Vendors and Trades in Southwest Florida

The trades between an accepted offer and a closing, listed alphabetically so you can find one rather than read the lot. The inspection is the one to book first, whatever order it appears in here, because most of what follows depends on what it finds.

A measured floor plan is one of the few pieces of listing material that buyers genuinely use, and on this coast it earns its keep twice: it settles the square footage question before it becomes an argument, and it lets somebody two states away understand a layout that photographs flatten.

• Precision Floorplans, Inc.620 108th Avenue North, Naples, FL 34108(239) 598-9411Visit website

Start this one early. On this coast the insurance quote can change what you are willing to pay for a house, and it turns on the roof age, the elevation and the wind mitigation report rather than on the asking price. Get a quote on a specific address before you are emotionally committed to it.

• Jones Family InsuranceLee County office: 2210 Cleveland Avenue, Fort Myers, FL 33901(239) 552-4111Visit website

Nine markets on this coast, and the differences between them are most of the job.

Looking somewhere I do not cover? I have colleagues across the United States and I would be happy to refer you to one. I would far rather hand you to somebody I actually know than leave you to a search engine and a stranger, and the introduction costs you nothing.

Tell me where you are going and what you are looking for, and I will make it.

• Kris Asquith, Premiere Plus RealtyNaples, Bonita Springs, Estero, Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, Cape Coral, Marco Island, Sanibel and Captiva(239) 300-1427

Disclosure: I have an ownership interest in Florida Property Title LLC. That is an affiliated business arrangement. You are not required to use them, there are other title companies on this coast, and no part of your transaction depends on which one you choose.

• Florida Property Title LLCA Diligent Management Group company. 10600 Chevrolet Way, Suite 103, Estero, FL 33928(239) 766-7971

For what happens in what order once you are under contract, see how the buying process runs.

Shutters, wood blinds, draperies and the rest. These are the shutters that keep the sun out, not the ones that keep a storm out: for those see hurricane and storm protection above. The distinction matters on this coast, where the same word does two jobs.

Worth doing early in a move rather than late. West-facing glass on this coast is relentless in the afternoon, and it is the thing people most often underestimate about a room they fell in love with in February.

• Budget Blinds of Fort Myers Coast, Mark HollandCovering Bonita Springs, Estero, Fort Myers and North Naples(239) 390-7799Visit website

The garage is the one room in a Florida house that is almost never finished, and it is doing more work here than it does up north: it is the workshop, the overflow store and the hurricane staging area, and in summer it is the hottest space on the property.

Two different jobs, and most people want both. Floor coatings and cabinets deal with the surface and the walls. Overhead racks use the space above the door, which is dead volume in almost every garage on this coast.

• Encore Garage of Southwest Florida28440 Old 41 Road, #7, Bonita Springs, FL 34135(239) 949-5584Visit website
• S.O.S. Storage Overhead SystemsOverhead storage above the garage door(239) 437-1063Visit website

The list of small jobs a new house generates is longer than anyone expects, and having one number for all of them is worth a great deal.

• Estero Handyman14225 Moonlit Way, Estero, FL 33928(239) 778-7060

Cleaning, repair, restoration and upholstery, for furniture and for vehicle interiors. Worth knowing this trade exists before you write a sofa off: sun and salt air age leather here faster than most places, and a faded or cracked piece is usually a restoration job rather than a replacement one.

• Leather Medic, Arthur Keffler12901 Metro Parkway, Fort Myers, FL 33966(239) 482-2027Visit website

Worth knowing that these expire. A smoke alarm has a service life of about ten years from its date of manufacture whatever its battery is doing, and in a house that has changed hands a few times nobody has usually checked. It is a small job and an easy one to never get round to.

• Smoke Detector Medics21301 S Tamiami Trail, Suite 107, Estero, FL 33928(239) 789-0199Visit website

Four things, and they take about ten minutes between them.

• Licence. Florida licenses contractors by trade and you can look anyone up on the state register. An unlicensed trade doing licensed work becomes your problem rather than theirs.
• Insurance. Ask for a certificate naming general liability and workers' compensation, before the work starts rather than after somebody is hurt on your property.
• A written scope. What is being done, what is not, and what happens if they open a wall and find something else. On a coastal house they often do.
• Permits. Shutters, roofs, windows and anything structural need them, and an unpermitted improvement becomes your problem when you sell. Your city or county building department confirms what is required.

None of that is a reflection on anyone above. It is what you should do with any trade, including one you found here. More are going on this page as I go, including insurance, termite, furniture repair and grout cleaning. See the Southwest Florida FAQs for utilities, county contacts and the rest of the practical side of moving here.