Construction Consulting
Brought In Early

An owner's representative works for the owner and nobody else. On a project where the owner has hired an architect and a builder, the owner's rep is the person in the room who understands both, reviews what each of them produces, and makes sure the owner's interests are protected at every decision. In practice that means reviewing the design for cost and buildability before it is finished, checking the builder's schedule and pay applications against the work actually done, tracking changes and what they cost, and reporting to the owner in plain terms. Owners hire a rep when they do not have construction experience on staff, when the project is large enough that a full-time advocate pays for itself, or when they simply want a second set of eyes that answers only to them.

The general contractor builds the project and is paid to deliver it. The owner's representative does not build anything and is paid to look after the owner while someone else does. That difference in who they answer to is the whole point. A general contractor has a contract to complete the work for a price, and every decision on the job is shaped by that. An owner's rep has no stake in the construction contract, so when a question comes up about scope, cost, quality, or schedule, the rep's only job is to tell the owner what is true and what it means. Woolsey offers both. On projects we build, we are the general contractor. On projects someone else is building, we can serve as the owner's representative, bringing a builder's knowledge to the owner's side of the table.

Owner's representation is usually priced one of three ways: a monthly fee for the duration of the project, a percentage of the construction cost, or a fixed fee for a defined scope such as design review or a feasibility study. Which one fits depends on the size of the project and how much of the timeline the rep is involved in. We do not publish a rate because the range is wide and depends entirely on the engagement. What we can say is how to think about it: an owner's rep earns their fee in the decisions they catch, and a single design change caught on paper, or a single pay application questioned before it is paid, can cover the cost of the engagement. The first conversation about scope is free, and it is where the fee structure gets decided.

They follow the project from before it starts to after it is finished. Early on: helping the owner define the program and the budget, evaluating sites, and helping select the architect and the builder. During design: reviewing drawings for cost, buildability, and whether they match what the owner asked for. During construction: attending site meetings, monitoring the schedule, reviewing and approving pay applications against completed work, tracking change orders and their cost, and flagging quality problems while they are still cheap to fix. At the end: managing the punch list, closeout documents, warranties, and the handover to the owner's operations team. Throughout, the rep reports to the owner in plain language so the owner can make decisions with full information instead of relying on the people who have a stake in the answer.