About Coastal Property Management Services LLC

Background

Coastal Property Management Services originated from the management of a small family real estate portfolio in Southeast Texas. The company ownership, having stepped away from a mainstream career in the corporate world, realized a definitive need to fully control the maintenance and renovation projects required by their family real estate holdings.

Possessing many years of experience with real estate investments and construction activities, and now being invested in a developed internal infrastructure, the decision was made to additionally offer the firm’s services to outside customers.

History

While the company’s immediate origins are the result of recent circumstances, the true roots of the company go back several generations. In earlier times, company ownership garnered valuable exposure to property rehabilitation and construction through working for several years with the family’s general contracting business. And, much of those skills and aptitudes were handed down from family generations prior.

Inspired by that background, real estate investments have been a part of the founder’s activities since the moment a loan and some corresponding cash could be cobbled together.

The name “Coastal,” while fitting for the company’s service territory, also pays homage to name of the previous family construction business, which many years ago gave this entire endeavor its initial foundation.

Philosophy

Over the years, being on various sides of business, real estate, and construction has provided us with crucial perspectives on a range of topics. What follows is a summary of several concepts that we feel strongly about, and we believe are very important to doing business in this industry.

Contracting: We’re continually amazed at the sheer number of “contractors” that don’t actually contract for anything. Outside of the obvious risks to all parties involved, we’ve seen more than enough disagreements and points of contention over the years to know that we need to take the exact opposite approach.
We provide a legally binding contract for the engagements we perform, regardless of size. Deliverables, responsibilities and obligations, and payment milestones will be clearly defined. We can and will also customize a contract to fit a given circumstance, and we are fully comfortable enlisting legal counsel to ensure this is done correctly. This protects the consumer and protects us.
Employment Practices: Based on personal experience, employment practices in the construction and property maintenance industries tend to be among the most lax we’ve ever observed. Again, our approach is the opposite. We are dedicated to ensuring a legal workforce, including mandated I-9 forms, identification verification, and a compliant and documented payroll system for all employees.
Subcontractors: Using subcontractors is often a necessity as a general contractor and project manager, and at times it is legally required for certain skilled trades. However, our opinion is that the usage of subcontractors should be minimized, with labor kept in-house whenever possible. This allows us to have direct control over the workflow, end product, and the personnel on site, and it also reduces potential legal risks to the customer. We’ve discovered that this is particularly important for complicated remodeling projects, which can require significant planning and coordination.

Conversely, we’ve found that many operations in the local construction industry are basically just marketing companies, who barely employ any actual field staff. If you’ve ever seen a fancy truck and a nice fellow with a clipboard show up to quote a job, but then a fleet of unmarked vans with an impersonal workforce arrive to actually perform the work, you’ve already experienced what we’re referring to.

In the instances where we will utilize subcontractors, we make it a point to communicate this clearly and openly.
Insurance: We maintain a meaningful general liability policy for our overall business, plus an active workers’ compensation policy applicable to staff members. Proof of insurance is always available upon request, and our standard practice is to attach a copy of our certificates to our project quotations and contracts. If subcontractors are involved in our projects, they are also required to carry insurance and to name us as additional insured.
Communication: Communication is a potential problem in any line of work, but in construction and real estate management we’ve observed seemingly countless communication failures over the years. In our experience, this goes well beyond correspondence related to items such as, timelines, deliveries, and change orders, although we strive to always avoid these very common shortcomings. Even worse in our view, though, is when on-site personnel either don’t understand a project’s scope and requirements or can’t effectively communicate regarding those crucial topics.

It’s our hope that we can do a small part to counter this apparent structural deficiency in the industry. We’re committed to staffing projects with competent team members who have been equipped to understand the relevant scope of work and to communicate directly with the customers if necessary. And, if field personnel can’t appropriately address a given item, prompt access to a senior team member will be readily available.
Competition: Unfortunately, executing on engagements in a professional, ethical, and legally sound manner is not always the most cost-efficient approach. This is a fact that we fully recognize.

With that said, if you are considering enlisting our services, we encourage you to respectfully raise some of the topics mentioned above to potential competitors. We believe you may have some informative conversations.