By hiring me a your owner’s rep early on in the process you can be assured of having a great process that will give you peace of mind and save you lots of money during the entire construction process. (And design, if you bring me in early enough.)
Here are four duties I can perform that will give you confidence that you have a good system in place:
1. Verifying that the Budget is appropriate and sufficient for the planned work.
Become familiar with the plans and specifications
Analyze the contractor’s budget line by line item and compare to others
Comparing the budget values for costs compared to the proposed construction schedule
2. Vetting the contractor
By checking on his financial and professional standings
Inquire and verify as to his/or her’s commitment and availability for this project
inquire and vet the key management and support personnel. (If any)
In the case of the one man contractors:
Establish his/her experience, knowledge and skills
Establish what systems if any will be used for budget and schedule management.
If needed, supplement contractor’s capabilities with Owner’s rep’s systems for tracking budget
Create and update our own schedule.
Verify with contractor that key steps such as site utilities are planned for.
3. Vetting the major sub-contractors and verifying they can fit our construction schedule.
4. Verifying plans are complete and all permits are processed
Here are other tasks I can perform during the construction process:
Create preliminary schedule for the entire process from design to move in
Ensuring, building and design remain within budget
Substantiate Status of permit processing, facilitate as prudent.
Verifying that the Budget is appropriate and sufficient for the planned work
Analyze the contractor’s budget line by line item and compare to historic data
Comparing the budget values to the proposed construction schedule duration. (e.g: is supervision enough)
Review all plans and specifications
Review all contracts with all subs and owner paid consultants
Compile budget encompassing all hard and soft cost envisioned for the entire project
Keep all encompassing budget up to date
Work with contractors, and designers to provide detailed construction schedule
Keep construction schedule up to date
Weekly site meeting with Owner’s Rep and Builder.
Twice monthly meeting with Owner’s rep, Architect, Contractor (owner invited to all key meetings)
Substantiate all temporary and permanent utilities are planned for
Additional subcontractors recommend as needed
Green building features and materials suggestions
Review and negotiate proper change order issues
Giving options to the design team when needed to potentially save money, including alternative construction techniques, and reviewing other areas of cost saving.
Scrutinize all invoices, explore questions in invoices and approve proper invoices.
Managing final close out at completion:
▪ Collect all lien releases
▪ Collect all warranties
▪ Manage final payments to subs and contractors
Prepare Operating Manual for owner’s future use and maintenance with emergency preparedness.
