00:00:00:07 - 00:00:20:01 Speaker 1 I wish I had, known that you did. City of Bel Air. Because, the other permit company that I was using didn't do City of Bel Air. And I submitted things wrong, like, three times. I kept having to, like, delete and back out and redo it. I spent, like, half a day messing with this stuff. And, you know, I, I would love to just hand that off to somebody else. 00:00:20:03 - 00:00:22:01 Speaker 2 Right. Well, call me next time I'm here. 00:00:22:02 - 00:00:28:05 Speaker 1 Oh, absolutely. 00:00:28:07 - 00:00:47:15 Speaker 2 Vacation and relationships are really key to any, project that you're, you know, going to kick off and and, like you say, it, it is a journey. The way that we kind of look at it is, you know, we're excited to help people fulfill their dreams. I mean, it's not just about getting a permit for us. I mean, we're putting people to work. 00:00:47:17 - 00:01:06:18 Speaker 2 They're feeding their families. They're building their homes, their futures for their children. I mean, and so looking at it from that perspective, it really makes it makes it more tangible for us. I love, I love, I love it when it gets done. I'm like, oh, there it is. Golden ticket. You know, we got this. 00:01:06:20 - 00:01:28:22 Speaker 1 Hey friends, welcome back to the Your Project Shepherd podcast. And today we are going to be talking about an aspect of the building process that's often, overlooked, but which is crucial to getting your project started off on a positive note. And that is permitting. And so to help us navigate this permitting jumble, today we have Rami Elizondo with permit pros with us. 00:01:29:00 - 00:01:30:07 Speaker 1 Rami, first of all, welcome. 00:01:30:11 - 00:01:30:23 Speaker 2 Thank you. 00:01:30:23 - 00:01:37:22 Speaker 1 Curtis, can you give us a quick rundown of kind of what we're going to be talking about in this episode in relation to permitting? 00:01:37:22 - 00:02:01:02 Speaker 2 So today we're going to talk about the value of having a permitting professional on your team. We're going to talk about the resources and relationship that we bring to the table. Common mistakes that can slow down the process. We'll also talk about how we can reduce stress and make your project outcome a lot smoother. And then also we'll talk about the project timeline and how it all affects your budget. 00:02:01:06 - 00:02:23:13 Speaker 1 Awesome. You know, one of the things that we talk about a lot here in the podcast is, and this is kind of one of our core kind of ideas that we have is, is building your team and having good people on your team. And, you know, just like the architect and the engineer and the designer and the builder, you know, we all have our own specific sets of knowledge and expertise. 00:02:23:15 - 00:02:43:15 Speaker 1 And, but permitting professionals have their own specialized skill set, and there's a lot of, nuance to navigating the permitting, you know, minefields. Right. What kinds of knowledge, you know, do you guys have that help navigate that process that, you know, a builder or an architect may not have? 00:02:43:17 - 00:03:04:15 Speaker 2 Well, you know, so what we do is we study the process, from the beginning, we build relationships with the people at the cities. Any time I start out a new relationship with the municipality, I go there, I talk to everybody that will listen, I introduce myself, I take them cookies. I mean, we literally, you know, we send thank you notes. 00:03:04:15 - 00:03:33:06 Speaker 2 We are building a foundation of a relationship with these people. And, you know, back before Covid, we could go into a lot of the offices and, you know, sit in front of them and get to know them. And that's something that has changed a little bit since Covid. Everything is gone online. And so our written communication has, increased significantly, you know, but still being able to go in and talk to them and understand the process and know who to talk to, that is really key. 00:03:33:09 - 00:03:47:06 Speaker 1 And you work in in other media, in other municipalities, I can't talk to them in the municipalities. You can keep it in there. Don't cut that out. That's funny. You work in other cities, besides just Euston, right? We were talked about this beforehand. 00:03:47:10 - 00:03:57:05 Speaker 2 Yeah, I sure do. I work all over Texas, actually. Any of the villages or some of the smaller municipalities around Houston? We do quite a bit of work in there. 00:03:57:10 - 00:04:18:13 Speaker 1 And so City of Houston, like like you said, like most of that's gone online now, I guess you can still walk in there for certain things if you need to, but they like to do everything online. But some of these smaller, cities, memorial villages West, you, Bel Air, all those types of places, you can still walk in and kind of develop a face to face relationship with some of those folks, right? 00:04:18:13 - 00:04:18:21 Speaker 1 Yeah. 00:04:18:22 - 00:04:33:03 Speaker 2 You're correct about that. It's kind of hit or miss. I mean, some of them do still use, the paper plan. Some of them do use, an online portal. All of the offices are open now though. So if you really need to, you can go in and talk to someone. 00:04:33:04 - 00:04:58:20 Speaker 1 Yeah. So, you know, having those relations ships with the people in the city, I think is is key because if you're just submitting something online and, you know, again, with Houston, it's hard because it's so big. There's so many people. It's a big staff, but especially I think with some of the smaller, cities, it's essential to have those face to face relationships because you can call up, you know, Bellaire, for example, and say, you know, hey, Christian. 00:04:58:22 - 00:05:17:01 Speaker 1 Hey, Mike, here's what I need. Remember me? We're working on this project and they're like, oh, yeah, she's the lady that came in and introduced herself and was really easy to talk to versus just, if you're just a number, right, you don't get the same, you know, kind of response that you might if you have that personal connection. 