Owner’s representation & project management
Someone on your side of the table.
You don’t need to hire a general contractor to get your project built on time. You need someone who speaks the language, knows what has to happen next, and knows exactly where the money is leaking — running the whole job so your rental opens on schedule.
Years on job sites, in the trades and running builds
Real-estate transactions closed over 11+ years
In construction work put in place before age 25
States served — on-site representation wherever your project is
The problem
You don’t have time to run a renovation.
That is the honest version of what goes wrong. You have a job, a family, and probably other properties. The renovation needs someone thinking about it every single day — who is on site Tuesday, whether the electrician finished so the insulator can start, whether the cabinets ordered six weeks ago are actually on a truck. Nobody has that job, so it becomes yours, in the gaps between everything else.
And the gaps are expensive. A decision that sits unanswered for nine days pushes drywall, which pushes paint, which means the cabinets arrive with nowhere to go. A change order lands on a Friday with no explanation and you approve it because you can’t see the wall it refers to. None of this is anyone being dishonest. It is what happens when the only person whose money is at risk is also the only person too busy to watch it.
That is the job I do. I think about your project every day so you don’t have to — and when I call you, it is because there is one decision that genuinely needs you, with the numbers already attached.
The part nobody tells you
You don’t need a general contractor.
You need someone who speaks the language.
A general contractor does two things: they coordinate the trades, and they carry the risk. For that they price overhead and profit into every line of your job — framing, plumbing, electrical, tile, all of it — and that margin is invisible to you because it is baked into the number.
On the right project you can hire those trades directly and have me coordinate them. Same electricians, same plumber, same tile setter. Same sequence, same inspections, same finish date. What disappears is a markup on every trade, replaced by one flat fee that does not grow when your budget does.
That only works if the person coordinating actually knows construction — what has to happen before what, which callback is a real problem and which is Tuesday, what a fair number looks like for rough-in in your market. Twenty years on job sites is what makes it work. It is not a discount; it is removing a layer that was charging you to do a job I already do.
- I speak their languageTwo decades on the tools. Trades talk to me the way they talk to each other, which is a different conversation than the one they have with an owner.
- I know what happens nextThe sequence is the schedule. Knowing that the insulator can’t start until electrical passes — and calling it a week early — is most of what keeps a job on time.
- I know where the money goesWhere a bid is padded, where a spec is more expensive than it needs to be, and where cheaping out will cost you double in two years.
- Your rental opens on scheduleFor an STR, the finish date is the whole business case. Every week late is a week of nightly rate you never get back.
What I do
One point of contact, from first walkthrough to final keys.
Six jobs, all of them yours to worry about — until they’re mine.
Plan & position
Review scope, plans and budget before a dollar is spent. What protects value, what maximizes return, and what is a waste of money on this specific property.
Vet your team
Solicit and compare bids, verify licensing and insurance, check references, and help you choose. You contract and pay the trades directly.
Coordinate everything
Single point of contact across every trade, vendor, inspector and designer. Long-lead items ordered on time. Nothing falls through the cracks.
Build the budget with you
We set the number together before anyone is hired, then I hold it there — invoices and change orders checked line by line, padding and scope creep caught before they reach you, and never by stalling the job to save a dollar.
Oversee quality & schedule
On-site progress visits with photo documentation. Monitor workmanship against the spec and flag problems early, while they are still cheap to fix.
Translate & advise
Turn construction-speak into clear decisions with real numbers attached. You stay in control of every dollar — you just stop guessing.
How it works
Five phases. No surprises in any of them.
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01Discovery
We walk the property — in person or by video. I pull public data and comps, review your plans and photos, and build a pre-hire budget so you know the number before you commit.
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02Plan & vet
Scope written down in plain language. Bids solicited from vetted trades and compared apples to apples. Licensing, insurance and references verified before anyone gets hired.
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03Coordinate
Permits, inspections, schedule, long-lead procurement, designer and trade sequencing. You get one weekly update with what moved, what is next, and what needs a decision from you.
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04Oversee & protect
Site visits with photo documentation at milestone gates. Invoices and change orders reviewed against the contract before you pay them. Problems surfaced while they are still small.
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05Close it out
Final walkthrough, punch list run to completion, warranties and documentation handed over — and for short-term rentals, set up to perform from day one.
Why owners choose Haven
Rare on purpose.
Most people who manage renovations have either built things or bought things. Doing both is what makes the judgment worth paying for.
- I own the thing I am building for youI have bought, renovated and operated short-term rentals with my own money — picked the finishes, eaten the mistakes, watched what a renovation actually does to a nightly rate. I am not a contractor guessing at what performs.
- For you, not the buildA general contractor answers to their own margin. I answer only to you — and I never hold or spend your money.
- Both sides of the dealA Construction Science & Management degree from Kansas State and 20+ years on the tools, plus 11+ years and 600+ transactions in real estate. I read a set of plans and a pro forma with the same fluency.
- Aligned incentivesA flat, predictable fee for the agreed scope. No hourly meter running while you ask questions, and no percentage of spend that rewards a bigger budget.
Current work
The Frankfort House — Frankfort, Kentucky
A flood-damaged property being brought back as a short-term rental. Live project, real photographs, no staging.
In progress
The property sits in a flood zone and took on water. If a county assessor rules the damage exceeds fifty percent of the structure’s value, the home has to be elevated out of the flood plain — a cost that would have killed the deal.
The job on this one started before a single trade was hired: hold the scope to what makes the house livable, get the flood certification resolved, and keep the project under the substantial-improvement threshold. Permit approved, trades locked, framing and roof complete, cabinetry on order.
Who this is for
Four kinds of owner, one common problem.
The owner with no spare hours
You have a job, a family, and no interest in fielding contractor calls at 6:40 in the morning. The property is a good deal and you know it — you just cannot be the person chasing the drywaller. This is the client I am built for.
STR owners who need a date
The listing goes live when the house is done, and every week late is nightly rate you never recover. You want someone whose entire job is protecting that opening date.
Real-estate investors
You underwrite deals for a living and you need the rehab number to be real before you close, not discovered in month three.
First-time flippers
You have the capital and the property. What you do not have is a way to tell whether the bid in front of you is honest.
Start here
Tell me about the property.
Twenty minutes on the phone and you will know whether the numbers work, what the real scope looks like, and whether an owner’s rep is worth it on this particular project. If it isn’t, I will tell you that.