Pre-Listing Repairs Before You List on San Juan Island

This page is about the weeks before a listing goes live. It is not about fixing an inspection report — that is punch-list repairs, it happens after an offer, and it is a different job with a different deadline. Pre-listing work is discretionary, it is about presentation, and the only test that matters is whether it changes what a buyer sees in the photographs and in the first ninety seconds of a showing.

Island listings are unusual in that the photographs do most of the work. A large share of buyers here are looking from Seattle, Portland, or California, and they decide whether to spend a day and two ferry crossings on a showing based entirely on a gallery. That gallery is dominated by the exterior: the approach, the siding, the deck, the water view, the roof. So the money goes outside first, in this order.

Wash the exterior. Everything here grows a green-black film on the shaded side, and it photographs as grime even when the house is sound. Soft washing siding, and real pressure on walkways, patios, and stairs, is the single highest-return day of work before a listing. Nothing else moves a photo set as much for as little.

Treat the moss. A north-facing roof slope with heavy moss reads as deferred maintenance to every buyer and every agent, and it is the first thing an out-of-town buyer’s parents will point at. Treatment plus clearing the gutters and downspouts changes the roofline in a photograph and removes the conversation.

Fix the deck. On this island the deck is frequently the reason someone buys the house, because it is where the view is. Soft boards get swapped, railings that move get re-secured, stairs get made solid, and the whole thing gets washed and, if the weather cooperates, sealed. A railing that flexes when a buyer leans on it to look at the water is a memorable way to lose an offer.

Then the details that read as care rather than repair. Trim and fascia that have separated or gone soft at a joint. Paint touch-up on trim, door edges, and the places salt air has chalked. Exterior door hardware that has corroded to green. House numbers, mailbox, gate latch, and porch handrail. Fence panels leaning and a gate that drags. Weeds through the gravel and shrubs grown against the siding.

Inside, it is a short and specific list, because the camera is unforgiving about a small number of things. Every interior door should latch and swing without binding, which after a wet winter on this island frequently means adjusting rather than replacing. Every wall the camera will see should be patched and touched up: anchor holes, hook holes, scuffs. Every window screen should be present and intact. Every blind should work, because a broken blind photographs as a dark diagonal line in an otherwise nice room. Cabinet doors should hang level and drawers should close. Sagging closet rods and shelves should be reset into studs. Kitchen and bath caulk lines should be clean rather than mildewed.

One island item nearly everybody forgets: the crawlspace. Nobody photographs it, but a buyer’s inspector will go under the house, and on a property that has sat empty part of the year the odds of finding rodent evidence and torn insulation are high. Dealing with that before you list, with documented exclusion and repair, is much better than negotiating it under a contract clock. It is the difference between a maintenance receipt and a price concession.

What I do not do, and will not offer, is any electrical or plumbing work, because I hold a Washington general contractor registration rather than an electrical or plumbing license. Pre-listing houses often need exactly that — a fixture, a leaking angle stop, a dead switch. I get a licensed contractor in the right trade, meet them at the house, and keep the schedule moving. For a seller who has already moved off-island, that coordination is usually the most valuable part of the arrangement.

Practical timing: start six to eight weeks before you want photographs. Washing and staining need consecutive dry days, which on San Juan Island means May through September and not much else. Materials sometimes come over on the ferry. And every agent on this island wants their spring listings photographed in the same three weeks, so the trades book out.