00:05:17:01 - 00:05:35:17 Speaker 2 That's right. And this is really all about relationships in any business when when we're working with people, you know, they're not just a number to me either. You know, I'm not just trying to get something from them. I mean, you know, I want to build a relationship where, you know, I can make this process easier for them, too. 00:05:35:17 - 00:05:52:21 Speaker 2 I mean, a lot of times they'll see a set of plans, and they're like, what in the world? You know? But if if I can streamline that process and they see a project coming from permit pros, they know what to expect and they know it's going to be easier and they'll they'll click on my project before they let maybe somebody else. 00:05:52:23 - 00:06:06:11 Speaker 1 Yeah. Let's make this easy today. Let's, let's, let's start our day off with the easy project and pick that one. Knock it out before we before we look at the one that I know is going to be a mess, where they're it's missing things and stuff's out of order and whatever. Right. 00:06:06:13 - 00:06:07:06 Speaker 2 Absolutely. 00:06:07:10 - 00:06:25:02 Speaker 1 I think that as builders and architects, a lot of us tend to view all the cities as being like, we have to deal with this now. And, you know, I don't want to go have to interface to those people. They're a pain in the butt. But I think it's important to keep in mind, like you said, these people are our human like. 00:06:25:04 - 00:06:40:10 Speaker 1 They want their day to go smoothly, too, just like you and I do. So it's having those relationships and knowing kind of how to interface with people. It's like anything like you, you have to know the personalities and how you're going to talk to that person. You don't deal with every single person in your life the same way. 00:06:40:10 - 00:06:46:02 Speaker 1 You have to kind of tailor your, responses and your actions with how you know that they're going to react to you. Right? 00:06:46:04 - 00:06:49:13 Speaker 2 Right. It is psychological, for sure. 00:06:49:15 - 00:07:15:22 Speaker 1 Your job isn't really to know necessarily all the specific items that are in the code, right? I mean, like that's that's kind of what the architects should be doing, the engineers, the builders to some extent. But you have to have enough knowledge about what's about current codes that are adopted and what the cities are looking for. You have to have enough knowledge to be able to look at a package and know that this is complete, right? 00:07:16:00 - 00:07:51:18 Speaker 2 Yeah, absolutely. And the way that we do that at Permit Pros is we've been rejected a lot and we keep track. And so I have a checklist that I've created for each one of the different project types. And I'll go through and mark off the items, go through and look at the plans. Detail oriented communication with the architect and engineer trying to get the project comments, issues, all of that stuff taken care of up front so that we can mitigate multiple submissions where our goal is two submissions maximum. 00:07:51:18 - 00:08:08:15 Speaker 2 And so having that checklist in place and knowing exactly what the like the comment of the month is, you know, because a lot of these, requirements have been in place. They just haven't enforced them. Yeah. And so I'm sure you've run into that before where it's like, oh, okay. I didn't know we had to do that now. 00:08:08:15 - 00:08:13:14 Speaker 2 And so we just we keep track of all of that and have an exhaustive list of comments. 00:08:13:14 - 00:08:30:05 Speaker 1 Yeah. Like you said, the comment of the month, I think sometimes especially some of the bigger cities like Houston May I'm sure they have staff meetings right where the where the head of the plumbing departments like, hey, we've been noticing this. I want you to pay special attention and watch for this item on the plans right now. Right. 00:08:30:07 - 00:08:37:17 Speaker 1 And so whereas the planner review staff may not have been looking for something before, now they're like, oh, I've got to kind of check that box every single time. 00:08:37:17 - 00:08:39:06 Speaker 2 Yeah, absolutely. 00:08:39:08 - 00:08:55:19 Speaker 1 And so, you know, you're seeing the things that are getting kicked back on a regular basis or new issues that start to pop up. So you can make your, your, your customers aware, hey, make sure this is on your plans or as you're reviewing them, you're like, nope, they miss the smoke detectors. You know, that. They've been really catching that lately, right? 00:08:55:19 - 00:08:56:02 Speaker 1 Yep. 00:08:56:02 - 00:08:56:22 Speaker 2 Absolutely. 00:08:57:04 - 00:09:16:22 Speaker 1 And also, I mean, I you know, we talked about dealing with personalities and kind of knowing how to talk to them. I think sometimes is also knowing who not to talk to, like who to avoid, like again like at anything. There's always certain people that are, that are going to be more difficult. And so it's kind of knowing these are the people that I could maybe try to steer away from, if possible. 00:09:16:22 - 00:09:19:02 Speaker 1 And let's go talk to this person in the office. Right. 00:09:19:05 - 00:09:39:13 Speaker 2 That's right. Absolutely. So, you know, and that one of the things when we used to be able to go to the city and you would get a ticket and you would go upstairs and you would go to talk to this person, they say, no, you're in the wrong place. You have to go talk to, and you're going up and down the stairs and you're back and forth and and so going through that process and learning who to talk to. 00:09:39:15 - 00:09:44:18 Speaker 2 And a lot of those people are still there now. So I do know who they stay away from. 00:09:44:20 - 00:10:05:20 Speaker 1 Yeah. And also it's being confident enough to know to where, you know, kind of what order things are supposed to happen in. And so maybe you get like a new person and they're like, no, you need to go do this first. And you're now, you know, nicely, like, hey, actually, you know, the steps, you know, on past projects that I've done, the steps have been like, I'm here. 00:10:05:20 - 00:10:15:11 Speaker 1 Then I go here, then I go here. Can you check that or you sure. Right. Sometimes you I mean, probably oftentimes you may know better than some of the new employees with the with the real processes. Right. 