{
  "edition": 2026,
  "title": "The Northern Virginia Home Service Report, 2026 edition",
  "publisher": "SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing, 4230 Lafayette Center Dr N, Chantilly, VA 20151 (Virginia Class A contractor license 2705192276). The publisher is one of the companies compared; its row is marked Publisher.",
  "frozen": "2026-10-05",
  "publishes": "2027-01",
  "categories_chosen_by": "Owner, 2026-10-05: review strength, locally owned, price transparency, HVAC and plumbing under one roof. The categories were chosen before any company was scored; the results were not.",
  "area": "Companies holding an active Virginia contractor license that advertise heating, cooling or plumbing service in Fairfax, Loudoun or Prince William County, or the cities inside them.",
  "freshness": "Every figure is read within 30 days before publication, dated, and linked. Google profiles are read on Google; licenses on Virginia DPOR's License Lookup; entities on the Virginia SCC's Clerk's Information System.",
  "categories": [
    {
      "key": "review-strength",
      "name": "Review strength",
      "question": "Which companies have the strongest Google reviews, counting both how high and how many?",
      "factors": [
        {"name": "Google rating on each of the company's Google Business Profiles", "weight": "Weighted by that profile's review count", "source": "Each profile on Google, read and dated"},
        {"name": "Review count across those profiles", "weight": "Adds confidence: a 4.9 from 900 outranks a 5.0 from 40", "source": "Same reads"},
        {"name": "Score", "weight": "(sum of rating × count + 4.3 × 75) ÷ (total count + 75)", "source": "The 4.3 and 75 pull small samples toward the area's typical rating, the same adjustment the network's score.py uses"}
      ],
      "minimum": "At least 100 Google reviews across the company's profiles and an active Virginia contractor license.",
      "ties": "Equal scores share a rank; listed by review count."
    },
    {
      "key": "locally-owned",
      "name": "Locally owned",
      "question": "Which independently owned companies have the strongest reviews?",
      "factors": [
        {"name": "Ownership", "weight": "Eligibility, yes or no", "source": "Virginia DPOR license holder of record, Virginia SCC entity record, and the company's own disclosures. Companies owned by private-equity groups, franchise systems or national corporations are listed separately with their owner named and the source linked."},
        {"name": "Review strength score", "weight": "Ranks the eligible companies", "source": "Category 1"}
      ],
      "minimum": "Independent ownership confirmed in public records, at least 100 Google reviews, an active Virginia contractor license.",
      "ties": "As category 1."
    },
    {
      "key": "price-transparency",
      "name": "Price transparency",
      "question": "Which companies tell you what a job costs before you call?",
      "factors": [
        {"name": "Published prices for common jobs on the company's own site", "weight": "50 points, yes or no", "source": "The company's site, visited, dated and screenshotted"},
        {"name": "A working online estimator or price calculator that returns a price", "weight": "50 points, yes or no", "source": "Same visit; the estimator is run with a standard example job"},
        {"name": "Review strength score", "weight": "Breaks ties", "source": "Category 1"}
      ],
      "minimum": "An active Virginia contractor license and a site we could check within 30 days of publication.",
      "ties": "Broken by the category 1 score."
    },
    {
      "key": "one-roof",
      "name": "HVAC and plumbing under one roof",
      "question": "Which companies are licensed for both heating and cooling and plumbing, and how do their reviews compare?",
      "factors": [
        {"name": "Licensed for both trades", "weight": "Eligibility, yes or no", "source": "Virginia DPOR License Lookup: HVAC and plumbing specialties on the company's contractor license"},
        {"name": "Review strength score", "weight": "Ranks the eligible companies", "source": "Category 1"}
      ],
      "minimum": "Both specialties on an active Virginia contractor license and at least 100 Google reviews.",
      "ties": "As category 1."
    }
  ],
  "gate": "An edition publishes only when the research gate in seo-network/engine/gate.py passes: the publisher's own record may not be researched more deeply than the others (no more than 3 sources above the dataset's median), at least 60 percent of companies fully verified, no more than 40 percent seed records, every rating sourced, no tie covering 40 percent of the field. If it fails, the edition waits.",
  "_changelog": ["2026-10-05 — Frozen before any scoring, from the master prompt's candidate list and the owner's four picks."]
}