Process
Sequenced like a drawing set, because the order matters
Skipping ahead is what makes projects expensive. Each stage answers a question the next one depends on, and locking a decision before its stage is the most common way a project loses a year.
Find out what the land will allow
Zoning and code review, critical-area screening, utility and access confirmation, order-of-magnitude budget. The deliverable is a clear go, no-go, or go-with-conditions — before serious money is spent.
Get the project approved in concept
Jurisdiction strategy, pre-application meetings, land-use applications, hearings and conditions. Assembling the consultant team and keeping their work reconciled.
Move plan review to issued permits
Submittal packages, tracking review cycles, writing correction responses that resolve comments the first time, and holding agencies to their own timelines.
Build it to the plan and the budget
Subcontractor coordination, schedule and cost tracking, daily progress monitoring, inspection readiness, and quality control against the approved drawings.
Finish clean
Final inspections, punch list, occupancy, warranty and record documents handed over organized enough to use years from now.
Engagement shapes
You don't have to hire all five
Plenty of engagements are one stage. A feasibility memo before you close on a parcel. A permit that's been cycling and needs someone to read the whole record. A construction phase where you need documented oversight for a lender.
Others run the full arc, which is the shape Carol prefers when the project warrants it — one point of leadership from parcel to certificate of occupancy means nothing gets dropped in a handoff.
What an engagement looks like on paper
- A written scope naming exactly what's included and what isn't
- A fee structure — fixed for defined phases, monthly for ongoing roles
- A reporting cadence you can hold Carol to
- A named deliverable at the end of each phase
Percentage-of-construction-cost arrangements aren't used, because they create the wrong incentive for a role whose job is partly to control cost.
Tell Carol about the project
The first conversation is a straight read on whether the project is workable and what it would take to move it. No charge for that call.