Moving to Arkansas as a residential contractor: every state's rule

Arkansas licenses home builders statewide through the Residential Contractors Committee of the Arkansas Contractors Licensing Board, under Ark. Code Ann. § 17-25-501 et seq. A Residential Building Contractor license covers new construction of a single-family residence of one to four units, and a Residential Remodeler license covers alterations, additions, repairs and demolition on an existing single-family residence; either is required once the cost of the work, including labor and material, exceeds $2,000, and that threshold cannot be avoided by splitting a job into smaller contracts. The license belongs to the business rather than the person: it is issued to an individual, corporation, LLC, partnership, LP or LLP and is supported by a qualifying party, an owner, officer, actively engaged member or full-time employee who personally passes the examination, so an inbound builder applies as or for the entity that will sign contracts. Eligibility rests on four years of verifiable building experience for a builder license or two years for a remodeler license, evidenced by three references from people who have seen the work, plus the Arkansas Business and Law examination, a compiled balance sheet showing positive net worth, and workers' compensation cover if the business has employees. An applicant who already holds a substantially equivalent license in good standing in another jurisdiction does not have to demonstrate experience at all, and five states have signed reciprocal agreements that go further and waive the examination as well. A commercial license issued by the Board automatically authorizes residential work in the same classification, so some inbound contractors need only one license.