25 Years in Construction Just Became a Book. Ask Me Anything.
I have been a general contractor, a handyman, a project manager, a property manager, an active investor, and for the last several years a construction consultant for investors and developers. I have done over five hundred commercial projects. I have consulted for publicly traded REITs and served as an expert witness on construction disputes.
I thought writing a book about what I know would be straightforward.
It was not.
The part that surprised me was not the content. I know the content. What surprised me was how much of what I know exists in my head as instinct rather than as something I have ever had to clearly articulate. Writing forces you to articulate everything. You cannot hide behind experience when you have to put it in sentences that a beginner can follow and an experienced investor cannot poke holes in.
So I spent a lot of time asking myself why I do things the way I do them. Why I walk away from certain deals that look fine on paper. Why I qualify contractors the way I do. Why I have never lost money on a deal when plenty of investors with more capital and more resources than I had early on did.
The honest answer is perspective. Not information. Perspective.
Most of the investors I have watched struggle over the years were not lacking information. They were lacking the right frame to put it in. They knew what a deal was supposed to look like. They did not know what it actually cost, what it actually required, or what they were actually building toward before they started building it.
That is what the book is about. Not a strategy. Not a system. A way of looking at this business that makes every decision clearer before you have to make it.
If you are just getting started or if you have been doing this for a few years and feel like you are working harder than your results justify I am happy to answer questions about anything the book covers. Construction costs, deal analysis, contractor management, due diligence, finding deals, protecting yourself when things go wrong. Any of it.
Ask away.