00:10:15:13 - 00:10:37:11 Speaker 2 Yeah. That's true. But also I mean, you know, helping them learn as well, I mean, because they, they can't be expected to know everything walking in the door, you know. And so can you help me understand is a really great, great way to communicate with them. And they and then they can go back and ask their supervisor or whatever, they'll be like, oh, actually it is this way. 00:10:37:13 - 00:10:44:23 Speaker 1 So everyone wants to look good. And so if you can help them look good there again, they're going to they're going to be happier too right. 00:10:45:00 - 00:10:50:12 Speaker 2 That's right. And then again they'll open up my email and say oh it's from right. Me. Let me see what she needs. 00:10:50:14 - 00:11:13:13 Speaker 1 Being being familiar with the requirements, being familiar with what with what the process is. I mean, that's something that, you know, that I don't have time to do. The architects don't have time to do. So again, going back to the the team approach, like you're a key member of our of our team to make sure that the project's getting off on the right foot. 00:11:13:14 - 00:11:13:23 Speaker 1 Right? 00:11:14:03 - 00:11:38:12 Speaker 2 That's right. And, you know, sometimes a people will involve the homeowners in the communication. And I will I'm careful about, you know, how much information we share with the homeowner versus the builder, because a lot of times they may want to be involved, but maybe they don't need to know everything because there's a lot of nuances and things that, you know, could be terrifying to them that aren't up. 00:11:38:12 - 00:11:48:19 Speaker 2 No big deal to the builder. So but yeah, I definitely, try to keep everybody in the loop and, and stay in communication with the the rest of the team. 00:11:48:22 - 00:12:12:11 Speaker 1 Yeah. I think that some, architects and builders, they're, they're like, oh, you know, all this especially with Houston or some of the other cities, all the stuff's online. I can just submit it myself, which they can. Right? I mean, there's there's nothing stopping people from doing it themselves versus versus hiring you. But I think, I mean, at least in my case, I know I feel like my time is better spent not doing that kind of stuff. 00:12:12:11 - 00:12:43:15 Speaker 1 Right? Because, the city of Houston website, for example, it's not straightforward. It's like it's not the most modern technology. And, you know, knowing kind of, where to submit certain things, kind of how to follow that process. That's just not something I want to spend my time doing. And so I think if you look at the kind of the time value of money, you know, I would rather put my time into managing the projects or, you know, working with new clients or whatever. 00:12:43:15 - 00:12:46:08 Speaker 1 And what you do, what you do best so that I can do what I do best. 00:12:46:10 - 00:13:10:20 Speaker 2 Well, what might take you three hours would only take me 30 minutes. So. Because, I understand how the softwares work, how they don't work together. And, you know, being able to get in there and fill everything out, submit it in the order that they want it done. I mean, there's a lot of prerequisites that are required on residential projects that people may not be aware of. 00:13:10:22 - 00:13:25:14 Speaker 2 And I always look for those items ahead of time and make the recommendations in our proposal for the packet so that there's a checklist back there. And they know exactly what they're what they need to be providing me in order to make the project be successful. 00:13:25:18 - 00:13:47:09 Speaker 1 Reducing stress in the project is a big deal, not only for the builder, but also for the the customer. Because I think people get very excited to start a project as they should. You know, they're like, I'm building this house or I'm doing this big additional house. I'm excited and ready to go. But then if you don't get this stuff done and it's in a timely manner, I mean, you can add months to the process, right? 00:13:47:09 - 00:13:56:08 Speaker 1 I mean, if you don't, if you don't get your submittal right the first time, if it keeps getting kicked back for one reason or another, you know, you can just stretch that process at a long time, right? 00:13:56:09 - 00:14:23:05 Speaker 2 Yeah. You know, I understand that the the homebuilding process, you're you're helping people realize their dreams, right? And there is a lot of money and emotion invested in, you know, selections. And you spend so much time in the planning phase setting everything up. And they think, well, we're going to get started now. But then there's permits. And so, helping builders understand and kind of manage expectations in that timeline. 00:14:23:07 - 00:14:46:18 Speaker 2 Everyone should expect for a permit to take about two months. That is a reasonable amount of time for the city of Houston and surrounding areas. And with my company, our goal is two submissions only. We should expect a handful of comments I don't. I rarely see any projects go through first round. Maybe some smaller remodels, but for the most part kind of helping people understand. 00:14:46:18 - 00:14:55:10 Speaker 2 But we still have this other component in the permitting aspect that, you know, we'll take about two months once we get that, construction set ready. 00:14:55:11 - 00:15:15:13 Speaker 1 Yeah. People watching this and listening to this, maybe in other parts of the country as well. I feel like we're super fortunate in, in the Houston and a lot of Texas and that our permits generally go. I mean, that's pretty quick in relation to other parts of the country. I have friends that build in California and they're like, it may take a year to get a new construction permit or more. 00:15:15:15 - 00:15:38:21 Speaker 2 Well, you know, it hasn't really it hasn't always been that way. That has just been recently within the last year, a year and a half, you know, in 2019, everything was paper. And in the city of Houston, with the exception of some commercial projects. But and their goal was to go 100% electronic over the course of a three year period, they had to go 100% electronic in two months. 00:15:38:23 - 00:15:40:07 Speaker 1 Right, because of Covid, right? 