OBA will assist whether you are coming to us at the idea stage and still need to determine a project location or if you have already acquired the land for your project. OBA helps during this pivotal launching point by reviewing potential lot sizes for the desired structure square footage and cultivating relationships with local Realtors and other market personnel. It is imperative to secure this local market knowledge when it comes to zoning, permitting, and identifying competing properties in the market to ensure a project’s viability. We compile site topographical, utility, flood, and parcel maps to determine the best building footprint and orientation on the site. Obtaining as much information as possible about the current physical condition of the site will help prevent costly roadblocks throughout the construction process.

We also have experience gathering the necessary zoning and permit data in many of the markets coast to coast. We research the current zoning policies in your project’s local market to determine which zones your project is permitted in. From there we can select vacant land with the proper zoning, or if the perfect lot for your project is not in a permitted zone, we can assist in pitching a zoning variance to the city zoning committee. Again, establishing relationships with local real estate and city permit personnel is the best way to effectively advance a project through this vital permitting phase.

OBA believes it is essential to define your vision and put it in writing when developing a preliminary floor plan. These basic renderings include your simple specifications like how many bedrooms/bathrooms, how many floors, access points, the lengths of walls, ceiling heights, and foundation footprint. Acquiring these basic details is important when it comes to finding the best design team and contractors that fit your project’s needs. Once the concepts have been generated, we develop a preliminary budget for investor/lender presentation purposes and permit approval. This cost to construct is based on several assumptions while we are still working off of preliminary designs. These assumptions include things like what type of lights, door handles, trim, toilets, and other highly detailed specifications you have yet to provide detail on. This preliminary budget is different from the overall construction cost analysis in the fact that it makes these specification assumptions. The final cost to construct analysis will additionally consider your choice of highly detailed specifications as well as the modifications that the final architect/design team makes and how the contractor bidding/negotiation will impact your project.

The process of bringing your initial concepts to life will require an architect or a design build firm. At this point you will also want to bring a legal team on board to ensure your design and build team contracts are sufficiently protecting you and your investment. OBA takes pride in having a vast network of both design and legal contacts throughout the nation as well as the professional experience in vetting firms like these. To ensure that your structure size, scheme, amenity specifications, and hardware preferences are integrated into the design we work closely with these professionals. OBA will take your first concept drawings from scratch paper to final floor, electrical, elevation, and landscaping plans. With these final plans in hand we work together with the contractor throughout the build to ensure that every detail is built out according to the plans.

OBA provides peace of mind that the contractors hired to complete your project are qualified and properly licensed and bonded. We understand that the seamless transition of contractors and budget are key to project completion within tight timeframe constraints. We conduct extensive due diligence research on the contractor’s current licensing status, their project history for status of meeting budget, completion goals, verifying credit ability with suppliers/vendors, and verifying that the current insurance requirements are being met. With access to national and regional databases, OBA will identify contractors with a history of safe and effective construction practices. By building relationships with local industry professionals, it allows us to dig deeper into these candidates and reveal any red flags that might not be recorded on paper. We ask the right questions to find the most suitable general contractors available to perform your build within the established time frame.

Start every project knowing it is feasible and fund-able with our construction cost analysis. Once the general contractor is under contract, they will develop their own budget for the completion of your project. We provide a separate comprehensive financial review of your project to determine if the contractor’s build budget accurately reflects the scope of work necessary to complete the project as designed. Our estimators serve as a second set of eyes that will reduce the potential for missed line items in the budget. OBA has direct access to local, regional, and national construction costs and processes to verify that costs are reflective of the geographical market. The information is analyzed to determine if the build budget is adequate to construct the project as designed. This level of knowledge and understanding guarantees that OBA provides you with a cost analysis that reflect today’s construction costs.

At OBA we believe strongly that all construction projects should have a construction contract that represents both parties in the transaction fairly. Please understand that we are not attorneys. Our contract review is merely to verify that it is a contract that we would be comfortable signing personally. Typically, a contractor’s contract is designed to protect the contractor first. OBA will make sure that you are protected as well. We feel that items such as a ten-day right to cancel clause, an additionally insured clause, and a liquidated damages clause are important to be included within a construction contract to fairly represent an owner.

Once the contractor has completed portions of their work, they typically submit their applications requesting payment for work in place. Attached to this submittal are the payment application, lien waivers, change order information, schedule changes, and permit updates if applicable. When received, OBA will review these submittal documents to ensure that all necessary documents are in place and will satisfy the construction lender’s submittal requirements.

OBA then conducts a site inspection each time the contractor submits a payment application to ensure that the invoiced work has been completed. We perform hundreds of draw inspections every month throughout the United States and can ensure that your project will receive the highest level of inspection expertise. Our written and photographic report reflects the percentage of work that has been completed and is in progress at the time of the inspection. Within 72 hours of being requested, we deliver a report to you that will detail our observed levels of completion for each line item with photos showing the progress.

A representative of OBA will perform random site visits to the project site to ensure that the general contractor is complying with the contract documents, the project schedule, and the owner’s desires relative to the construction occurring on the project site. An OBA representative will meet with the general contractor or superintendent to discuss any issues that have occurred that day or in the past few days. Additionally, OBA will attend the necessary periodic construction project site meetings being held by the general contractor to ensure that the lender/owner are up to speed on project activities.

If these meetings are not being held by the GC, OBA will develop the agenda and coordinate the meeting and the attendance of the general contractor and any critical subcontractors. Typically, it is most efficient to address the payment application submittal, submittal review, progress draw inspection, and the project site meeting in this one visit.

With this specialized subscription service, you are provided an agreed upon number of hours per month that the OBA team commits to your development project. We are available to divide your hours among any of the mentioned services like conduct site visits, attend meetings, review contract documents, work directly with the design team or the general contractor, review lien waivers and payment applications from the GC, review requests for information (RFI’s) or proposed change orders (PCO’s), perform close out processes, and assist with the warranty manual development. All of the above detailed services are available throughout the duration of the project. Our three tiers of project oversight are:

• Tier I – 20 hours per month
• Tier II – 30 hours per month
• Tier III – 40 hours per month