Construction Consulting Companies & Construction Management Company
Are you considering a new custom home build? Just how much experience do you have in construction? Are you ready to deal with the regular challenges that arise during a construction project? We are going to take a quick look at why you should be considering using a construction management company for your custom home build than trying to take on this project on your own.
Understanding the Roles of Construction Consulting Companies
Shopping around for construction consulting companies can be a bit challenging, as you are more than likely browsing in a particular area where you are not very knowledgeable. We are not saying that to be critical but it is just the reality of the situation. Unless you are actually in the industry, you will have little knowledge of the intricacies of building a home from the ground up.
First and foremost, understand that when you hire a construction management company, they are your representative during the construction process. There are some significant pros to going down this route. As you can imagine, this is very involved project that required both the possession of certain programming as well as the ability to understand the information you are seeing in the reports. Think of construction consulting companies as your personal tutor to walk you seamlessly through the process.
The average construction management company will offer different levels of service that will range from consulting to project manager, with the latter taking over all aspects while the former more or less serves as your guide throughout the process. The major difference in the two is the daily presence of the project manager to directly oversee the build.
Be it a consultant or project manager, some of the common responsibilities are:
- Cost estimating
- Permitting and inspections
- Negotiating pricing and discounts during the procurement process
- Ordering supplies
- Inspecting deliveries
- Troubleshooting on-site challenges
- Scheduling
- Finding and hiring of contractors
- Reviewing change-order requests
- Reviewing all invoices for payment
What Qualifies Someone to be a Construction Project Manager?
As you would probably assume, in many cases, these individuals are former contractors that have transitioned over to the management side of the business. You will also sometimes see architects in this field. The more experience the manager has, the better chance he or she will have seen any problem that could arise during the build. This is not to say there will not be times when even they are surprised by something, but their experience enables them to develop a game plan to fix any challenge, regardless of whether they have seen it before or not.
What Does It Cost to Hire a Construction Manager
Depending upon the value of the home and the duties that are agreed upon, residential projects generally cost between five and 15 percent. That fee is not locked in stone, however, as the percentage could be more or less depending on the difficult of the project. For smaller projects, that fee may be turned into an hourly fee. The hourly fee will be dictated by the experience of the construction manager.
Benefits of Hiring a Construction Project Manager
- Having someone with the knowledge of a general contractor on your side
- All fees are open, so you are never going to be surprised by the bill
- Will generally save you significant money over the course the build
- More control over the work being done rather than solely relying on the general contractor
The downside of this is that you are then taking away some of the responsibilities of the general contractor. Again, though, that is the purpose of hiring a residential construction project manager. You want those responsibilities in your control so you can better manager the costs and timeline of the build.
There are also going to be times when the general contractor on the job is the problem, meaning he or she is having personal conflicts with some of the subcontractors. The project manager can easily step in with a fresh perspective to solve these issues. Without that buffer, these jobs can sometimes come to a screeching halt. While it may not be common, subcontractors walk off the job enough for it to be a concern. If that happens, rest assured, your project will come in late and likely over budget. Serving as an intermediary, your project manager can get in there are rectify the problem before it completely derails your construction project.
If you are ready to talk to a member of our team to discuss your project, give us a call today at 888-402-4180. You are under no obligation to use our services for consulting with our team, but we are confident that after talking to us, you will realize you do not need to look any further for your residential construction services.
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