‍^{How Savvy Residential Developers & RE Investors Think of A Good Design?}

Did you know that for developers and long-term RE investors, a good design is not specifically related to initial cost?!So, what is it related to then,

you might ask, if not immediately to construction costs? Its actually related to operating costs.

This is not my claim. I learned it from several residential and commercial developer-clients, confirmed by many facility managers who supervise any retrofit or major renovations.

What this means is that choosing "cheap" materials, fixtures, equipment, or finishes may sound like a reasonable (definately favorable) decision to reduce the project budget. But without considering the operating performance of these materials or methods of installation, this becomes a falacy.

Operating costs over the years can easily surpasses the initial costs and cause a big financial leak (not only energy leaks). As a practicing architect, I seek a critical balance between 3 elements of design; site planning, sourcing of materials and spec, and obviously construction budget.

Only critical balance can help achieve REAL building efficiency.In this video, which I'm repurposing to the concept of what "a good design means for savvy developers", I point out to the mistakes that architects often make during the schematic phase. For example, creating amenity green roofs can definately increase initial costs.

However, it can also reduce overall operation costs through minimizing thermal loads during winter (the latter can be false if maintenance costs of the green amenity roof surpasses the energy saving, so, detailing is crucial or as they say the devil is in the detail...).

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_{I've created an on-demand class called How to Start Your Building Permit The Most Efficient Way!.
Even though it talks mainly about fast building permit approvals, it is much related to two issues: innovative thinking before starting the project, and how it can expedite your building approval time, and secondly the importance of engaging the architect in zoning reviews (and the imporance of zoning reviews).}

_{Click on the button below to watch it. its FREE.}‍