00:15:40:07 - 00:16:01:19 Speaker 2 Right. And so not only are you overloading their software, right, they don't have the storage capacity for all of that to happen. You have staff that hasn't been trained on that. I mean, you got people remote working and I mean people that are it was a it was a debacle. Yeah, truly. And you know, with planning was at 27 business days. 00:16:01:19 - 00:16:16:01 Speaker 2 I mean, that's just one review cycle. So it was taking 3 to 4 months. In 20 2021, to get a custom build. And that that feels like a long time. I mean, a really long time. 00:16:16:03 - 00:16:31:06 Speaker 1 Yeah. But still, relatively speaking, like California, maybe some of the other, like New York, some of those places that are that are running a year or more for permits. I feel like we're, we're we're very fortunate with our relatively short cycles, here in Texas. 00:16:31:06 - 00:16:40:09 Speaker 2 Yeah. You know, and it would be good to share that information with other builders because they're like, it's taking too long at two months. So. 00:16:40:11 - 00:16:58:22 Speaker 1 I mean, I think if you have a good strategy for for how to approach this stuff, you can time that with the start of your project, like some of these sets of plans that we have for for big custom homes, maybe, I don't know, 40, 50, 60 pages, but 75% of those pages aren't even needed for permitting. Right? 00:16:59:01 - 00:17:23:18 Speaker 1 So a lot of those are like details, you know, millwork and cabinetry and connection details. Stuff the city doesn't care about. Right. And so if you have a good strategy with your architect and engineer, you know, you can say these. This is kind of like the bare set that we need for permitting. It's, you know, the architectural, the electrical, the structural, the soils reports all kind of here's our basic package of information that we have to have. 00:17:23:20 - 00:17:33:19 Speaker 1 Let's get that permitting process started 2 or 3 months before we're actually going to start this build. And that way we roll into it and it's, it's a smoother, faster process. Right? 00:17:33:20 - 00:18:00:02 Speaker 2 Absolutely. That that is the right way to do it. And in fact, we can even start it in the city of Houston. We can start with just a site plan if we know the footages and you know the boundaries. If if there's going to be a sidewalk modification, we can get the water letter ahead of time if there's any forestry, if we're going to remove any trees, we can do all of those submissions up front and have your packet ready with the building permit application. 00:18:00:02 - 00:18:20:10 Speaker 2 You know, you got a project number and you have all of those preliminary submissions ready to go. That way, when the building drawings are ready, I can come in and just review them, make a few comments, they make the adjustments and we can submit within a day or two. And and now your project is from that point looking at about a month and a half, two months. 00:18:20:14 - 00:18:33:20 Speaker 1 Yeah. And there's certain base information that we have to get on every project. I mean, we got to go out and get the surveys and the soil tests and all that stuff for for new construction. We know that we have to have it. So let's go ahead and order that as early on as possible so we can get it to you. 00:18:33:20 - 00:18:56:05 Speaker 1 And you can have that base information. You know, I had a, a project that actually one that I'm currently actively a consultant on where I'm not going to throw anybody under the bus here, architect or builder wise, but they really didn't think this process through. And they had a project they didn't even realize was in the floodplain. 00:18:56:05 - 00:19:17:03 Speaker 1 Somehow. Now they submitted it for a permit, and then it just sat there at the city for like four months. And the architect and the builder and even the permit person that was hired never even, like, checked on it for some reason. They were just kind of waiting on approval and they just sat there. And so the homeowner is getting angrier and angrier because they're like ready to start their construction project. 00:19:17:03 - 00:19:33:02 Speaker 1 And, so that's when they hire me. They're like, Curtis, this has been stalled out for like four months, and it's not going anywhere. We're anxious to start. You know, we have all this money tied up in design and we're paying interest on the property and blah, blah, blah. And so they call me, they're like, help us get this moving. 00:19:33:04 - 00:19:54:08 Speaker 1 Like while I'm on the phone with them, with the with an initial consultation before I ever get hired, I'm like, okay, what's the address? I pull up up my computer, I'm like, hey, that project or that property is like two blocks away from White Oak Bayou. So I know that's in the floodplain. And sure enough, I pull up their their project on the city website. 00:19:54:08 - 00:20:16:22 Speaker 1 It never went to flood, and it was just sitting there because they hadn't met. These are just very basic requirements of checking to make sure that it was that all the flood stuff done. And so again, the architect, the builder, the permit person that was hired, no one caught that it's supposed to get a flood. And so now that the clients wasted literally four months of paying interest on the property and they're angry about it. 00:20:16:22 - 00:20:29:18 Speaker 1 So, you know, having all of that necessary base information and having a qualified person kind of checking over the information before it gets submitted to make sure that everything's there is so key. Right? 00:20:29:18 - 00:20:36:06 Speaker 2 It truly is. And I'm sorry that that happened. That's, that sounds like a nightmare for sure. 00:20:36:06 - 00:20:59:11 Speaker 1 I mean, just like there's good builders, bad builders, good architects, bad architects. You know, there's there's people that are qualified, not qualified, even on the permit side. Right. It's, it's one of those things. It's, kind of like being a builder in Texas. There's no licensing, there's no formal education, so to speak. Right. So you're hiring somebody kind of based on their experience and their history. 00:20:59:13 - 00:21:07:03 Speaker 1 And so, you know, you can't really go outside of asking for references and asking what your experience is. There's no really vetting process for for hiring, hiring a permit person. 