Callito Corp

Nine building permits, and no reviews anywhere. That is the shape of Callito Corp — a Marblehead outfit whose work is documented almost entirely by the town's permit desk rather than by the people who hired them. The permits are the interesting part. Six were pulled in the last three years, the typical one around $112,000, and they read like the work of a crew that knows old coastal houses: 44 Andersen windows and new siding on Doaks Lane, 401 square feet of ipe decking with mahogany rails on Circle Street, sash windows and a Velux skylight on Wadden Court, two second-floor bathrooms rebuilt to an architect's drawings off Point O' Rocks Lane. Nearly all of it in Marblehead itself, with a kitchen job in Danvers in 2021. The company's own account, repeated on Houzz and BuildZoom, is that Callito Painting was started by Claudio Alvarez and is run with his sons Alex, Nicolas and Callito, working the North Shore for more than a decade. Its Wix site describes a general contractor that brings in long-standing plumbing, electrical, masonry, plastering, cabinetry and flooring trades, and says it is licensed and fully insured. Its Better Business Bureau file — opened in 2013 under the name Callito Painting, a sole proprietorship at a different Marblehead address with four employees — carries an A+ and accreditation since September 2013, and lists the business start as August 2000. It is also a Marblehead Chamber of Commerce member. What is missing is any customer voice at all. BuildZoom says it has received no reviews; Houzz invites you to be the first; the BBB page publishes none either. So there is nothing here about how the crew handled a schedule, a change order, or a problem — and that is the reason no rating is published. Two things worth pinning down before a call. First, the paperwork sits under two different entities: BuildZoom lists a Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration for Callito Corp at 16 Anderson Street, while the BBB accreditation and A+ belong to Callito Painting, a sole proprietorship at 299 West Shore Drive. Ask which entity will sign the contract, and confirm that entity's registration and insurance directly with the state's Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation. Second, since there is no written customer history to lean on, ask for the Marblehead addresses off those recent permits and call the homeowners. For a Marblehead exterior renovation — windows, siding, decks, a period house that needs sash work — this is a crew with a real, recent, verifiable permit trail in exactly that lane. Just do the reference calls yourself.