Seven steps
How a project runs, in the order it runs.
The sequence below is the same on a small interior renovation and a full rehabilitation. What changes is the size of each step, not whether it happens.
01
The sequence
Each step produces something written. That is what makes the next step possible.
Step 1
Project-fit review
A call about the property, the work you think it needs, the outcome you are aiming at, and how the project is funded. The purpose is to establish whether this is the right contractor for it. Some projects are not, and that is said on the call rather than three weeks later.
Nothing is priced at this stage. No agreement exists yet.
Step 2
Existing-condition and document review
A walkthrough of the property with the building looked at rather than the listing photographs: structure, envelope, roof, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, drainage, and the conditions likely to be hiding behind finishes. Whatever documents exist get reviewed at the same time, including plans, prior permits, inspection history, and any scope you have already been given.
The output is a written record of conditions found and the items carrying real cost uncertainty.
Step 3
Scope alignment
The work is written as line items rather than a paragraph, and then argued about while it is still cheap to argue. What is included, what is excluded, what is an allowance and why, what a tenant or a buyer will actually notice, and what a municipal inspection is going to require whether or not it is on your list.
A scope that is agreed before pricing is the single largest control on what a rehabilitation ends up costing.
Step 4
Pricing and agreement
The agreed scope is priced against subcontractor pricing and the conditions recorded in step 2. Allowances are shown as allowances. The written agreement carries the scope, the payment structure, the change-order procedure, and the reporting you will receive.
Pricing is an estimate built on the information available when it is prepared. It is not a guaranteed final cost, and no schedule discussed here is a guaranteed completion date.
Step 5
Mobilisation and sequencing
Permits confirmed for the work being performed, trades contracted to their scopes, long-lead items and selections identified with dates, materials staged, and the site set up. The schedule is sequenced so that inspections, deliveries, and trade handoffs have predecessors instead of hopes.
Where a jurisdiction requires its own contractor licence, registration, or bond, that is confirmed before work is scheduled there.
Step 6
Progress reporting and inspections
Work proceeds against the scope with progress recorded line by line. Inspections are called when the work is genuinely ready and the paperwork is on site. Conditions found once the building is open are documented the day they appear, with cost and schedule impact and the options, and they proceed only on a written change order.
Where a lender releases funds against progress, the draw package is assembled from the same records rather than reconstructed at the end of the month.
Step 7
Closeout
Punch list worked to completion, final inspections closed, permits closed out where the jurisdiction requires it, and the closeout set handed over: warranties, product data, subcontractor contacts, and the final scope and change record. What the project actually cost against what it was scoped to cost is stated plainly.
The record you are left with is the thing that makes the next project easier to price.
02
Permits and inspections are schedule items
They are the part of a rehabilitation most likely to be treated as an afterthought, and the part most likely to stop a job.
Permit review takes as long as the authority having jurisdiction takes. Inspection slots are not infinitely available. A rough-in that fails because the work was not complete costs a re-inspection and the days between them, and every trade behind it waits.
The response is to put permits and inspections in the schedule as activities with predecessors, to call an inspection only when the work is actually ready, and to have the required documents on site rather than in an inbox.
Requirements differ by municipality. Homer Reno is not represented as licensed or registered in every Illinois municipality, and where a jurisdiction requires its own licence, registration, or bond, that is confirmed before work is scheduled there. Full licensing disclosure.
Step 1 is a conversation, and it costs nothing.
Bring the property and whatever scope exists. The review establishes whether the project fits before either of us spends time on pricing.
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