Award-Winning Office Could Save You Cash By Helping UBuildIt

So, you’re tool challenged and handy hampered, but have always had a burning desire to wear a hardhat and steel-toed boots, standing on a construction site barking orders to your troops. Problem is, you don’t know a Phillips screwdriver from a fly swatter. Is there hope for you? Randy Tutor believes in you.

As co-owner of the Escondido office of Kirkland, Wash.-based UBuildIt, Tutor spends his time helping everyone from butchers, bakers and candlestick makers to doctors, lawyers and computer geeks to be their own general contractors.

UBuildIt consultants offer day-to-day help, so the “owner-builder” can make all those important decisions on buying materials and scheduling the subcontractors, saving what Tutor said can be up to 35 percent on homebuilding and remodeling projects. And you don’t need to be schooled or certified.

“You can’t do it for somebody else’s house, but you can do it for your own,” said Tutor, whose operation recently was named 2004 Office of the Year and won the Excellence Award at the UBuildIt National Convention in Tampa, Fla. “Nowadays, people are Internet savvy, and with all the home-improvement chains, you can do it yourself.”

Tutor’s office, the first in Southern California of the 112-office chain, opened in January 2004 and now has more than 110 custom home projects and 40 remodels and additions under way in north San Diego, Riverside and Orange counties. Different project, different costs. It all depends.

Tutor said that his first order of business is developing a budget , so there are no surprises for the owner-builder down the line. The budget covers many aspects, including assembling the subcontractors and suppliers.

Depending on the complexity of the project, said Tutor, that phase can run anywhere from $2,500 to $8,000. During construction, the per-square-footage charge can range from $6 to $12 a square foot.

And, yes, as in any construction project, stuff can happen, said Tutor.

“People’s lives change,” he said. “Some people don’t have the land or the architectural plans or the financing. We help them acquire all of those things. The project can take up to 18 months, and a lot can happen in that period. People get transferred, their personal finances don’t support it, there can be geological issues with land, even biological issues, zoning issues , a lot of hurdles.

“There are always going to be problems, because you’re dealing with people,” Tutor added. “We try to help people through those situations.”

His office does about 70 percent custom homes and about 30 percent remodels and additions.

“If interest rates go up, remodels will go higher,” said Tutor.

One of the biggest laments of builders involves what they consider to be an onerous permitting process.

“Everyone thinks their permit office is toughest , Laguna Niguel, Oceanside, Carlsbad,” said Tutor. “But the permit office is in the business of issuing permits, not denying them. You have to put your best foot forward when presenting architectural plans, soil, structural engineering. If you cut any corners, and what you’re submitting is not quite complete, it will send up red flags to the permit office. If you put your best foot forward on the front end and comply, you will get permits.”

But even if everything goes smoothly, Tutor said, going the UBuildIt route isn’t for everyone.

“Some people need a general contractor,” he said, “especially those who have no time an airline pilot or a brain surgeon might not have time to get involved. You need an hour or an hour and a half per day on the planning, not including time being on the site, and you need to be out there once or twice a week.”

But, for those who are game, Tutor is at the ready.

“We make them productive,” he said. “We teach them how to build.”

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Sinking Sales:

San Diego County apartment sales continued to wane for the second consecutive quarter, according to a new study by Burnham Real Estate.

The report, released Aug. 9, shows a steady year-to-date decrease in the total number of transaction and units sold over the same period last year, reflecting “a pause in investor demand until asking prices become more in balance with rents.”

“In 2004, unprecedented investor demand pushed apartment values up by as much as 25 percent to 50 percent, while rents rose by just 3 percent,” said George Carlson, vice president and apartment specialist with Burnham Real Estate. “This is a temporary and necessary market correction in a market where a shortage of affordable for-sale housing to meet demand will continue to support a very strong apartment market.”

Some tidbits from the report:

- There were 265 sales of apartment properties totaling 3,557 units during the second quarter of 2005, down 24.3 percent from 350 transactions totaling 6,291 units during the same period in 2004.

- Year-to-date, the 509 apartment properties sold totaling 7,541 units reflects a 24.7 percent decrease from the first six months of 2004, when 676 properties totaling 11,054 units were transferred.

- Sales activity for small three- to four-unit projects is heating up, said Carlson.

“During the second quarter of this year, there were 124 sales of these smaller projects, involving 442 units, a 33 percent increase over the previous quarter, when there were 94 sales of projects totaling 332 units,” he said. “Many of these are first-time investors, and they’re paying unprecedented high prices for the smaller complexes.”

- The most active areas in San Diego County in the second quarter were Inland North, with 32 sales involving 540 units; North Park, 29 sales, 195 units; Golden Hill/Southeast San Diego, 26 sales, 231 units; and El Cajon, 24 sales, 216 units.

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Big Deals:

Buchanan Street Partners, a San Diego-based real estate investment bank, has secured institutional financing on behalf of Asian Realty Group of Irvine for the acquisition and conversion of the Bernardo Hills Apartments to for-sale condos in Rancho Bernardo. The transaction is valued at $67.4 million, which includes $15 million in equity.

Conversion of the property, located adjacent to the Camino Del Norte exit of Interstate 15, is scheduled to start immediately, with completion of the first phase set for this fall.

In another transaction, a 57,751-square-foot, midrise Class A office building in Kearny Mesa has been sold for $12.3 million.

The buyer was Mullrock 3 Murphy Canyon LLC, a partnership of the Muller Co. and Rockwood Capital Corp. The seller was Encinitas Carlsbad Professional Association, a California general partnership.

Mark McEwen of Colliers International represented the buyer, while Jim Ashcraft of Ashcraft Investment Co. represented the seller.

The building is 100 percent leased, with tenants including Hewlett-Packard Co., Agilent Technologies, Republic Insurance and the state of California.

Send residential and commercial real estate news to pbroderick@sdbj.com or via fax at (858) 571-3628.