00:21:07:08 - 00:21:23:04 Speaker 2 Yeah, that's true, but you can't have a conversation with them. And you can talk about some of the builders that they work with in the past, and you can do some vetting. And and I would recommend doing that because, like you said, building a team, I mean, you're going to vet your architect and your builder and your engineer. 00:21:23:04 - 00:21:47:04 Speaker 2 A lot of the builders that that I work with are well known in the industry. I'm also a member of the HBA. That's a good place to start. If a homeowner is looking for a permit expedite or somebody that's, part of an organization that has the quality of contractors and associates and builders, like the HBA, you can, you know, you're going to get a quality work product. 00:21:47:09 - 00:22:06:19 Speaker 1 Yeah. Starting off on the wrong foot like that, like this, like this family did as a builder, I want to make sure that I'm hiring the right person. Because if, if, if my permit sits there for two, three, four months and nothing happens and I'm not hearing anything, you know, I'm also losing confidence in my builder as well as the homeowner. 00:22:06:19 - 00:22:24:14 Speaker 1 So I, as the builder, want to make sure that I've got the right team put together so that my customer is getting the warm and fuzzy is about this thing is moving in the right direction. I'm starting off on a positive note right? I'm not starting off with I'm pissed off and I've got to hire a consultant to help me because things are just sitting here. 00:22:24:14 - 00:22:25:14 Speaker 1 Nothing's happening. Right? 00:22:25:14 - 00:22:27:18 Speaker 2 Scratch the ground yet, right? 00:22:27:20 - 00:22:54:18 Speaker 1 Hiring somebody like yourself, a permit professional. You know, that's me as a builder. Kind of focus on all the other kind of critical aspects of getting this thing started. So I'm not spending my time managing, you know, checking on the checking the city portal, checking the comments and seeing what's going on. Now, I'm focused on scheduling my subcontractors, making sure all my paperwork is in place from the, you know, internally. 00:22:54:23 - 00:23:13:13 Speaker 1 You know, I'm kind of spending my time planning things to making sure they're they're moving forward. Let's talk about some common mistakes that, that you see get made. You know, we touched on a minute ago how, the cities might have, like, little kind of pet pet items every once in a while that maybe get brought up at a staff meeting. 00:23:13:13 - 00:23:27:17 Speaker 1 What are some kind of common things that that you see, whether it's architects or builders kind of live off of plans that you're always have to kind of you go back to them and say, hey, before I submit this, you know, make sure this gets added or this is a comment that I'm hearing a lot, right? 00:23:27:18 - 00:23:51:09 Speaker 2 So a lot of times, most recently, it's been the window sill Heights has something that has been left off a lot. And basically in our, in our checklist, we, we start off and review the minor things. Is the project sealed and signed by the engineer? Sometimes that gets left. Is it for a permit or is it for pricing? 00:23:51:11 - 00:24:12:16 Speaker 2 It needs to be listed. As for construction. Yeah. So, some of these little things that people miss, I would say also the supporting document is City of Houston has a lot of required supporting documents and where you might be able to display it on the plans, like the impervious cover information, you still have to have an application for grading and fill. 00:24:12:21 - 00:24:34:10 Speaker 2 You have to have all of those filled out properly. There's some weird questions on there that may not apply, but you need to know which ones to say yes and no to. It's simple, but that's one of the things that people miss a lot. The impervious cover form. Getting that right. The city uses age cat for a lot of their, coverage information. 00:24:34:12 - 00:24:50:13 Speaker 2 And while it may not be always be correct, that's what they use. And so we have to calculate the impervious cover based on what they are looking at. So there's just some things with these supporting documents that I see a lot, that get Mr. Overlooked. 00:24:50:15 - 00:25:10:11 Speaker 1 Yeah. Any other like, plan details? I know that, like on, on remodels that this was years ago, back when I was, doing more of that. You know, people would miss, like, comments, like interconnecting the smoke detectors on a remodel. I mean, any other little things like that that you've, that you've seen kind of constantly pop up. 00:25:10:13 - 00:25:38:08 Speaker 2 You know, really a lot of it has to do with the site plan, having the building lines in the proper location, everything needs to be dimensions from the building, all of that. If if an architect has done the drawings, they are usually pretty good about having the code information on the plans. We're not required to actually have electrical or MEP, drawings in the city of Houston for residential homes. 00:25:38:10 - 00:25:45:09 Speaker 2 They do want to see how things are interconnected. And as long as you can show that, on one of your floor plans, they're fine with. 00:25:45:09 - 00:25:54:01 Speaker 1 It. Don't they also require there's to be some comments about, like, you know, GFCI breakers and or GFCI receptacles and arc faults and that kind of stuff on the plans. 00:25:54:03 - 00:26:03:07 Speaker 2 There are. Yeah. So you would include that with your interconnecting the, smoke detectors, that and carbon monoxide sensors. 00:26:03:08 - 00:26:13:23 Speaker 1 I guess I didn't realize in Houston at least that they didn't require a electrical plan. I knew that like, mechanical, plumbing is not required, but electrical, I thought I thought that was required in the city. 00:26:14:01 - 00:26:18:20 Speaker 2 Well, you know, you can show it on one of the floor plans you don't have to have if. 00:26:18:21 - 00:26:20:06 Speaker 1 You don't have a dedicated electrical. 00:26:20:06 - 00:26:21:21 Speaker 2 Plan indicated. Electrical plan. 00:26:21:22 - 00:26:42:16 Speaker 1 Okay. Gotcha. One thing that I've seen it happen a couple of times now is that the city might even miss something on their plan review because, again, these folks are human and they can't they can't catch everything. And just to think about, like, how big some of these permit sets are again, there's so much information there they can physically like catch every single thing. 