Honey-Do Lists

What if John Grisham was available to handle your personal correspondence or Jeff Gordon to tune up your car? If you could use the best of the best for run-of-the-mills jobs—and the price was right—you’d certainly take advantage of the situation.

These days, remodeling is a bit like that. Many of the region’s best remodeling contractors—folks who’ve won national awards for spectacular whole-house makeovers—have some time on their hands. And rather than sit idle, a number of these credentialed pros are happy to apply their considerable skills to relatively simple home repair and home maintenance work.

“We have what we call a ‘honey-do list’,” says Jack McGrath of Jonathan McGrath Construction in Longwood. “We send out notices to our past clients and we offer ‘honey-do’ services. In fact, for one client we just hung a new mirror, fixed a gate and adjusted a couple of doors—and we spent less than a day.”

McGrath, owner of one of Central Florida’s oldest remodeling firms, isn’t alone. Taking on small jobs is an increasingly common theme for remodelers across Florida these days.

And while remodelers may be benefitting from expanding their offerings, homeowners are the real winners.

Instead of doing it yourself or an relying on itinerate handymen with dubious credentials, homeowners today can hire the region’s most talented and highly trained contractors to tackle projects such as painting, drywall repair, roof patching, cleaning out gutters, power washing or repairing wood rot.

Sure, it’s a bit like having Paula Dean in your kitchen preparing dinner or Brad Paisley in your living room singing “Happy Birthday” at your surprise party. Overkill, perhaps, but you’ll be sure the job will be done right.

We’re not necessarily talking about changing out a door knob or patching nail holes, of course. These 30-minute fixes may still be best left to a handyman who can charge less for a quick house call, contractors say.

But if you’ve just purchased a fixer-upper and need a minor bathroom redo, or if your outdated home needs new flooring or extra insulation in the attic, there might never be a better time to get your updates done by a qualified professional.

“I’ve done some jobs recently that I probably would’ve given to a handyman before,” says Orlando contractor Rick Eden of Eden Construction. Eden also notes that many homeowners are choosing smaller improvements rather than whole-house remodels.

“I’m finding that people are more careful with their money,” Eden says. “The kitchen seems to be where everyone is focused now. And we’re doing a fair amount of bathrooms that need to be updated.”

In addition, some homeowners also are taking advantage of the federal government’s energy-efficiency tax credits by upgrading air conditioning units, insulation and windows and changing out water-hogging kitchen and bath fixtures, experts say.

“We’ll do anything they need on the home once we have a client,” McGrath says. “We’re a full-service company. We’ve always done repairs for our past clients and quite often we don’t charge for it if they’re just adjustments.”

Maintaining relationships with previous customers makes sense for remodelers who get much of their work from repeat business or from referrals.

“We’ve always done minor repairs for our existing customers,” says remodeler Nathan Cross of NWC Construction in St. Cloud. “That’s why we say we build relationships for life. From now to the rest of your life, we want you to be able to call us. We’ve done little $700 jobs for our customers.”

Although Cross and many of his colleagues largely reserve the small jobs for existing customers, others will take on minor repairs for new customers as well. After all, they reason, an inexpensive fix-up project might result in a full-scale renovation assignment somewhere down the road.

In addition, many remodelers offer a “punch list” service, in which they inspect your home and create a list of repairs that are needed to prevent deterioration, enhance safety and preserve value.

In fact, if you’re selling a home, the fact that you’ve used a qualified professional remodeler for repairs can actually be an important selling point. ?

Although it may be tempting to hire a handyman who quotes the lowest price, hiring a licensed professional will offer the homeowner extra protection.

If you hire someone who is marginally qualified, the work may be poor quality and have to be redone. Or the worker could be injured on the job and have no insurance.

Homeowners sometimes don’t realize that comparing bids from remodeling companies and handymen is like comparing apples to oranges, say local contractors.

“Everybody has their place and there’s nothing wrong with a handyman,” McGrath says. “But it needs to come from a referral or a reliable source. Don’t hire anyone who just knocks on the door. He may not have insurance; he may or may not pay taxes.”

There’s a need for handymen, McGrath says, as long as they stay within their areas of expertise. “I think of it like this: I’m not going to use a surgeon to take my temperature but I don’t want a nurse to be doing the surgery. You’ve got to match the level of experience that you need with what you’re going to be doing to be efficient.”

While many homeowners remain nervous about the economy, now is the time to get a good price on a quality remodeling job, large or small.

“This is the time to remodel,” Eden says. “Interest rates are low. You can get everything cheaper.”

McGrath agrees. “This is an incredibly good time for anyone to renovate and there are several reasons,” he says. “One is that the only tradespeople that are left are the good ones. During the recession, the companies got rid of the dead weight and what’s left is the cream of the crop.”

McGrath also says that many remodelers have cut margins to the bone just to stay in business. Outstanding tradesepeople—who are available on short notice and eager for work—plus lower prices on most everything else means great deals on remodeling, McGrath notes.

But don’t expect the current situation to last forever, contractors say. In the past couple of months, there have been signs that the remodeling market is picking up steam. When major renovations become the norm again, and prices on everything from lumber to labor go back up, the bargain remodels will be over.

Remodelers are also benefitting from repairs needed on foreclosures and short sales. Although these homes are often in rough shape, they have attracted considerable interest from buyers seeking bargains.

In fact, surveys show that nearly half of existing home sales today are of properties that are considered distressed in some way. And the repairs required are often beyond the scope of handymen and do-it-yourselfers.

Eventually, however, the market will return to something approaching normal. When that happens, most remodelers will resume the magnificent makeovers on which they earned their reputations.

Says one longtime local remodeler: “Now is the time to sign us for a job, because we couldn’t have done it a year ago and probably won’t be able to do it a year from now.”