Yesterday a real estate developer friend from the Bay called to say I needed to think harder about being part of the Rebuild effort. He covinced me – we are the local building industry – who else is going to rebuild? I stayed up late in bed writing a business plan.
I’m ashamed it took me three weeks after the fires changed Los Angeles and uprooted tens of thousands of lives to realize that we, the local builders, need to figure out how to rebuild Altadena.
But what about this new business? How can it be done? I know very very well how to build a home – I’m an expert. But building a spec home for my account is a different project from building a custom home for a fire victim with an insurance policy.
The house part is the same – I got that – and most of the homes in Altadena are much less technical than the medium-density townhomes and hillside projects I’ve built. But this business will require insurance-level estimating and customer service. Two things I need to add.
