Padre Island Corpus Christi Development using GIG talent (Cont.)

[James Gray]

I have been doing a small development utilizing the GIG available talent to lower costs whenever possible. I have seen minor savings on some artwork and hiring soils engineer for the project. I also have utilized the internet to save on the cost of the HOA Bylaws and Charter for the Planned Unit Development. For those documents I found several internet sites that provided free samples that just needed to be modified for my state and specific needs. I was required to create a Planned Unit Development (PUD) when I filed for approval with replat by the city. Since I am doing a very small 9 unit PUD. I am using very simple bylaws so I did not feel like I needed to hire an HOA expert to write these up. I am estimating cost saving since I did not get quotes getting these written. I suspect they would have cost several thousand. If someone has ever gotten a quote please let me know. I will have them reviewed by my attorney when it is time to build houses.

I did get quotes for the civil engineering effort. Local engineers quoted me from $70K to just under $90K ($75K average). The effort included a retaining wall design, grading plan, water/ sewer, underground utilities, pollution controls, drainage, quantity of materials and construction specifications. The engineering effort is being done for under $20k and it include all signatures and seals as required for city approval. So far the costs for local engineering talent vs GIG is nearly 400% higher. I realize there will likely be additional costs that may be required to the engineering effort due to changes but that would probably be the same for both the local talent vs GIG. I will update these cost when initial civil works are completed but so far utilizing talent from around the country is looking to be a substantial cost savings. I think the quality of the engineering is pretty good from the GIG engineers.

Summary of cost savings to date (estimated HOA local cost):

Task	Local Quote Average	Actual GIG Costs to date
Artwork	$2,300	$350
Soils Report	$4,000	$950
HOA Bylaws	$3,000	$0
Civil Engineering	$75,000	$20,000
	$84,300	$21,300