00:26:42:16 - 00:27:08:05 Speaker 1 So I've seen them miss things during during plan review. And then it gets to the field and it comes inspection time. The field inspectors are like, hey, you know, that's that's not on your plans. And why didn't you do that? I feel like also having you kind of do your initial go through your checklist and you catching things is, is also going to help, even if the city misses it on permitting, it's going to help cut off those problems in the field 6 or 9 months down the road. 00:27:08:05 - 00:27:38:05 Speaker 2 Absolutely. Another thing that we do also, though, is because things like that do happen, or that maybe the homeowner has a change. And there's a submission required. We stay with you throughout the entire process. We will submit revisions anytime there's an administrative error or an issue during, inspections. We're with you, to make the calls and follow up and, you know, schedule the inspections and take care of all of that for you so you don't have to skip a beat. 00:27:38:05 - 00:27:39:20 Speaker 2 Really? Yeah. 00:27:39:22 - 00:27:51:21 Speaker 1 I actually had one that I was consulting on where, and again, I got hired after the project started, which is what usually happens, where the city didn't even catch that the the property was in the floodplain. 00:27:51:21 - 00:27:52:21 Speaker 2 The city didn't catch. 00:27:52:21 - 00:28:06:12 Speaker 1 The city didn't catch it. It went all the way through permitting. Now now, the whole the whole property was in the floodplain, kind of cut across the front corner of the property. But technically, if any part of the property's in the floodplain, they count the whole thing as being in the floodplain. The city did not catch the floodplain issues. 00:28:06:17 - 00:28:26:01 Speaker 1 They got all the way to, the through framing. And I guess a city flood inspector happened to drive by and said and said, hey, this house is in my area. Why isn't this why aren't there any inspections on this? And so they made a stop. And, you know, the house is built. I mean, foundations poured, the framing is up, and then the inspector catches it. 00:28:26:01 - 00:28:41:15 Speaker 1 And so we had to go back to the city and, and kind of talk to the right people and say, hey, how are you guys going to treat this? Because this is a pretty major thing you didn't catch, right? Right. But, you know, fortunately, we, you know, we had somebody that interface with us on the city on that. 00:28:41:15 - 00:29:04:16 Speaker 1 So we didn't have to, you know, be the one kind of brown nosing the guy at the city. You know, we had a professional kind of helping us on that. But those kind of things happen. I mean, again, mistakes get made, and maybe it's the city inspector's driving by and he sees something like that. Or maybe it's a neighbor or the HOA or whatever, noticed something, and it kind of triggers it. 00:29:04:18 - 00:29:15:03 Speaker 1 And emotions. And so, like, you would still go back and help it, help go back to the city and say, you know, you guys didn't catch this, but now it's an issue. How are we going to how are we going to resolve this? Right. 00:29:15:05 - 00:29:38:18 Speaker 2 Well, and that's where our relationships come into play. So making a phone call versus trying to track down who to talk to and brown nosing and all of the things that, you know, that that you might feel like you need to do. We can take care of that right away. So and they, I mean, especially if the city has made a mistake, they are very quick to rectify that. 00:29:38:18 - 00:30:05:08 Speaker 2 And in most situations. And, you know, with the change in administration, we're seeing a lot of really positive, mindset shift happening at the city, which has been needed for a while. And I think, I mean, I'm excited to see that, you know, if there is an issue or mistake, they really want to focus on customer service and helping people rather than, nope, sorry, this is just the way we do it. 00:30:05:10 - 00:30:05:18 Speaker 1 Yeah. 00:30:05:20 - 00:30:06:15 Speaker 2 You're screwed. 00:30:06:17 - 00:30:26:03 Speaker 1 Yeah, I've seen that too. You know, we've had, some folks from the city come to our GBA luncheons. Actually, we do that kind of once a year. We have, we invite some of them to come in and do kind of a Q&A session, talk about updates and kind of where things are heading. And I've definitely noticed kind of a good, a good, attitude shift in the right direction. 00:30:26:03 - 00:30:31:06 Speaker 1 And they seem to be very willing to work with us and kind of, let's make this process better. Right, right, right. 00:30:31:06 - 00:30:50:19 Speaker 2 And I think, you know, as this shift is happening at the top, you know, there's a lot of really positive, changes that are coming. And they're they're also, going to start in November 19th. They're having a permitting workshop and you can go they're going to have a main workshop and then they're going to have breakout sessions. 00:30:50:21 - 00:31:15:06 Speaker 2 So stay tuned and keep an eye out on the Houston Permitting Center website. They're going to be offering that to help stakeholders. Anyone homeowners, anyone can come in and learn. And the breakout session is nice because if you focus on just remodeling, they're going to have something for you. If you're concerned about, foundations or, planning issues, you can go and learn just about that. 00:31:15:06 - 00:31:18:03 Speaker 2 So it's it's going to be very, informative. 00:31:18:03 - 00:31:33:15 Speaker 1 I think the other thing that they've started doing, I think within the last year or so that's been helpful, is they have a monthly newsletter that they're publishing. I'm sure that you've seen. And, you know, they'll they'll make comments on the newsletter about, you know, these are issues that we're seeing. This is what's coming up. These are the new changes. 00:31:33:15 - 00:31:38:16 Speaker 1 So that newsletter has been nice. I get that email every month and I open and look at it. It's been very helpful. 00:31:38:16 - 00:31:49:11 Speaker 2 It's great. Yeah. And they update forms. They have all of that and details any of the standard details that we can use, say for like the traffic department. All of that stuff is right there. It's very convenient. 