The repairs that have to happen before the sign goes in the yard.
Two lists decide whether a sale goes smoothly: the one you make before the photos, and the one the buyer's inspector makes after. Both are the same shape — a pile of small, unrelated jobs on somebody else's deadline. That is the entire reason this business exists.
Licensed & insured Works to your date One invoice
Small stuff reads as neglect
A buyer standing in your hallway can't see the roof you replaced. They can see the door that sticks, the cracked switch plate, the closet rod on the floor and the caulk going black around the tub. None of those are expensive. All of them quietly answer the question what else has been let go? — and that is the question that moves an offer.
Your deadline is the photo shoot
People plan repairs around the closing date and then discover the listing photos are Thursday. Whatever isn't fixed by then is what the whole internet sees for as long as the house is on the market. Working backwards from the photographer, not the closing, is usually the single most useful scheduling decision a seller makes.
Repair credits are negotiated, repairs aren't
Once an item lands on a buyer's request list it stops being a repair and becomes a negotiation — and the number a buyer wants credited is rarely the number it costs to fix. Handling the obvious ones before anyone writes them down keeps the conversation about the house instead of about a list.
Straight about what that is and isn't: this is my opinion from working on houses, not a market statistic. Nobody on this site will tell you a repair returns a specific percentage — I don't have that number and neither does anyone quoting it at you.
List, walk, two columns, one push.
Same sequence whether you're prepping to list or working an inspection report at the back end of a contract.
Send me the list — or the report
A note on your phone works. So does a photo of your agent's punch list, or the inspection report itself as a PDF. Tell me the date you're working to in the same message; it changes what I recommend more than anything else on the list does.
I walk it once
An inspection report is not a repair list I can price from the page — it is a list of observations, some of which take ten minutes and some of which are a specialist's job. I'd rather stand in front of them once than guess at fourteen line items and be wrong about six.
Two columns back to you
Must-fix, and worth-fixing. Must-fix is what a buyer or a lender is going to make an issue of. Worth-fixing is what changes how the house shows. You draw the line between them — I won't quietly bundle the second column into the first.
Quote against your date
Most seller punch lists land inside a half day or a full day. If your date isn't achievable you'll hear that immediately, along with which items I'd do first if we only get one visit.
One visit, one invoice, one list back
Worked top to bottom, with a written list of what got done and what didn't — which is a document you or your agent can hand straight to the other side.
You’ll get a text when I’m on my way. Useful when the house is already empty, or when you're coordinating around a showing.
Not everything on an inspection report is mine
Reports routinely flag the roof, the panel, the water heater and the HVAC. Those are licensed trades and I don't perform them — what I do is scope the job, bring in a licensed specialist from my network and stay your one point of contact, which on a closing clock is usually worth more than the repair itself. Here's exactly how that works. Everything else on a typical report — the drywall, the doors, the trim, the caulk, the loose railing, the missing hardware, the deck board — is straightforwardly mine.
Before you list beats after you're under contract
The same repair costs the same either way, but the pressure doesn't. Pre-listing, you choose what gets done and when. Post-inspection, you're doing it against a contingency deadline with a buyer's agent counting days — and every trade in town is busy in exactly that window.
Ask me before you repaint the whole house
Sellers routinely spend money on the wrong end of the list. A whole-house repaint is a bigger crew's job and a bigger crew's price; patch-and-touch-up on the six walls a buyer actually walks past is often the honest answer. I'll tell you which one your house is, including when the answer is "this one is worth doing properly and it isn't my scope."
Disclosure is your side of the table
Fixing something doesn't erase it, and what you're required to disclose in a Florida sale is a question for your agent or your attorney, not your handyman. What I'll give you is a written record of what I did, so if it comes up you have a clear answer instead of a vague one.
The list nobody wants to schedule, on your listing's clock.
You already know the problem: eleven small items, six trades, and none of them will drive out for one thing. I'll take the whole list. What you get from me is a scope and a number before anything starts, one invoice at the end, and a straight answer when something on the list isn't mine — you'll hear "that's an electrician" from me before you hear it from the buyer's inspector.
I'd rather turn down two items on a list of twelve than take all twelve and hand you a problem three days before closing.
What agents usually send me
- Pre-listing punch lists off a walkthrough
- Inspection-report items, minus the licensed-trade ones
- Doors, windows and hardware that don't operate
- Drywall, trim and paint touch-up before photos
- Caulk, grout and the bathroom details buyers photograph
- Deck boards, railings, gates and exterior odds and ends
Vacant listing, occupied listing, or a rental you're about to put on the market — the last one is a turnover, same shape of job.
Straight version.
A seller's list is a punch list with a date attached, and punch lists are the thing this business was built around rather than the thing it squeezes in between bigger jobs. You get one person for the whole list instead of six voicemails, the price confirmed before anything starts, and an honest split between what actually matters to a buyer and what you'd only be doing to feel busy.
Licensed and insured, owner-operated, based in Pensacola. Free estimates, and anything that isn't mine gets named as such before I start — not after your closing date has moved.
Got a date on the calendar?
Send me the list or the report and the date you're working to. You'll get a scope, a number, and an honest note about anything on it that isn't mine.