How Owner Representation Protects Real Estate Investors From Costly Construction Mistakes

Sean Lahijani (00:00)
Yeah. I’ll give kind of like the basic one where if you’re get if you’re starting to work with the GC ⁓

If they’re not doing it, which is kind of a red flag if they’re not doing it, but if they’re not breaking out their bids by trade, that’s a huge red flag. Make sure let’s say you’re just even doing a home remodel. Make sure you’re not just getting one lump sum number, but that you’re getting breakouts within any proposal for you know, the cabin tree is X amount of dollars, the plumbing is Y amount of dollars, the HVAC is Z amount of dollars, right?

Michelle Kesil (02:05)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Sean Lahijani, who is an owner’s rep in the Los Angeles area. So excited to have you here today, Sean.

Sean Lahijani (02:21)
Thanks for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Michelle Kesil (02:23)
Awesome, let’s dive in. So, first off, for those new to your world, can you share what your main focus is?

Sean Lahijani (02:30)
Yeah, so ⁓ I provide owners representation service.

⁓ I advocate on behalf of owners who are taking on projects who may or may not have experience in the real estate world, ⁓ you know, working with design teams, architects, interior designers, you know, contractors, their subs, may not have the experience navigating all of this. you know, so for people who are in real estate, this is kind of they kind of know what’s what and what directions up. but I work with owners to just make sure that, you know, all their ⁓

vendors are playing nicely in the box, in the sandbox, as we like to say, ⁓ that things are working efficiently and smoothly for them and on their behalf, that their ⁓ project goals and desires are being met and achieved and you know, not being missed out on anything. And I also help them with things, you know, like budgeting and scheduling, and again, just day-to-day management of their projects from inception to completion.

Michelle Kesil (03:28)
Awesome. And this is all in Los Angeles.

Sean Lahijani (03:32)
Correct, correct. I’m local to LA from here originally. ⁓ all my clients are in the area so far. ⁓ but I do have some out of state experience from ⁓ before ⁓ starting my practice.

Michelle Kesil (03:46)
Awesome. And yeah, what made you create this practice?

Sean Lahijani (03:49)
Well, ⁓ to be honest, part of it was necessity. I was laid off from ⁓ a job I had, ⁓ and you know, kinda came as a surprise to me, but had to ⁓

kind of adjust and figure out what I could do to ⁓ you know, make money and continue on this path. I always wanted to go out on my own, but I just was not expecting it to happen under these conditions. but ⁓ that was kind of the impetus for me. ⁓ but

Here we are two years later and things are still kicking and moving. I I should say, you know, I was ⁓ approached by someone who needed help with their project. ⁓ you know, he was a real he was a single family residential ⁓ agent, but didn’t kind of know the ups and downs of you know developing, designing, permitting, all those things. ⁓ and he had me come take a look at his project and I ⁓

you know, got him s squared away, made sure ⁓ vendors were not ⁓ abusing him and ⁓ we’ve been in business since

Michelle Kesil (04:55)
Who are your typical clients that you work?

Sean Lahijani (05:44)
My typical clients well I’ll say I’ll work with anyone, right? Again, it could be someone large or small just based on my experience. I’ve worked on a variety of project types. I’ve worked on

Urban multifamily, ⁓ big box retail, soundstage, but now since I started my own practice, most of my clients are single family homeowners or flippers, really. Those that’s been the bulk of my work. and now some retail tenants as well. But really, if there’s a project to be had ⁓ and you know, vendors to be hired and managed and all that stuff, that’s that’s where I come in.

Michelle Kesil (06:19)
Right, and so what does the process look like when someone wants to work with you?

Sean Lahijani (06:24)
Well, it depends on when they’re engaging me. ⁓ if they b in best case scenario, ideal scenario, they’re engaging me at the inception of their project. They say, Okay, great. I know I want to do this tenant improvement work, or I want to ⁓ remodel my house, or I’m going to build this warehouse, or whatever it could be, just helping them in the early preliminary phases through ⁓

whether it’s kind of visioning of the project, putting together initial budgets, initial schedules, and then through actually, you know, design, permitting, ⁓ and then all the way through ⁓ general contracting, you know, construction and and all that stuff. ⁓ but I will come in the middle of a project ⁓ and help owners make sense of of what’s going on and ⁓ rectify any ⁓ processes or ⁓ workflows they have going for them.

Michelle Kesil (07:14)
And what do you feel are some of the main keys that allow your business to grow and run successfully?

