The questions Flint, Burton, and Fenton homeowners actually ask — answered straight, Michigan law included.
Michigan's Occupational Code, MCL 339.2403, lets an unlicensed handyperson take on a residential project only while its total contract price - labor, materials, and any other items together - stays under $600. At or over that line the work requires a LARA-licensed Residential Builder or Maintenance & Alteration Contractor. Electrical, plumbing, and mechanical work are separately licensed trades at any price.
Yes. The statute counts the aggregate - labor, materials, and everything else on the project. Two hundred dollars of labor over five hundred dollars of materials is past the line. The law also expressly forbids splitting one project into sub-$600 pieces to dodge the rule, so neither will anyone we introduce.
Whenever the project total reaches $600, whenever a building permit is involved, and always for wiring, plumbing beyond a simple fixture swap, gas, heating and cooling, roofing, and structural work at any price. When your job lands there, this service introduces a LARA-licensed contractor or the right licensed trade instead of a handyperson - the routing is the service.
Through LARA's free license search at michigan.gov/lara - it covers Residential Builders, M&A Contractors, and the skilled trades. A legitimate pro expects to be looked up; a pro who discourages it has answered a different question.
Nothing, ever. Quotes are free, the introduction is free, and if no quote suits you, nothing is owed and nobody pesters you. The service is paid on the pro side of the arrangement, never by the homeowner.
Routine work across Flint, Burton, and Grand Blanc typically books within a few days; the far townships may add a day for route batching. Seasonal crunches are real - late October gutter calls and post-thaw fence calls stack up - so the calendar-smart move is calling a week or two ahead of the season, not behind it.
Constantly - it is one of the busiest categories in this county. The standard scope is patch and paint, hardware, fixture-level plumbing refreshes, vents, and photo-ready finish on one schedule, with honest escalation to licensed contractors when a vacancy uncovers bigger problems. Multi-door portfolios can put the whole rotation on a standing arrangement.
Yes, at repair scale - and plaster deserves a pro who respects it. Flint's prewar neighborhoods are lath-and-plaster country, and the right patch bonds to the old assembly and matches its texture instead of leaving a flat drywall shadow. Whole-wall failures and chronic structural cracking cross into licensed contractor territory, and the assessment tells you which you have.
Most Genesee County housing predates 1978, so federal lead-safe rules apply when paid work disturbs old paint: the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting program requires certified firms and contained prep on those surfaces. It is a manageable, well-understood rule - the point is to use pros who follow it, not to fear the house.
Interior work runs all winter and often books faster - paint, patches, fixtures, and assembly love a February calendar. Exterior wood and concrete work waits for the thaw, exterior caulk wants fall or spring temperatures, and post-setting waits for the frost to give the ground back, usually by mid-April.
All of Genesee County: Flint, Burton, Grand Blanc, Fenton, Flushing, Davison, Swartz Creek, Clio, Mt. Morris, Montrose, Linden, Otisville, Goodrich, Gaines, and every township between. Rural addresses are welcome; batching the list is the standing advice the further out you sit.
Because the good small-job pros in this county stay booked on referrals and rarely chase app leads, while the app is selling your request to several strangers at once. This service keeps a local bench and makes one introduction, sized to your job and your side of the county - and tells you plainly when the job needs a license instead.
A question this page missed? Ask it in plain words on the phone — plain answers are the standing policy.
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