Owner’s representative, Santa Barbara to Carpinteria.
You hire the architect and the builder. Matt Newman sits on your side of the table and checks the drawings, the bids, the bills and the work, from the first budget to the last punch item.
What does an owner’s representative do?
An owner’s representative works for the homeowner, not for the architect or the contractor. On a custom home or a large renovation, the representative reviews the drawings for what will not build, compares the bids line by line, checks each payment request against the work in place, has change orders priced before they are signed, and reports to the owner in writing. At AMN the representative is Matt Newman, a general contractor licensed in California (CSLB 802739).
License record: CSLB 802739 (opens in a new tab)
A second builder, working only for you.
Most owners build once or twice in a lifetime. The architect and the contractor do it every year. An owner’s representative closes that gap.
It tends to pay for itself in five situations: you live somewhere else for part of the year; this is your first large project; the builder is already chosen and you want the bills and the schedule checked; the budget moved and nobody has explained why; or the project is large enough that one missed line costs more than the representative does.
From the first budget to the last punch item.
Read the parcel
Jurisdiction, review bodies, the permit path and an order of cost, in writing. The same reading we give our own building clients. The process.
Check the drawings against the budget
A written constructability review while the set is being drawn, and a budget revised against real drawings, so the number and the design stay together.
Compare the bids line by line
Bids are leveled so the same scope is being compared. Matt reads the allowances, the payment schedule and the change-order clause before you sign. What good paperwork looks like.
Walk the site, check the bills
Site walks, payment requests checked against the work in place, and every change priced in writing before the work happens. You get a written report with photographs.
Punch list and warranty papers
A punch walk with you, the final inspection record, warranty documents, and copies of the drawings, reports and permits for your file.
A payment request arrives. Would you pay it?
This is a specimen request from the fourth month of a renovation. Three of the seven lines should not be paid as billed. The drawing is the house as it stood that morning. Tap the lines you would question.
What the site walk showsPoint at a line to find it on the house
Pay it. Demolition is finished and the bins are gone.
Question it. The walls are standing and the roof framing has not started. About half the framing is in place, so about half is due: $48,000, not $81,600.
Pay it. Supply and drain lines are in and the inspection card is signed. Sixty percent matches the work.
Question it. The windows are ordered. None are on site. Ask for the supplier’s invoice and the delivery date, and pay when they arrive.
Question it. There is no signed change order. Work that changes the contract sum is not billed until you have approved the price in writing.
Pay it. Boxes are set and the first floor is pulled. Thirty percent is fair.
Pay it. Site costs billed evenly by month are normal.
Tap the lines you would question, then check.
Show the answers
- Demolition and haul-off: Pay it. Demolition is finished and the bins are gone.
- Framing, rear addition: Question it. The walls are standing and the roof framing has not started. About half the framing is in place, so about half is due: $48,000, not $81,600.
- Rough plumbing: Pay it. Supply and drain lines are in and the inspection card is signed. Sixty percent matches the work.
- Windows and exterior doors: Question it. The windows are ordered. None are on site. Ask for the supplier’s invoice and the delivery date, and pay when they arrive.
- Change order 3: move the gas line: Question it. There is no signed change order. Work that changes the contract sum is not billed until you have approved the price in writing.
- Rough electrical: Pay it. Boxes are set and the first floor is pulled. Thirty percent is fair.
- General conditions, month 4 of 11: Pay it. Site costs billed evenly by month are normal.
Paid as billed, this request sends $152,000 ahead of the work.
On a California home improvement contract, a contractor may not ask for or accept a payment that exceeds the value of the work performed or material delivered (Business and Professions Code 7159.5). CSLB bulletin on progress payments (PDF, opens in a new tab). Checking each request against the site is how a representative holds everyone to it.
A report you can read in five minutes.
This specimen is written the way Matt writes them. It follows the payment request above.
from M. Newman, owner’s representative
Where the project stands
Demolition is finished. The rear addition is framed to the top plate; roof framing starts next week. Rough plumbing is in and signed off. Rough electrical is about a third done.
Schedule
The builder’s schedule shows week 16 of 44. By my walk it is week 14: framing is two weeks behind the bars. I have asked the builder for a recovery plan in writing by Wednesday.
Payment request No. 4
- Billed: $292,200. Recommended for payment now: $140,200.
- Framing billed at 85 percent; about half is in place. Pay $48,000 of the $81,600.