Sean Lahijani (07:21)
I will say ⁓ you know, just making sure that I’m advocating for the owner. You know, I’ve you know, you talk to other vendors in this world and people like to say, if you work with us, we’ll give you a referral, or we’ll give you a referral fee. And that is like ⁓ well, I appreciate the the option, it’s not something I can do, right? I can’t say, yeah, I’ll refer this client to you and you give me a kickback. That’s just like not what I do. I

really try to operate having the owner’s interests in mind. ⁓ and I also try to just give them the data and information and transparency so that they can make the decision and that they’re informed and that way they kind of have ownership and control. and they’re not just proceeding blindly into decision that they don’t know the full ramifications of. ⁓ but that’s that’s I what I would say is my my strength and what I offer to clients really.

Michelle Kesil (08:15)
And what is like the typical scope of projects that you’re supporting people through?

Sean Lahijani (08:22)
⁓ again I’m I’ll kind of say that just like the client base, it could be anyone or anything. If it is a building and needs to get built, that’s something I’ll do. ⁓ but so far since I’ve started my practice, it’s again it’s been a lot of ⁓ single family homes. ⁓ and then now starting to get into the commercial retail world a little bit. ⁓ but you know if anyone has ⁓

You know, they want to build out their ⁓ their office and they’re like an owner user or something, right? ⁓ that’s something where I can come and help with. I think those tend to be projects where people, my clients tend to find the most benefit. A lot of, you know, if you’re a developer, you kind of have the institutional knowledge. You you might know what you’re doing and you might need someone like me to kind of just provide support, but you already know what direction you’re heading in. That’s one way I I can work with people, but

I think owners who again are novices who don’t know the industry, who don’t know the the practices and the standards, that’s that’s where I ⁓ bring value to them.

Michelle Kesil (09:58)
Sure. And what type of maybe concerns do you typically address with your clients?

Sean Lahijani (09:59)
Mm-hmm.

What type of concerns

I would say kind of

Budgetary c like transparency and clarity, making sure that they kind of know what they are getting themselves into, trying to for forecast what their spending habits might be and tracking that for them. ⁓ again, so that they know kind of what their spend is overall. ⁓ also just letting helping letting them know what their options are. I also like to think of myself as

kind of PM support for the GCs on the projects. A lot of GCs, you know, they they’re crafty, they’re scrappy, they want to do good work, they’re they’re they’re honest, and they’re just they want to do ⁓ a good job for the client, but they might not necessarily have the office to support

their projects, right? They’re just they’re kind of builders at heart. So I also come in, I help them. So I’ll manage things like procurement and ⁓ help them with scheduling and help them with you know run the pay app process, a monthly pay app process with them to make sure that, you know, they’re not double dipping, whether it be intentionally or accidentally, and that again we’re tracking costs appropriately for the owner so that they understand how their project is tracking against their budget.

Michelle Kesil (11:26)
Awesome. And what would you say are some obstacles or challenges that you’ve had to overcome and learn from in your role?

Sean Lahijani (11:36)
Mm-hmm. Well, I’ll kind of give a anecdote from my first client who I had previously mentioned. He had originally bought brought on a design build firm who you know was not serving the project, just to put it vaguely. ⁓ they were having trouble securing their permits, their accounting was not very detailed.

⁓ and so I kind of came in, started asking the right questions, ⁓ and started kind of poking and sniffing around. ⁓ I think when I first did this I may have ruffled their feathers, even though maybe I was right to have ruffled their feathers. ⁓

But really at the end of the day I kinda had to just make sure, look, we were, you know, we’re all trying to work on the same team here, or at least we purport to be. ⁓ have to try to be cooperative, ⁓ you know, maybe curtail some of the ⁓ the ways in which I was making requests and demands, but nonetheless holding the line.

⁓ and as a result of that I’d like to say we actually, you know, we got some money back for the client and we were able to ⁓ kind of highlight the a lot of discrepancies and anomalies with the billing practices of of the vendor.

Michelle Kesil (12:51)
Yeah, amazing. And what are you most focused on solving or scaling to next?

Sean Lahijani (12:56)
Well, I would like, you know, in addition to just continuing to bro grow the project management side and the owner’s representation side of the practice, looking forward to starting my own deals and putting together you know finding sites, ⁓ coming up with ideas for you know investment funds. ⁓ so that’s

My my eye is looking in that direction ⁓ as I continue to work on building out the practice. And I’m hopeful that, you know, by end of next year I’ll hopefully have something ⁓ going on there for myself.

Michelle Kesil (13:29)
Great. And are there any opportunities that you are currently excited about?

Sean Lahijani (13:34)
⁓ there’s one but I I d I’m I kinda wanna stay mom about it ’cause it’s my little my little ⁓ pet secret and mental exercise for myself. So hopefully if we talk again in the future I can I’ll be happy to talk more about it and give some detail.

