01 / For owners · San Francisco Bay Area
Owner's Representation & Project Management
Your architect designs. Your contractor builds. I help you stay in control.
Why an owner's rep
The project is yours. Then the coordination becomes yours too. Day and night.
Your architect, engineers, contractor and vendors each have an important role. But the owner is usually the only person responsible for seeing the whole picture: what was promised, what it costs, what's late, what still needs a decision, and whether the result is actually moving toward what you wanted.
Without an owner's rep, the line from "You" goes to all five boxes at once — and it runs during business hours.
I complement the licensed design and construction professionals on your team rather than replacing them. My role is to help you make informed decisions, keep the information organized, catch problems while they're still small, and keep steady pressure on budget, schedule and follow-through.
Who I work for
The homeowner
"We're spending $100,000 on this house and somehow I'm the person coordinating everybody — during work, and again at dinner with my family."
You want the project. You don't want ten contractor calls tomorrow, a $28,000 change order you can't evaluate, or an architect and a GC telling you two different things while you work out who's right.
I take the calls, walk the site, and bring you solutions instead of problems — with a recommendation that makes the decision an easy one.
The investor
"My GC says framing is done. I'm in Austin. All I have is a text message."
You underwrote this deal on a timeline and a budget. Every week of slip is carry cost and lost rent, and you're hearing about problems a month after they happened.
I'm your local eyes — on site on a schedule, reporting against the numbers you actually underwrote to, and flagging trouble in week one rather than week five.
I also know the difference between a detail that lifts your rent or your resale and an upgrade that only spends your capital.
How I work with you
Six ways in, from one afternoon to the whole project.
You don't have to decide today whether you want someone for six months. Most clients start with one small, defined piece of work and expand from there.
Second Opinion
"I have something in front of me and no way to judge it."
Two bids on your kitchen came in $45,000 apart and you can't tell why. Or your contractor says the panel needs upgrading for $9,000 and you have no way to test that. Or there's a contract on your desk and you're about to sign it.
I read what you have, level the bids so they're for the same work, flag missing scope, thin allowances, one-sided contract language, and the places a change order is already hiding. A second opinion can be about almost anything, at any stage — before you hire anyone, mid-construction, or the week before closeout.
Site Visit & Progress Check
"I just need someone to go look."
A one-time walkthrough, for an out-of-area owner or anyone who suspects the story doesn't match the site.
I walk the project and document it in photo and video, compare actual progress against the schedule and the last invoice, note quality and sequencing concerns, and give you the specific questions to ask your GC.
Preconstruction Setup
"I know what I want to do. I haven't hired anyone yet."
The highest-leverage moment in any project, and the one people skip.
We define scope and a realistic budget, shortlist and vet the architect and contractor, run a real bid process on a level playing field, review the construction contract before you sign it, and build the schedule everything will be measured against.
Phase Oversight
"I can handle part of this. I want coverage for the hard part."
You're comfortable running design but not construction — or the reverse.
I cover one defined phase: design and permitting, construction, or closeout and punch. Same service, bounded start and finish, so the commitment is a phase rather than a project.
Remote Owner Oversight
"I need someone local, every week, for as long as this runs."
For out-of-state and out-of-area investors with an active flip, rehab or build.
Scheduled site visits with photo and video reporting, progress measured against your schedule, draw and invoice review against work actually in place, change order review before you approve, and a standing line to your GC so you're not the one chasing.
Full Owner's Representation
"Run it."
Whole-house remodels, additions, ADUs, new construction, and multi-vendor projects, start to finish.
One point of contact for the entire team. Budget and schedule control, regular site presence, change order and invoice review, selections and long-lead tracking, quality review against the drawings, and closeout done properly — punch list, warranties, lien releases, final accounting.
Design lens and quality
The same money can produce two completely different projects.
This is the part owners rarely think to ask for, and it's often where the value shows up most.
Two kitchens, same budget, same tile. One reads as a considered, high-end space. The other reads as a flip. The materials didn't change. What changed was where the tile stopped, how the edge was handled, whether the grout line landed on the switch plate, and whether anyone was standing there on the morning it got set.
