Home improvement projects can be overwhelming, and if you are doing them in an effort to sell your home the stress may only get worse. Some people leave those small and large home improvement jobs to a licensed, professional handyman.

“I get a ton of calls from customers who are looking for the kinds of projects that will get them to the place where the house is ready for sale. The kinds of things that are small jobs that make a big difference,” says professional handyman Andy Sjostrom from The Good Handyman company, based in Oak Park, Ill.

While Sjostrom encourages home owners to be involved in their own home improvement or do it yourself home repairs, he also warns some jobs are better left to professionals. “Don’t get yourself in over your head. If this is something that you’re not comfortable doing, take the time to find a good handyman,” Sjostrom says.

There are two simple ways to find a good handyman to help with home improvement. First, try the Internet. Run Web searches for a handyman in your area or to see who else can help you with home improvement work. Compare prices and services and check for licensing before hiring a handyman to help with home improvement.

One Web site you can use to find a handyman for your home improvement work is Angie’s List. Sjostrom recommends the site, which provides user-generated comments about a handyman from previous customers. “It’s a great way to get a sense for what they’ve done, who they’ve done it for, the size of the projects that they’ve done for those people so that that person is applicable to what you’re looking for,” Sjostrom said.

The second great way to find a good handyman to help with home improvement is to go to your local hardware store. Ask the store owners if they know any regular customers who are handymen or if they can recommend a good handyman to help you with home improvement.

“You can talk to somebody at your hardware store who sees someone on a regular basis. Sees what kind of things they buy, whether they look knowledgeable, whether they’re the kind of person they would want to deal with,” Sjostrom says. “And that’s a great way to find out about local handymen in your neighborhood.”

Juliet Holubowicz, a sales associate with Schiller Real Estate in Elmhurst, Ill., frequently refers clients to handymen for home improvement. Home improvements help turn houses into selling condition.

“If it’s a bigger job, or if it’s a smaller job, it’s just nice to have it done professionally instead of doing it yourself, so you’re not even more stressed because you’re trying to sell your home,”Holubowicz says.

“Handymen and contractors know the tricks of the trade,” Sjostrom says. “They know what’s going to make a job take half an hour instead of two hours.” He believes that home improvement knowledge is what you are paying for. And if you decide to hire a handyman to do home improvement work, you should be getting the best home improvement job in the shortest time possible.

For more stories on home improvement, how a handyman can help you, real estate and personal finance, visit ThinkGlink.com.

July 9, 2008