Looking for a part time Project Manager

[Wrekin1]

Hi all,

 

I'm looking for some help/advice. I've run into the situation with the potential companies financing my project (3 new builds for sale) that they want me to have either a builder or project manager involved as I have no previous experience in order to be able to secure the finance I need.

 

My intention has always been to parcel up the various major stages of the build and manage the majority of the procurement and contractors myself and had definitely wanted to avoid having a full time builder involved as I believe that with the contractors I know and will use that this will be an unnecessary and large expense.

 

However the lenders are willing to consider a part-time project manager, one who is capable of ensuring the initial plans (costings, build schedules and HSE etc..) are appropriate and then is able to be onsite on an occasional basis at key stages of the build and can be available at the end of a phone as and when I may need. Initially I was not keen but as I've read through the various sections on here and as, in any case, they have me over a barrel, it looks like I've come round to the idea.

 

Has anyone any advice to offer on using PM's, type of experience they must have that I should look for, or even where to look to find one? Alternatively If anyone has the name(s) of a good PM who they think would be willing to take on this type of role (the build is in Shropshire) I would be more than happy to be contacted.

 

Many thanks in advance.

ps for the Mods please let me know if I'm posting anything inappropriate and I'll modify.

[Incipiens Mox]

A bit of a while since this post but it caught my attention as I'm in a similar situation: Obtained mortgage with a main contractor appointed to do the work using a mixture of his own guys and sub-contracted work. He then had to drop out as his (mainly Polish) guys got cold feet after Brexit and the drop in the pound and returned home. Scratched around and found a general builder but the costs were 40-50% higher so now looking for a PM in the East Herts area who's prepared to manage the work on the ground, overssee site access etc., with me sourcing materials as and where necessary and tendering for sub-contract roles.

 

Despite the site being very active, I see very few recommendations either requested or given on Buildhub leading me to wonder if there's a rule that I've overlooked prohibiting them. If so, can anyone suggest other places to hunt down suitable site/project managers?

[newhome]

4 hours ago, Incipiens Mox said:

Despite the site being very active, I see very few recommendations either requested or given on Buildhub leading me to wonder if there's a rule that I've overlooked prohibiting them. If so, can anyone suggest other places to hunt down suitable site/project managers?

 

Direct advertising isn’t allowed on BuildHub (see info from the site guidelines below) so no one can directly offer you their services in this respect. We do allow members to recommend services or goods but tbh from the many posts on here I don’t think that many people use a standalone project manager. It seems to be a role that they either choose to do themselves, or the main contractor covers it as per your original plan. Some people appoint the architect to cover the role I believe. This was an approach that @ultramods considered I believe before he decided to do it himself. @lizzie appointed a PM for her build but it didn’t seem to be a great experience in that she ended up doing a great deal of the work herself in the end. There are other self build sites on Facebook, some more active than others, and most seem to allow advertising so you could maybe ask on one of those? Alternatively if a member wants to recommend someone they could send you names by PM but having a stand-alone PM seems like an expensive exercise so maybe there just aren’t too many people who chose to manage their build in this way? 

 

Commercial Content and Advertising

 

BuildHub has a strict no-advertising policy, and you must not submit content for commercial gain. If you do recommend a product or service, please ensure that you have no commercial incentive to do so.

[Incipiens Mox]

Thanks for the clarification. Given what's happened to me and my experiences of trying to find people who want to take on the overall build, I'm convinced that (a) I could do a lot worse than to give it a go myself and (b) even with a (very expensive) fully hands-off, turn-key approach, I would still be pulled into all sorts of nonsense anyway so might as well have done it myself.

 

However, the mortgage that I have arranged (which will involve inspection at various stages) insists on a builder/project manager/main contractor running the build and my neighbours, who have still yet to complete the party wall agreement, and who have been quite negative and are unlikely to take kindly to an 'amateur' running the build. Besides which, the mortgage will be large and my salary is, luckily, able to cover it so all things considered, I think it's probably best for me to stay in my day job for the moment.

[recoveringbuilder]

Would your architect not oversee the build with you doing all the sourcing of materials etc, we have just built our third house which we are fortunate enough not to have needed a mortgage for but on our previous two builds we did have mortgages and the lenders were happy enough for us to be in charge of the day to day running of the build and sourcing of materials and the architect overseeing the whole thing: checking at different stages that everything was how it should be, I might be tight but I would never be happy with anyone else sourcing materials as I don’t think they’d put the work in to getting the best prices as you would do yourselves!

[Incipiens Mox]

Sound advice although in our case, our relationship with the structural engineer is a bit strained given that it's taken him best part of two years to come up with building regs and still not finished.

[recoveringbuilder]

Your structural engineer wouldn’t take on the role, it would have to be the architect 

[Jeremy Harris]

I found that one or two of the frame suppliers we approached were able to recommend a project manager, although in the end I opted not to go down that route.  I also met up with one project manager, who I'd have found easy to work with, just by doing a web search for project managers within reasonable travelling distance.  That chap had set up a small business specialising in project managing small building projects, and IIRC there were three of them working out of a small home office.

 

[Incipiens Mox]

11 hours ago, Christine Walker said:

Your structural engineer wouldn’t take on the role, it would have to be the architect 

 

As far as the mortgage is concerned, I think you're right. They did actually offer for 2% of build - probably not a bad rate if I didn't severely doubt their capabilities.