With any construction project, cost is at the top of the client’s mind from the very start. And for good reason. Budget determines everything: scale, location, design aesthetic, quality of materials and finishes, environmental impact, and overall quality.
Naturally, budget determines what builder you will hire—and the builder’s expertise has a massive impact on everything else. That’s why we emphasize the importance of talking to JEN COL as early as possible when you’re thinking of a new project. It’s truly never too early.
To understand why, look at the above graph. At the Idea stage, your builder can have by far the most impact on a project’s cost. It costs next to nothing to change the intended size, number of floors, or location of walls.
From that point on, changes become increasingly expensive. An architect will charge for alterations to the plans. Having the engineer return to the site and reassess for modifications will up the costs by hundreds if not thousands of dollars. And change requests once construction has begun can trigger exponential impacts.
While everyone involved impacts costs, JEN COL is the true pricing expert in the room, with the greatest substantial ability to reduce costs. Nobody understands the real cost of each component, every choice, the way we do. No one else can propose cost-saving options, at the stage when they save the most money.
The benefit of an experienced and savvy Construction Manager extends through the entire project cycle, from contracting the most appropriate tradespeople to catching quality issues early on—and managing them right. That’s where the false economy of a cut-rate builder can really hurt you: when the design is flawed, change orders pile up, costs balloon, mistakes are covered over and overall quality is sacrificed. It’s not what you want, and that’s no way to save money.
Pricing and planning a project right benefits everything that happens downstream. It costs nothing to talk to JEN COL early—and it can often be the most budget-wise call you make for your entire project!