So I sold my house and the buyers requested some repairs be made. And at the bottom it says all work must be done by licensed contractors. Got all done but one. There’s some small spots of wood rot on the bottom of my rear patio post.
The guy I got to do it is a handy man, I could not find anyone to do it. He is is not a licensed contractor. I called 15 diffrent places. My real estate agent was the one who told me to get a handy man

In this market? Tell buyer to pay his home inspector to reinspect, the repairs made or take a walk.

I am selling a little house in PA.  The local .gov requires a sewer line test and replacement if it fails.  Normally the seller has to complete this work, but my buyer has agreed to pay for it and do it.  Almost zero chance it will pass.

So we are getting ready to close and the local .gov sends a letter stating that the sidewalk in front of house must be re-poured and leveled before title can transfer.  My first thought was WTF are you talking about.  

Anyway I told the realtor I am not doing it.  The buyer has agreed to handle and pay for this now also.

It is a sellers market, don't agree to pay for anything.  

AS IS WHERE IS is my moto.

In this market i wouldn't do anything.  You'll be fine with the handyman.

4 years ago I sold a house. Buyers hired the most picky inspector (yet the dumbest inspector) I've ever dealt with. The moron flooded the basement during his inspection somehow. Called out the hairline cracks in the driveway as a major issue, among many other things.

Buyers asked me to fix about 80 different things, some of them severely retarded, such as a small low spot in the yard, and they wanted me to pay for a full cleaning and inspection of the wood stove and chimney and shampoo all the carpets (75% of the carpet was brand new). I picked out about 10 things that would be easy to fix (including replacing the caulk around the tub and fixing the low spot in the yard) and told them that is ALL I would fix. They took it. I went over on a Saturday afternoon,  dumped a bucket of dirt in the yard and sprinkled some seed on it, caulked the tub, put some sealer in the hairline crack on the driveway, fixed other small crap I can't recall and called them to let them know they could re-inspect. Retarded inspector said it was all good. Haha


But on your point. Of ALL the stupid things they asked for, none of them specified a licensed contractor EXCEPT replacing a faulty gfci outlet on the back patio and they demanded to see a receipt for that one. Good thing I have a friend that is licensed. He just stopped by one day as he was in the area and did it while it was live (house was empty and locked up). He charged me $40 and wrote a receipt to satisfy them.

I do repairs for sellers/realtors all the time. The inspection report always says work by a licensed contractor, they honesty don't care who does it just as long as the list is complete.

Use it as an excuse to back out and sell to somebody else for more money.

My agent needed the work done by a licensed contractor for my fix it list. Luckily I know a guy that just signed off on my work.  They needed the invoice from a licensed contractor with license number.  Not sure if that requirement varies by state or not.

It is important to remember that you still own the house.

If your not willing to pay for a contractor to do the repairs you can offer to do them your self or not do them at all if the buyer doesn’t like it they are the ones that will be out thousands in inspections and surveys and such should they choose to back out. Not you.

I could put in a demand stating that all repairs must be performed by naked midgets. Doesn’t mean you have to say yes.

I just bought a home and requested 2 repairs. GFCI tripped on test and would not reset. Requested an electrician look at it.  It was wet outside, and it's on the dock.  Other was a small hole on a roof shingle that is on the peak of the roof where it overhangs on the edge of the roof.  They cannot find anyone to come out and repair it.  They are still looking and we close a week from tomorrow.

I've spent the past 6 days doing minor BS repairs on my house that goes on the market tomorrow because I don't want to have to deal with "Licensed blablabla..." to change out a damned light bulb fixture.  Toilet overflowed after my dumbass brother took a Christmas shit and used too much toilet paper and stained the ceiling in the garage.  I had to fix that with Kilz or they would want me to pay to bring in a licensed plumber to tell them, "Yep, his brother took a massive shit and clogged up the toilet and it over flowed."

I've sold a few houses with the same license contractors request, I just made the repairs myself.

They asked for same from us when I sold my house in CO. Told them I would do the work myself and they could inspect it or they could walk. They took it and saved us a ton of money

I'm not sure in this market why you'd even agree to fix anything.

Tell them you'll talk to the next buyer, thanks.

Under normal times, I'd just do the work myself and tell them to re-inspect.

But in a time when people are getting in bidding wars over dilapidated shacks, go fish.

We just bought a house and I didn't want to forgo an inspection so we had it written up the buyer (me) would pay the first $2000 in defects.  Only some minor issues arose that wouldn't even be close to the $2000.  I would find a different buyer.

In this market, I would tell the buyer to pound sand. There is no need to repair anything. If buyer doesn’t like it, there should be several others right behind him

Have the handy man fix the problem, get an invoice showing you paid for the work in full, give that to the buyer, and have them reinspect if they want to.

I suspect they won't spend the time to reinspect.

Edit:. Does a license for a general handyman certify he/she actually does good work?  I assume not, but maybe I'm wrong.

Quoting myself here...but wanted to add that there was probably 20 things about this home I would have added in a normal market.  Smoke alarms hanging or missing, bad stains on the dropped ceiling tiles in the basement, toilet slightly loose on the floor, nails popping up on the hand rails, etc... Just simple shit that I'm not going to be an asshole about.  There is a contract right behind ours just hoping something happens with our purchase so they can jump in.

Signed papers last night on ours. It gets posted this afternoon on the MLS.  Fingers crossed!!

A year ago I asked the seller to fix some things with a licensed contractor, they did mist of it themselves and I reinspected and renegotiated where they did a shit job.

I got $800 off and a $650 home warranty that netted me two new major appliances, about $1000 in service work and $500 towards my insurance deductible on a storm claim after moving in.

For me, the asking for things to fix was simply a way to get more concessions after a full price offer.

Either of us could have walked at any time and I was willing to.

In your case id just have the handyman do it and present the receipt, buyers can do what they want but my guess is they will FO.

This. It’s boilerplate language.

Get a copy of the handyman’s business license. The contract usually does not stipulate what type of license.