What would make Valentine’s Day “sweet” for developers? What gifts could you give a developer to make their Valentine’s Day special?

We posed this question to the Ultimate Owner’s Reps at DAE Group.  Here are some of their responses:

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Sympathize with them. Let them vent. Developers live in a mindset that they know they are getting screwed, they just don’t know where.

Change orders scare them like a positive COVID test. Limit them.

Give them the truth. Cut out the fiction in your numbers and schedules.

If you’re an architect, work on “their” project, not on “your” portfolio. Really, really, help them value engineer “their” project for the budget “they” have developed.

Cut out the “nickel & diming” for “add-services” charges.

Provide the gift of a look-ahead that you actually deliver on.

Do what you can, in the role that you are hired for, to stay on-budget. No off-budget or budget-free thinking, please.

If you’re a city or county official, give them the feeling that you have some idea that time is money. Green tape rather than red tape their plans and requests as best you can. Don’t nit pick.

If you’re the GC, make your draw requests reasonable. “Make sure” it is for work completed to the specs provided.

Give them the gift of a completed project on-time and on-budget. Not too much to ask, really.