- Windows billed in full; none delivered. Hold $112,000 until they are on site.
- Change order 3 billed with no signed change order. Hold $6,400 until you have approved the price.
Quality
Hold-downs at the addition are set and nutted. One header over the new slider is a size smaller than the structural sheet calls for; the builder has agreed to replace it before sheathing.
Decisions I need from you
- Approve or decline change order 3, moving the gas line, at $6,400.
- Confirm the window delivery date with the builder’s supplier invoice in hand.
Photographs
Eleven photographs attached: framing, the header, rough plumbing, and the site.
Specimen. Figures and findings are illustrative and match the payment request above.
Six papers that should come with every bill.
A schedule of values
Every line of the contract, what has been billed to date, and the percent complete. It is the page you just checked.
Photographs of the work billed
Dated, and specific to the lines being billed this month.
Lien releases
A conditional release for this payment from the contractor and each subcontractor and supplier being paid, and unconditional releases for last month’s. California sets the wording of all four forms (Civil Code 8132 to 8138).
Signed change orders
For every dollar outside the original contract sum, signed by you before the work was done.
Inspection records
The inspector’s sign-off for any stage being billed as complete.
The preliminary notices
Subcontractors and suppliers who send you a preliminary notice are the ones who can later record a lien. Keep them in one folder and match the releases against them.
General information for California homeowners, not legal advice. For your own contract, ask a construction attorney.
Another firm builds. Matt works for you: drawings, bids, bills, schedule and quality, reported in writing.
AMN builds it. One fixed contract sum, set at preconstruction, with Matt on site. General contracting
How AMN runs the jobs it builds: schedule, budget, permits, trades and a written update every Friday. Project management
On a project where AMN is your representative, AMN is not the builder. A builder cannot check its own payment requests.
An owner’s rep in each of the five towns.
The review path decides the schedule here, so it decides much of what a representative watches. Each town’s path is different.
Montecito
Montecito is unincorporated, so permits come from Santa Barbara County, and exterior design goes to the Montecito Board of Architectural Review in three stages. The Montecito Fire Protection District checks driveway access and water supply on its own list. As your representative Matt tracks each of those against the builder’s schedule, so a missed board date shows up in the report the week it happens.
General contractor in Montecito: the full review path
Santa Barbara
Inside the City of Santa Barbara the City issues permits. Most single-family houses go to the Single Family Design Board, and anything in El Pueblo Viejo or with a historic designation goes to the Historic Landmarks Commission. Some Santa Barbara addresses, such as Mission Canyon, are County land. Matt confirms which one applies to your parcel before the design team spends time on the wrong path.
General contractor in Santa Barbara: the full review path
Hope Ranch
Hope Ranch has two tracks. Building permits come from Santa Barbara County, and the private Hope Ranch Park Homes Association must approve exterior changes in writing through conceptual, preliminary and final review. The two interleave. A representative keeps both calendars in one schedule and checks the drawings against the Association’s height limits before they are submitted.
General contractor in Hope Ranch: the full review path
Summerland
Summerland is unincorporated, so permits are the County’s, design goes to the County Board of Architectural Review, and most of the Community Plan area is in the Coastal Zone. Lots are narrow and steep. Matt reads the builder’s access, staging and crane plan early, because on these lots that plan is a large part of the price.
General contractor in Summerland: the full review path
Carpinteria
Carpinteria is its own city and every parcel in it is in the Coastal Zone. The Architectural Review Board reviews design and the Planning Commission decides Coastal Development Permits. Near the beach, salt air is a specification. Matt checks that the fasteners, metals, windows and finishes in the bid are the ones the drawings call for.
General contractor in Carpinteria: the full review path
Review bodies checked against official sources, November 2026, in Who permits your house, town by town. Boards and maps change, and parcels differ.
Owner’s representative: what owners ask.
What is the difference between an owner’s rep and a general contractor?
Is an owner’s rep the same as a project manager?
When should I bring in an owner’s representative?
Can you step in on a project that is already under way?
Do I still need an architect?
Is AMN licensed?
How is the fee set?
Matt Newman, principal. Licensed since 2001. Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, twenty years on this coast, and on every AMN site himself. His story
Send the address and where the project stands. Matt will tell you what he would check first.
Email it to purchasing@amnbuild.com. Matt reads it himself and replies in writing within two business days.
CSLB 802739 · Class B General Building · Licensed and insured
Updated November 2026