Our buyer has come back with the following request:

"Secure at the top stair railing for safety."

We're not even sure if this is possible. The stretch of railing is over 11 feet long and has always been a little wobbly. We reinforced the other two points where the handrail meets the wall (going down the stairs) many years ago to combat the wobble.

So questions:

(1) Can this be more secure than it already is?
(2) If yes, how? My husband is pretty handy and I think we could fix it ourselves. Otherwise, how would I find a handyman and approx how much should I expect to pay?

Here are some pictures of the railing in question. The wobbly point is the newel post close to the light switch at the landing.

Frankly, I am surprised they wanted you to do this. You could technically do it, and choose something really ugly in the end (cheap fix); or you could do it right, but it will take more time, might need to disassemble part of it, and reassemble, etc. Kind of a gamble on their part.