Private Clients - Large Estates and Ranches

Building the extraordinary, without giving your life to it.

A $5M–$150M+ home or ranch build is one of the most demanding projects a person can undertake. Done well, it becomes the place you always imagined. Done without the right person in your corner, it becomes a second full-time job, one you may not want, or have the time for. I’m the person you hire so that doesn’t happen.

Your time needs to be protected

Everything else on this page serves one promise: I protect the thing you can never get back, your time.

You did not build the life that lets you take on a project like this by spending your days reviewing pay applications and refereeing subcontractors. And yet those decisions have to be made carefully, by someone whose only interest is yours. That’s the tension I resolve. I protect your time in two ways:

I handle the day-to-day, so the project runs without landing on your desk, and you engage on your terms, at the altitude you choose.

I keep a two-year project from becoming a four-year project, because the cost of a build isn’t just money. Delay is measured in seasons of your life.

The work I take off your plate

Conractor and Design Consultant Selection.  I'll source, interview, and help you select the consultants and contractors that will give your project the level of attention it requries.

Contracts and term sheets. I write and review all contracts and term sheets and negotiate fair, comprehensive agreements. This is the foundation. Get it right, and most disputes never happen.

Budget Formation.  Developing a cost expectation for both you and your contractor to work towards.  

Change-order review. When a subcontractor submits a change order, I dig through the past proposals and the contracted scope to confirm it has genuine merit and is priced appropriately before a dollar is approved.

Design coordination. I meet with the designers, architects, landscape architects, and civil, mechanical, and structural engineers, answer their questions, and keep each of them on target to deliver their part. An uncoordinated team of specialists is where many projects slip.

Pay applications and invoices. I review every invoice and pay application so you’re never double-charged or paying ahead of completed work. I keep the entire record organized and intuitive, so any document can be retrieved in seconds.

Issue resolution. When an RFI lands with, “we need an answer by end of day or you’ll incur costs and delays,” you shouldn’t have to navigate it alone. It takes a skilled operator to isolate the issue, investigate the conflict, reach the most efficient resolution, and correctly assign responsibility for any delay or impact.

The systems that make or break a property

An extraordinary property depends on systems most owner’s reps have never had to coordinate. I have. I’m not the subject-matter expert in each; that’s what the right consultants are for, and finding and vetting them is part of my job. But I know each well enough to specify it, engage the best specialists, ask the questions that matter, and hold the work to standard:

•   Landscape and hardscape: large-scale build-outs measured in acres, not beds  

•   Placemaking: what is going to feel awkward, and what is going to make moments spectacular

•   Water: wells, water rights, and the engineering that makes remote land livable

•   Water features: stream courses, ponds, and the grading and hydrology behind them

•   Security: custom systems designed around how you actually live

•   Automation: Lutron and Crestron platforms, coordinated so they work as one

•   Custom cabinetry and kitchen design: design and installation held to highest standard of finished carpentry and millwork 

•   The civil backbone: grading, drainage, utilities, access, and stormwater

Your advocate — I know how projects go wrong

I sit on your side of the table, and only yours. What makes that more than a slogan is where I’ve been. I’ve served as a claims consultant and an expert witness in construction disputes. I’ve seen exactly how and why these projects end up in conflict, and I bring that foresight to your project from day one.

In practice, that means I structure the contracts and keep the documentation so that disputes are prevented, not litigated. And if a conflict does arise, I’ll know how to protect your position, assign responsibility where it belongs, and tell you honestly what’s worth pursuing and what isn’t. Most owner’s reps protect your schedule. I protect your leverage.

How I work

You work directly with me. On a private build, I own the relationship; it’s not something I delegate. Where a project calls for additional expertise, I bring in a hand-picked network of professionals who understand discretion and high-value work as well as I do, and I coordinate them on your behalf. You get the accountability of a single principal and the depth of a full team, without managing either.

Start a private conversation.

Tell me a little about what you’re planning. The first conversation is straightforward, obligation-free, and held in complete confidence.

Contact Lucas →   —   Every inquiry is treated as confidential.