Ask anyone in Florida construction what slows a project down, and the answer is rarely the concrete or the crew. It is the permit. For 1 Contractor Solutions, a women-owned firm headquartered in North Port, that bottleneck is the business.
“At 1 Contractor Solutions, we work behind the scenes to help homeowners, contractors, developers, architects, and engineers navigate the permitting process across all Florida,” said Caroline Krauser of the company. “It’s a side of the construction industry most people never see.”
The firm says it has handled more than 5,000 permits and projects over more than 15 years, filing in more than 400 municipalities across all 67 Florida counties.
A problem hiding in plain sight
Florida builds at a pace few states match. It trailed only Texas in both single-family and multifamily permits in 2025, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Every one of those projects needs local approval first. “Contractors are ready to build, but many projects are delayed for weeks or months because of permitting challenges,” Krauser said.
The reasons are rarely dramatic. Each jurisdiction runs its own portal and asks for its own documents. A set of plans comes back with comments. A contractor’s registration in one city has lapsed. None of it shows up on a job site, but all of it decides when work can start.
How 1 Contractor Solutions works with contractors
Many permit expediters get called in when something breaks. 1 Contractor Solutions pitches itself to contractors as a standing part of the team instead. “Not a permit expediter you call when something goes wrong,” its general contractor page reads. The company describes taking on the whole function, from registrations and filing to review tracking, revisions, inspections, closeouts and reporting, with “a named coordinator with a direct line.”
Roofing companies, which juggle high permit counts and tight weather windows, can sign on for a recurring partnership: registrations kept current, permits filed the day they are complete and tiered per-permit pricing. Solar, pool and spa contractors, property managers, commercial brokers and restoration companies each have their own service track.
One team from drawing to approval
The model rests on keeping the technical work in house. When a reviewer asks for a revised drawing or an engineer’s seal, a permit service without those skills has to find an outside professional and wait. 1 Contractor Solutions keeps drafters and an engineer on its team. “The difference between this and a permit expediter is that when a reviewer asks for something that requires a drawing or a seal, we do not have to go find someone,” the company says.
It is also a licensed private provider. Florida law lets property owners and their contractors use a private provider for plan review and inspections, and the company says that option helps clients skip the county queue.
The files other firms turn down
A large share of the work arrives as an emergency. The company’s Urgent Permit Rescue service covers denied permits, stop work orders, expired permits, open permits that surface at a real estate closing, unpermitted work and code enforcement cases. “Almost every problem on this page has a clock attached to it,” the company writes, pointing to daily fines and hearing dates that do not move.
Real estate deals are a common flashpoint. For realtors and title companies, the firm’s website describes the moment plainly: “You did nothing wrong. The lien search found a permit from 2018 that nobody knew about.” Homeowners who discover unpermitted work from a previous owner land in the same place.
The company also publishes free tools, including a building department lookup that identifies which of Florida’s 400-plus building departments controls an address, an open permit search directory and a contractor registration checklist.
Why it matters beyond the job site
Krauser frames the work in terms of who is waiting on the other side of an approval. “Every permit approved means a family gets into their home sooner, a business opens faster, or a construction project stays on schedule,” she said.
The company answers calls around the clock, offers service in Spanish and says it responds to quote requests within 30 minutes. For a contractor with a crew on standby or a seller with a closing date, that response time is part of what clients are paying for.
It is a quiet corner of the industry. But in a state that builds as much as Florida does, the people who keep permits moving have a direct hand in how fast Florida grows. FL Innovation News also reported on the permitting bottleneck and how the firm works across the state.
1 Contractor Solutions is headquartered in North Port, Florida, and files permits in all 67 Florida counties. Learn more at 1contractorsolutions.com or follow the company on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. Statements attributed to Caroline Krauser were provided by 1 Contractor Solutions.
