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Achieve Gold Standard Renovation Results With This Plan!
First Person Renovation Management
Are you trying to decide whether to use a general contractor(GC) for your rehab project? Have you heard others speak of taking on this task and managing first-hand the various trade professionals? Or maybe you thought of doing the work yourself with the help of individual workers. Which is best? All of them! Yes, it depends on what you are striving to accomplish.
My partner and I have chosen not to hire a GC for our current rehab project, rather to manage the trade professionals ourselves. Our objective on this multi-family initiative is two-fold and part of our strategic vision.
One objective is to travel the GC road ourselves on this particular project. This will enable us to turn over future projects to general contractors with agreements of maximum effectiveness relative to expectations and cost.
Our second objective of taking on the GC role is cost effectiveness. With no management markup, we are saving a bundle. At the same time, we are factoring in the value of our time that otherwise would be devoted to researching the market for subsequent properties.
At rehab completion, we will understand each step and systematize it into a required template for the general contractors hired for future rehabs. For example, the photo above is a new laundry room we added for tenant convenience that will also support increased rents. We negotiated the washers and dryers and saved 28%. While a GC will oversee this type purchase in the future, we will set the price ceiling that includes parts and warranties for all appliances. Another example is the quality of windows we selected and priced. This and all rehab materials will have associated cost parameters in future projects.
Kathy Stewart
stewartinvesting.com
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