Those decisions get made on site, fast, by people who are busy and whose job is to keep moving. Left alone they default. Someone has to care about them out loud, and that someone has to know what to ask for.
I trained as an architect and practiced as one. I'm not your designer — depending on your project you may not need one — but I know what good looks like, I can tell you when a proposal is going to disappoint you before it's built, and I can move a detail from ordinary to intentional without spending more.
Where this shows up
- Reviewing your architect's or contractor's proposals with an eye on how it will feel, not just whether it's buildable
- Material, finish and fixture selections, and the tradeoffs between what's specified and what's affordable
- Furniture, lighting and equipment direction where you want it
- Sample and mock-up review before large quantities are ordered or installed
- The on-site detail conversations — transitions, alignment, reveals, edges, where two materials meet
- Protecting the design intent through value engineering, so cost cuts don't quietly gut the result
What it costs to find out late
Owner-side review isn't competing with your contractor's price.
It's competing with the cost of finding out later. A rough sense of scale, from the small end up:
The upgraded tile was meant for the entry. It ended up in the laundry room too — not a decision anyone made, just something that carried through the order before anyone questioned it. Both rooms would have looked right. That's $600 you could have kept without giving anything up.
Taking out and redoing tile that was laid before anyone checked how the layout would land. Nobody did anything wrong. Nobody looked at it first.
Work agreed verbally in the field and priced afterwards. It might have been necessary. It might have been half that. Once it's built, you've lost the conversation.
Structural work discovered at demolition on a mid-size remodel. Some of these are genuinely unavoidable. Some were visible in the drawings, months before anyone signed anything.
On a larger project, a scope gap between what the architect drew and what the contractor priced. It surfaces mid-construction, when your leverage is gone and your only options are expensive.
Figures above are illustrative examples of the kind of exposure that comes up on real projects, not a projection or a promise of savings. Every project is different.
Scope list
Everything an owner's rep can take off your plate.
Custom engagement can be built from this list. Most people need some of it, not all of it.
Plan & select
- Feasibility review and scope definition
- Preliminary budget development
- Architect and designer selection and vetting
- Contractor sourcing, prequalification and reference checks
- Bid package preparation and bid leveling
- Construction contract review before signing
- Permit strategy and agency coordination tracking
- Master schedule development
- Consultant coordination — structural, civil, geotechnical, electrical, mechanical, energy, survey, arborist
- Allowance and contingency structuring
Design & quality
- Design review with an eye on how the finished space will feel and function
- Material, finish and fixture selection support
- Furniture, lighting and equipment coordination
- Sample and mock-up review before commitment
- On-site detail resolution — transitions, alignment, edges, reveals
- Protecting design intent through value engineering
- Workmanship review against drawings and specifications
Control & coordinate
- Single point of contact for architect, contractor, consultants and vendors
- Site walks with progress reporting
- Schedule tracking and delay analysis against a baseline
- Change order review — cost and schedule impact verified before approval
- Payment application and draw review against work actually in place
- Question and submittal tracking
- Long-lead item tracking
- Owner decision log, so decisions don't turn into delays
- Neighbor, HOA and site logistics coordination
- Troubled-project recovery
Finish & close out
- Punch list — the final walkthrough list of everything still unfinished, damaged or done wrong, tracked until each item is actually fixed
- Final inspection and certificate of occupancy tracking
- Lien releases, warranties, manuals and as-built drawings
- Final accounting reconciled to the contract and change orders
- Retention release review
- Rent-ready turnover and documentation for investors
Project types: kitchen and bathroom remodels · whole-house remodels · additions · ADUs and JADUs · new custom homes · landscape and hardscape · small multi-unit residential · tenant improvement and office fit-out · commercial projects · flips and BRRRR rehabs · rental turnovers · manufactured home placement.
Start a conversation
A project doesn't have to be big to be worth a conversation.
Tell me what you're working on and where you'd like another set of eyes. Send a message and I'll get back to you right away.
Or email me directly: info@placecraftsolutions.com