Building a home can be one of the most rewarding accomplishments of your life. But getting exactly what you want from your Architect/Builder can be an enormous challenge, fraught with risks, frustration, delays and lasting disappointments. Many Architects/Builders advertise project management as a keystone of their organization. However, because the site engineer/manager works for the Architect/Builder rather than the homeowner, I recommend homeowners retain a Representative who can be exclusively dedicated to representing and protecting their best interests and, at the same time, hold the Architect/Builder accountable to established budgets, acceptable quality levels and schedules.
Why should you appoint a Representative?
There are many different reasons that make an Owner’s Representative valuable. For example, You may far too busy with your jobs in abroad, no time to visit the site, just may not have enough knowledge of construction and no real way of know if the Architect/Contractor is doing the right thing, charging the right price, selecting the professional contractors and the appropriate materials, or if the architect is designing within budget. While you are fully committed to the final outcome of your dream home project, you are at a severe disadvantage without residential construction project management in place. While it may appear simple, residential construction requires the expert coordination of designer, multitude of contractors, materials, and important decisions.
The Benefits of appointing an Owner’s Representative.
Acting on behalf of the owner is by no means a substitute for an architect, site engineer or contractor, however, the representative assume ownership of the work on behalf of the client, and manage the day-to-day details of the project while the owner retains all final decision making authority. He/She will make sure all of the administrative tasks are managed, insulating you from the day-to-day record keeping, document processing and task tracking, so that you can rest assured that the project will run smoothly and your interests will be protected, keeping you free to focus on your core business or regular full time job.