be the account holder, or access accounts they have no right to. If you are checking a person for a job rather than a deal, federal consumer reporting rules may apply, and you should ask a lawyer or the investigator how they handle that before you start.

Finding a private investigator in Phoenix

Every private investigator listed on Served & Found in Arizona is a member of the Arizona Association of Licensed Private Investigators. You can confirm any license through the Department of Public Safety, and our guide on checking an Arizona private investigator license walks through it.

Firms working in the city are on the Phoenix private investigators page, including Harter Investigations. If the deal has already gone wrong and you are heading to court, our piece on serving a Phoenix business explains who can accept the papers. The Phoenix town page has the rest.

Start with the license number or the exact company name. If the other side won't give you either, that tells you most of what you need.

See the board: everyone in Phoenix · private investigators only.