MAOR is an advisory firm that represents homeowners building architecturally distinctive homes. We act as your advocate throughout the process — coordinating between architect, engineer, and builder, and ensuring your interests are protected.

Not all owners will need an owner's representative. In fact, if an owner can dedicate the 20 hours a week or so that is required to handle the administrative tasks and site visits that would be required of them to protect this significant investment, they would likely be better served handling it themselves.

But certain owners lead busy lives and do not have the time to review every contract and invoice, let alone travel to the construction site to complete inspections. Certain owners wish to build something unique and boundary-pushing, requiring construction methods that even seasoned homebuilders are not acquainted with. This can pose challenges for the owner in assessing the quality of workmanship.

Our expertise and experience allows owners to forge ahead on this journey with the confidence that they have the support and resources needed to execute the project to its fullest potential.

Building a high end, custom home, in particular a modern home, is an inherently complex task. No matter who you hire as a builder, or how hands-on your architect is, the process can end up requiring over 20 hours of work per week for the owner, over a process that can easily take two to five years or even longer. We simplify the process by stepping into your shoes and ensuring that everyone involved is doing their jobs.

Some architects will handle construction management, but it may not be their core business. Architects have a vested interest in ensuring that their design intent is not lost in the process of building. While there are measures in place to ensure this, such as requirements for the builder to create mock-ups that the architect must review and approve, there is no replacement for regular in-person visits and inspections. Further, if your architect is not local to the area you are building, it will be less likely that they will be on-site enough to catch issues on your behalf.

A general contractor will follow your architect’s plans, but many do not necessarily look for efficiencies that can benefit you. While a reputable builder will stand behind their work, they are not necessarily scrutinizing their own work from the perspective of the homeowner. As a general matter, your architect and builder’s interests are rarely going to be perfectly aligned with yours. Our job is to ensure that your interests are always protected.

Our job is to fill in the gaps that will otherwise fall to the owner, and ensure that everything is done correctly, and eliminate redundancies between various teams.

We can provide general contracting and construction management services for select projects, depending on the location of the property.

However, we are primarily advocates for homeowners. We work on your behalf to identify prospective general contractors that are qualified to build the type of home you desire. We then work with you to review bids, negotiate contracts, and ensure that your interests are protected.

Once construction is underway, we collaborate with the builder to ensure that budgets and timelines are adhered to, that the architect’s design intent is achieved, and that no deviations to the plans are made without your knowledge and approval.

In our experience, an owner rep can make economic sense for almost any size project, depending on the issues that the homeowner is trying to solve. However, as a rule of thumb, new-build projects in the $2M+ range typically are complex enough to warrant an owner's rep's involvement.

But the true question is whether the homeowner has the time and the interest in dealing with the myriad of complexities that building a home will throw at them. A homeowner building a $750k off-grid cabin in the Catskills, but who works 80-hour weeks in New York City and has hired a non-local architect who is unable to do regular site visits, would be well served in hiring an owner rep. On the flip side, an owner with a $5M new build across the street from their existing home, may not need an owner's rep at all.

For projects that will require a full scope of owner representation services, our geographic area includes the Hudson Valley, New York City, the Hamptons, the Catskills, and Berkshires. Projects with a more limited scope (including owner-builder advisory work) that are outside of this geographic region may be accepted on a case-by-case basis.

Much like each project that we work on is unique to the homeowner, our fee structure too will be tailored to fit the needs of each project. In general (with our fees, as well as the fees for other professionals that we engage on behalf of our clients), we favor flat fee or hourly fee structures, over percentage-based structures, as percentage-based structures typically do not accurately reflect the work required, and create an incentive structure that runs counter to our client’s interests.

We recognize that some of the most in-demand designers and architects can be difficult to engage. We will work with you to identify the right architect, designer and other professionals for your project, and assist with putting together proposals and with the outreach to these firms. Many top architects are selective about new commissions. We help you put together a compelling proposal and make the right introduction.

Yes — and we speak from experience. We've served as owner-GC on our own architectural build, so we understand the challenges firsthand. We offer hourly advisory engagements for owner-builders, including templates for budgets, takeoffs, and subcontractor agreements.