00:31:49:11 - 00:32:06:06 Speaker 1 So, talk us through kind of your, your ideal. Like what? What's your dream, your dream client process. So talk us through your ideal kind of workflow, from getting information to reviewing to submitting and all that. 00:32:06:08 - 00:32:27:22 Speaker 2 So I love it when I get the site plan that has square footage is early because I can set up the project. Well, what we do when I get the call is I immediately understand the address. Look, if it's in what I identify how big the lot is, because that makes a difference in the drainage and and attention that's required. 00:32:28:00 - 00:32:50:04 Speaker 2 I will immediately do pull the cat and learn as much as I can about the property, look it up on Google, and, you know, fill out all of the paperwork and the information that I can and I do a lot of that stuff up front. But then once I get the site plan, if I can get that ahead of time, a month or two ahead of time, then I can pull like the we discussed a lot of those preliminary submissions that are necessary. 00:32:50:10 - 00:33:16:15 Speaker 2 I can pull that and get that started, and then I can wait on the plans and we're ready to go. So, once I get the plans, I'll go through, the checklist and, and identify any issues or changes that need to be made, communicate directly with the engineer and architect, get those back and submit. Ideal situation is we're only seeing comments that are related to life safety. 00:33:16:15 - 00:33:40:01 Speaker 2 And if there's any code issue, that maybe the the architect wasn't aware of or the engineer missed. Then that would minimal comments. 1 or 2, I would expect. Of course, a perfect world. No comments. First round. That's easy. But like I said, I mean, there's going to be some challenges. They're going to find something. 00:33:40:03 - 00:33:45:14 Speaker 1 Right? I almost feel like they're they feel like they're not doing their job unless they find one a little thing. 00:33:45:14 - 00:33:46:08 Speaker 2 Right? 00:33:46:10 - 00:34:09:13 Speaker 1 You know, honestly, sometimes they it's something they find. It's they're they just missed it or, you know, they were looking for it on one page. But that comment might be on an, on another page. Right. Because there's no standard formatting for this information generally speaking. So there's no requirement that these comments have to be on the cover sheet like some of the comments might be on page ten in a little box off to the side. 00:34:09:13 - 00:34:13:20 Speaker 1 All right. And if they're not flipping to that page looking for it it might get kicked back. 00:34:13:21 - 00:34:42:13 Speaker 2 That's right. Well and a lot of times they are very busy I mean and you know, they may they also have a small window where they need to get this project out because it can't be in the system for more than 10 to 15 business days. And so they sometimes will just speed through the review. And so some of the recommendations that I make to architects is go ahead and put the code references that you're familiar, you know, that that you know are going to be kind of an issue. 00:34:42:13 - 00:35:01:11 Speaker 2 Put that on the floor plan. And include that in, in the drawing. Maybe off to the side, just a note section. And then they can go through and see that you're meeting all of these requirements just by listing the code. And that has help people, you know, get things done much quicker. Yeah. 00:35:01:13 - 00:35:19:21 Speaker 1 So is that something that you have done before or would like to do. And that site meet with architect and just kind of talk to them about, hey, these are the kinds of things the, the, the or the or the, these are the kinds of things I want to see or this is the kind of the format that I suggest you put it in. 00:35:20:03 - 00:35:21:12 Speaker 1 Is that a conversation that you like to have? 00:35:21:16 - 00:35:32:16 Speaker 2 I love to we we, we love to get in front of people as early on in the process as possible, because we can make these recommendations early and save a lot of time on the back end. Yeah. 00:35:32:22 - 00:35:49:07 Speaker 1 So if you're an architect listening, you know, call me and maybe you set up a time for her to come by the office, and just maybe, I don't know, maybe even, like, look at a standard set of their plans and make suggestions on, hey, I suggest that you format it this way so that it speeds up your permit process. 00:35:49:07 - 00:36:08:18 Speaker 2 Right. And you can move this to this page because, I mean, and I look at it whenever I review the drawings, I look at it from, a city employees perspective. Right? I'm going to review this. And if I can't find something easily or quickly and I know that I'm looking for it, then I'm going to turn the page and issue it as a comment. 00:36:08:18 - 00:36:22:12 Speaker 2 So, when you can kind of build your plan set in that way, thinking of it from a perspective of, of someone that's looking for specific items, then you can really make you can make it more efficient for the for the reviewer. 00:36:22:14 - 00:36:41:12 Speaker 1 Yeah. So it's it's looking at it kind of through the lens of, of a, a planner reviewer and making their life easy because the, the easier you make their life, the better they, the faster they're going to get a kicked out, the better the response is going to be, the less comments. And can I speed the whole process up right? 00:36:41:12 - 00:36:52:13 Speaker 2 Oh, and I promise they know. I mean, they look at enough of these drawings all day, every day, and they know the good ones and they they know the oh yeah, that one. Right. I'm going to save that one to the end. 00:36:52:15 - 00:36:53:00 Speaker 1 Oh yeah. 00:36:53:00 - 00:36:55:22 Speaker 2 I'm sure that might even get pushed to tomorrow. 00:36:56:00 - 00:37:03:20 Speaker 1 I'm sure the planner reviewers like they see enough. They know the good architects. They're like, oh, that firm is going to have a good set of plans. I'm going to burn through this. 00:37:03:20 - 00:37:21:18 Speaker 2 And they do. I mean, they may not even have to look because they they know that that architect is going to include it on the plan. So it it does it does benefit as an architect to spend some time and really think about, you know, organizing how you would want, to communicate what you're trying to build. 