Michelle Kesil (13:48)
Yeah, of course. Is there any advice that you would give to an owner that you’re going to work with?

Sean Lahijani (13:55)
Yeah. I’ll give kind of like the basic one where if you’re get if you’re starting to work with the GC ⁓

If they’re not doing it, which is kind of a red flag if they’re not doing it, but if they’re not breaking out their bids by trade, that’s a huge red flag. Make sure let’s say you’re just even doing a home remodel. Make sure you’re not just getting one lump sum number, but that you’re getting breakouts within any proposal for you know, the cabin tree is X amount of dollars, the plumbing is Y amount of dollars, the HVAC is Z amount of dollars, right?

Make sure you kind of advocate for advocate for seeing having transparency and clarity for all the

numbers you receive and beyond that ⁓ kind of just as I alluded to earlier a lot of GCs they are ⁓ I’ve I have found that they are well meaning but again they’re just not supported and they’re they just want to build they’re not thinking through plan sets and the level of detail and ⁓ you know running all the appropriate takeoffs. ⁓

This is more common again in the residential world than it is in the commercial world. Commercial guys, you’ll find they’re tend to be more established, systematic. They kind of have the processes in place. ⁓ but in the residential world, you as the owner, if you’re not hiring a project manager on your team, it’s you know, it is a bit of a full-time job in and of itself to manage your own home’s construction. And so you kind of have to check their homework, your GC’s homework to make sure, like, are they actually

Capturing things? Are they thinking of everything? Are what am I not considering, right? A lot of people they think, ⁓ and this kind of ties into another fit another lesson. They think, you know, I got some very schematic plans from an interior designer, and I’m just, you know, they’re maybe not ultra detailed, they don’t give all the information that is gonna be needed to ⁓ fully build out the project in the way that they need.

And so GCs are kind of just working off the information that they have. And again, that might not be complete. So you again the owner is left holding the bag and having to do the homework. and kind of again, tangentially on that note, is owners need to understand that when they go, the the you know, as much as they want to think that their ultimate work product is the home that they’re gonna live in.

What’s crucial to understand is that when they hire a designer or you know an architect, and I’ll say I’m a licensed architect, so I’d say make sure you hire a licensed architect, but if you don’t, ⁓ your informate the information on those plan sheets is gonna dictate the quality of information on those plan sheets is gonna dictate the quality of bids you are gonna be able to s potentially solicit for the project. Meaning if

You know, you hire you know, you look at two architects, one gives a higher number, one gives a lower number, substantially lower, you might be thinking, Well, why would I just go with the cheaper guy, right? ⁓ but there perhaps is a reason why the the better guy is charging more, he’s probably

Detailing, doing a better job detailing his project, providing more information for ⁓ the crews to actually build the work. And they have to owners have to understand that the plan set is not just this plan set, it’s not just this document that gets them a permit and gets them the thing that they need to build the house. It is literally the instruction manual for building their home. So if you have a crummy instruction manual, it’s gonna be that much harder for crews to build your home versus a better instruction manual that.

again has more detail more detail, has more clarity, ⁓ which will give better guidance for ⁓ labor crews as they’re building the project out. So that’s very important to understand.

Michelle Kesil (18:14)
Yeah, absolutely. And you mentioned that you’re a licensed architect. Is that a service you’re also providing?

Sean Lahijani (18:20)
Not at this time. it’s also just something that’s on the back burner, so to speak. maybe I’ll re-engage that skill, but I do I do keep my license active and ⁓ had to get the license after all the years of education. I couldn’t just let it ⁓ slip through the cracks.

Michelle Kesil (18:38)
Yeah, amazing. Well, thank you for sharing all of that. P yes. And so before we begin to wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect and learn more, where can people find you and connect with you?

Sean Lahijani (18:41)
Of course.

Sure, they can find me on LinkedIn. I have, you know, obviously my personal page, Sean Lahijani, you can find me on the LinkedIn page there. I also have a LinkedIn page for my company, although that’s not highly active as it should be. But they can also go to my website, www.anomalydevelop.com. And I’m also on Instagram at anomaly development. So those are the places that they can find me. ⁓ I also try to produce some content on my Instagram page.

showcasing the w stuff I’m working on and also providing kind of informative content like ⁓ kind of like this interview as well.

Michelle Kesil (19:28)
Perfect, well appreciate your time and your story. Thank you for being here.

Sean Lahijani (19:32)
My pleasure. Thanks for having me and hope to come back soon.

Michelle Kesil (19:34)
Course. And for the listeners tuning in, if you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We have more conversations with operators like Sean who are building real businesses. And we’ll see you on the next episode.