Services
Everything between “I own it” and “it’s open.”
Haven & Co is an owner’s representative and construction manager. I run your project — the trades, the schedule, the budget, the inspections — without being the general contractor, without a markup on the work, and without ever holding or spending your funds.
The distinction matters. A general contractor is hired to build the work, carries the trades under their own contracts, and prices overhead and profit into every line of your job. I am hired to run the project for you, for one flat fee that does not move when your budget does. You contract with and pay each trade directly — money never routes through me, and there is no markup sitting on top of the work.
The question everyone asks
“Do I still need to hire a general contractor?”
On most of the projects I take: no.
A GC earns their money two ways — coordinating the trades, and carrying the risk of the job. The coordination is exactly what I do, except I do it on your side of the table. So on a renovation where you are willing to contract with the trades yourself, the general contractor becomes a layer of markup rather than a layer of value.
Concretely: I write the scope, get it bid by vetted trades in your market, help you pick, and then run the sequence — permits, inspections, rough-in, insulation, drywall, paint, cabinets, punch list. You sign contracts with each trade and pay each trade. There is no overhead and profit riding on top of every line, and my fee is fixed regardless of what the job ends up costing.
When a GC is still the right call: heavy structural work, a ground-up build, a lender or insurer that requires a single licensed GC of record, or an owner who genuinely wants one throat to choke and will pay the markup for it. I will tell you when you are in that situation — and then I will vet the GC, read their contract, and hold them to it, which is a different and still very worthwhile engagement.
What actually gets coordinated
- Permit applications and inspection scheduling
- Trade sequencing week by week
- Long-lead procurement against the install date
- Selections deadlines set backwards from delivery
- Site access, utilities, temporary power, dumpsters
- Lender draw documentation
- Punch list and closeout
Every one of these is a job a GC charges you for. On a Haven project they are covered by the flat fee.
The scope of work
Six responsibilities, taken off your plate.
Every Haven engagement covers these. Which ones dominate depends on the project.
Scope, budget & positioning
Before a dollar is committed: review the plans, the scope and your target budget. I build a pre-hire budget estimate from the property data, comparable projects and current trade pricing, then tell you where the money should go to protect value and where it will not come back.
You get: a written scope of work, a line-item pre-hire budget by zone, and a candid read on whether the project pencils.
Contractor vetting & bid management
I solicit bids from trades in your market, put every bidder on the same written scope so the numbers are actually comparable, and verify licensing, insurance and references before anyone is hired. Then I walk you through the differences and make a recommendation.
You get: apples-to-apples bid comparison, verified credentials, and a recommendation with reasoning — you make the call and sign the contracts.
Single point of contact
Every trade, vendor, designer, inspector and lender draw comes through one person. Permits pulled, inspections scheduled, trade sequencing managed, and long-lead items — cabinets, windows, countertops — ordered early enough that they are not the thing that stalls the job.
You get: one weekly written update covering what moved, what is next, the current budget position, and any decision that needs you.
We build the budget — and I hold it
The budget is not something handed to you; we build it together, line by line, before a trade is hired, so you know what every zone of the house is supposed to cost. Then I defend it. Every invoice is checked against the contract and the work genuinely in place. Every change order gets sorted into what it really is — new scope you asked for, a condition nobody could have seen, or a padded number.
And I hold it without stalling the job. Saving four hundred dollars by re-bidding a trade is not a saving if it costs you two weeks; on an STR, two weeks of nightly rate is the more expensive number. Budget and schedule get protected together, because they are the same decision.
You get: a jointly-built line-item budget, a running budget-versus-plan position, documented change-order decisions, and a threshold above which nothing proceeds without your written approval.
On-site oversight
Progress visits at milestone gates with photo documentation — rough-in before it is covered, insulation before drywall, drywall before paint. Workmanship checked against the spec, not against whatever got built. Schedule tracked against the plan with slippage flagged early.
You get: photo-documented milestone gates, a live schedule, and problems raised while they are still cheap.
Punch list & handoff
Final walkthrough, punch list written and run to actual completion, retainage released only when the work is finished, warranties and documentation collected and handed over. For short-term rentals, the property is set up to perform from the first booking rather than the third month.
You get: a completed punch list, a warranty and document package, and a property ready to sell, rent or occupy.
Engagement & fees
A flat fee, agreed before we start.
Haven & Co charges a flat project fee for an agreed scope. Not an hourly rate, and not a percentage of construction spend.
That matters more than it sounds. An hourly meter makes you hesitate before calling with a question — which is exactly when you should be calling. A percentage of spend quietly rewards me for a bigger budget, which is the opposite of the job. A flat fee means my incentive is a clean, efficient project that finishes.
On-site visits are quoted separately at a fixed rate per visit, all-inclusive of travel, anywhere in the lower 48 — so you always know what a trip costs before it happens, and we can decide together how many the project actually warrants.
The fee is scoped to the project. A single-property STR conversion and a seven-property acquisition program are different engagements. You will have the number in writing before you sign anything.
Engagement models
- Full owner’s representationPre-construction through closeout, with the trades contracted directly to you and coordinated by me. No general contractor, no markup. This is the engagement for an owner who does not have the hours to run a job.
- Pre-purchase / underwriting reviewScope and budget assessment before you close. Several clients bring me in ahead of inspection specifically to walk away from bad numbers.
- Bid reconciliationYour bids came in high. I review the scope and the numbers and lay out the cut, re-bid or pivot decision with real figures.
- Portfolio & multi-property programsFor investors acquiring on a schedule who need a repeatable renovation process rather than one-off firefighting.
“Most contractors build what’s in front of them.
I build what performs.”
Kyle Powers, Founder
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.