00:37:21:20 - 00:37:42:11 Speaker 1 Yeah. How how should architects and engineers, you know, respond to comments because, you know, oftentimes, you'll get a set of comments back and there's a specific way the city kind of wants you to format your response or kind of how to submit that book. In your opinion, what's the best way to respond once you get a list of comments? 00:37:42:11 - 00:37:54:11 Speaker 2 So one of the things that we do also is will read when we get the list of comments, will read through the comments and identify, okay, I saw that on the plans. I'm going to go ahead and talk with the reviewer about that one and we'll get that one removed. 00:37:54:13 - 00:37:55:23 Speaker 1 Don't even bother the architect with that one. 00:37:55:23 - 00:38:25:05 Speaker 2 That's right. And or if there's things that I can take care of, I'll make notes on and create a comment response for them. Give them a little bit of, like 3 or 4 spaces to and then I'll just say permit pros handles. This one or whatever and then send that. And ideally you don't have to write a letter or anything, but just to have the comment listed on the response and then say where it's located in the plan, set the page number and then how you address the comment. 00:38:25:07 - 00:38:44:08 Speaker 2 So that's really the fastest, easiest way to do it. And if you just copy and paste the comments directly from the website or in their new spreadsheet from project docs, you can easily update that, spreadsheet or create a word document or Google Doc and and send that over. 00:38:44:09 - 00:39:06:02 Speaker 1 Yeah. Awesome. I want to kind of try to wrap things up. I have I've had some of these episodes go like way super long recently. So I'm trying to keep this, this discussion, fairly reasonable and to keep Daniella happy as well from having to edit at all. So to kind of wrap this up, what advice would you give anyone who's kind of embarking on a project that requires permits? 00:39:06:04 - 00:39:17:13 Speaker 1 You know, whether they handle it themselves or they whether they decide to use a professional service like yourself, what advice would you give somebody who's who's putting together a package to submit to the city? 00:39:17:15 - 00:39:52:18 Speaker 2 So I would say, take your time. Go through each one of the, a checklist. The city has a number of online checklists that you can find there. Prereq was that checklist is a great guide to help you understand everything that they're going to be looking for in, in order to submit the project. Most of the cities have that study their website ahead of time, kind of get to know, their process register, make sure you're if you're on the outside cities, make sure your contractor is registered with the city because that that is a requirement in most municipalities other than Houston. 00:39:52:20 - 00:40:16:10 Speaker 2 And so really kind of doing your due diligence on the property as well, make sure you have, an updated plan if that's required. That's something that can can create significant delays on a project. Planning takes 3 to 6 months. And if you're not aware that you need that, it can really, really delay your project. That's something that has happened, quite a bit. 00:40:16:10 - 00:40:36:19 Speaker 2 And so doing your due diligence, having all of the, team in place. So planning for your permit, and understanding that it's going to take time, building that time into your schedule is, really key to making the whole process go a lot smoother and not creating a lot of delays, unexpected delays. 00:40:36:20 - 00:41:01:22 Speaker 1 Yeah. My takeaway is that it's just so important to get the project off on the right foot, and whether that's timeline or kind of homeowner confidence, like customer confidence. But, getting your permits quickly demonstrates that, you know, that that we as builders are professionals and that we have a good team. And so again, it's all about creating that team. 00:41:02:00 - 00:41:07:22 Speaker 1 It's about, you know, relying on the expertise and the experience of the team members to make sure that things go go smoothly. 00:41:07:23 - 00:41:30:03 Speaker 2 Right? And building relationships, I mean, so communication and relationships are really key to any, project that you're, you know, going to kick off and, and like you say, it is a journey, you know, and, the way that we kind of look at it is, you know, we're excited to help people fulfill their dreams. I mean, it's not just about getting a permit for us. 00:41:30:09 - 00:41:50:20 Speaker 2 I mean, we're putting people to work. They're feeding their families, they're building their homes, their futures for their children. I mean, and so, looking at it from that perspective, it really makes, it makes it makes it more tangible for us and, and exciting. You know, I love, I love, I love it when it gets done. 00:41:50:20 - 00:41:55:02 Speaker 2 I'm like, oh, there it is, the golden ticket, you know, we got it. 00:41:55:04 - 00:42:06:12 Speaker 1 That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for this discussion. Tell the tool builders and architects out there who are watching if they want to work with permit pros, how do they find you? And and how do they how do they start working with you? 00:42:06:14 - 00:42:23:12 Speaker 2 So, you can email me an email address is raymie at permit pro-pros.com spelled Ram iy. You can also go to our website. Right. Permit dash pro's dot com, or you can call me on my cell phone at (832) 715-1781. 00:42:23:14 - 00:42:26:00 Speaker 1 Awesome. Thank you so much for being here today. 00:42:26:02 - 00:42:26:17 Speaker 2 Sure. It's been. 00:42:26:17 - 00:42:42:16 Speaker 1 Fun. Yeah, it's been fun. And we'll we will definitely do some projects together. Unfortunately, I have not worked with you. Yeah, I just met you at GBA luncheon, and I'm so glad that you're a part of that organization as well, because that helps kind of, spread the word and, meet, meet great builders. 00:42:42:16 - 00:42:45:11 Speaker 2 Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate it. It's a great organization. 00:42:45:14 - 00:42:50:09 Speaker 1 All right. And thank you all for watching the Your Project Shepherd podcast today. We'll see you next time. Take care.