The bigger job,without becomingan expertin it first.
Home theater, whole home audio, networking, cameras, cybersecurity. Projects where the hard part is not the work, it is knowing what to ask for, who to trust and what you should be paying. If you are moving into a new house and cannot manage the installation yourself, I will, and the house will be working the day you arrive. I translate, I bring in people I have personally vetted, and I stay until it is done properly.
Three quotes, none of them comparable
You ask three companies for a home theater. One quotes $18,000, one quotes $40,000, and one will not give a figure until you sit through a showroom appointment. None of them itemise the same things, all of them use words you have to look up, and each one recommends the brands they happen to sell.
Nobody can choose well between options they do not understand. The industry knows this, and quietly relies on it. My job is to put you back in a position to decide.
The projects people call me about
Home theater and media rooms
Projectors against televisions, screen size and seating distance, speaker layout, acoustic treatment, and whether the room you have can actually deliver what the showroom demo promised.
Whole home audio
Multi room systems, in ceiling against bookshelf, streaming platforms that will still exist in five years, and which parts genuinely need to be expensive.
Networking for large properties
Coverage surveys before anyone quotes you hardware, so you buy what the property needs rather than what is on the shelf.
Cybersecurity and privacy
Where a household is actually exposed, which usually is not where people assume. Camera systems on the open internet, reused passwords, and backups nobody has tested.
Cameras, access and alarms
What is worth monitoring, what is theatre, what the monthly fees really buy, and how the pieces work together rather than as four separate apps.
Smart home and automation
Lighting, climate, shades and the platform they all live on. Most of the regret here comes from choosing the ecosystem last instead of first.
Before the keys, not after
A move is the one moment when all of this is cheap and simple. Walls are open or at least empty, nothing is in the way, and the builder still has obligations. If you cannot be there to manage it, or would rather not spend your moving week doing it, I will handle it and have the house working the day you arrive.
I can be there when you cannot
Builders, installers and delivery crews need someone on site who knows what was agreed. If you are still living three states away, or simply working, that person can be me.
The empty house is the easy house
Running a signal, mounting a screen, placing access points and testing every wall point is straightforward in an empty room and expensive once the furniture, the rugs and the art are in.
Checked against what was promised
Builder specifications routinely say more than the house delivers. I test every network point, every outlet that matters and every system before you take the keys, while somebody still has an obligation to fix it.
Ready on day one
Internet live and tested, network covering the whole house, televisions and audio working, printers connected, cameras set up, old equipment brought across. You arrive and it works.
Your old house too
Equipment disconnected properly, accounts and services moved rather than abandoned, and anything you are leaving behind wiped before the new owners take over.
One person across the trades
Cabling, mounting, alarms and electrical go to licensed specialists I have vetted. I coordinate them so the moving week is not spent refereeing four companies.
This is option 3 below, the whole project handled, with a move-in date attached. Best time to call is when you are under contract rather than when the van is loaded. Four to six weeks gives time to see the property, write the brief, get specialists scheduled and have everything finished before the furniture arrives.
Five steps, and you can stop after any of them
We talk first
Tell me what you want the room, the house or the business to do. Not the products, the outcome. Most people arrive with a brochure and leave with a plan.
I write the brief
A plain English document saying what is needed, what it should cost, and what is worth paying more for. You own it, and you could take it to anyone.
I bring the right people
Vetted local specialists I have worked with, quoting against the same brief so you can compare like with like. No mystery line items.
I stay through the work
On site for the parts that matter, checking what was installed against what was agreed, and handling the questions so you do not have to.
You get the handover
Everything labelled and documented, shown to you in plain language, and written down. Including who to call for what after I am gone.
What you are actually paying for
You are not the expert, and should not have to be
Specialist trades quote in their own language. A good quote and a bad one look identical until someone who knows translates them.
I have no product to sell you
No margin on hardware, no dealer relationships, no incentive to specify the expensive option. My only interest is the job being right.
One number to call
When four trades are involved, the gaps between them are where projects fail. I own those gaps.
I vet the people, personally
Nobody joins my list because they advertise well. They join because I have watched them work and would have them back in my own house.
Three ways in, and you can stop after any of them
I take no commission, no referral fee and no cut of what any contractor charges you. You pay me directly, which is the only arrangement where my advice is worth anything. Each option includes the one above it, and anything you have already paid comes off the next step.
Option 3, priced against your budget
Every company that installs this kind of work adds a design fee and a management fee on top of the equipment and labour. It is usually 13 to 27 percent of the job, and it rarely appears as its own line on the quote. You are paying it either way. The only question is whether it goes to the company selling you the equipment, or to someone who is not selling you anything. My figure is fixed once we agree the brief and does not move if the work runs long.
Somebody manages a project like this. At a home technology company it is their own staff, and the cost is folded into the quote as a design fee and a project management fee. Together that is 13 to 27 percent of the job. On a $25,000 theater it is $3,250 to $6,750, and it is paid to the same people choosing which equipment you buy.
I charge $1,450 for that job on the same project, and I earn nothing from the equipment, so what gets chosen is decided by what the room needs rather than what is in stock. For comparison, the people who do the same job on building projects charge 1 to 5 percent or $150 to $300 an hour, Dallas architects charge 5 to 15 percent of a build, and interior designers here run 10 to 30 percent of the budget.
The things people ask first
Do you install any of this yourself?
No, and that is deliberate. Cabling, electrical work, mounting and alarms go to licensed specialists. I scope the work, bring in the right people, manage them and verify what was done. Keeping those roles separate is what keeps my advice honest.
How do you choose the contractors?
Personally, over time, by watching them work. Nobody is on my list because they pay to be, and no contractor pays me anything. If one of them lets a client down, they come off the list.
Can I use my own contractor?
Of course. Plenty of people already have someone they like and just want the brief written and the work checked. That is a perfectly good way to use me.
What size project is worth this?
There is no floor on advice. Option 1 at $295 makes sense on almost anything, because a brief that stops you buying the wrong thing pays for itself immediately. Full management starts at $750 and scales with the budget, and the calculator above shows the exact figure before you ever call me.
Will you sign a confidentiality agreement?
Yes, and I will offer one before you ask. Work of this kind means floor plans, camera positions and network details. That is not information to be casual with.
What if I stop halfway?
You keep everything produced to that point, including the brief, and you owe nothing further. The brief is yours to take anywhere.
We are moving in and cannot be there. Can you handle it?
Yes, and it is some of the most useful work I do. I meet the installers, check what the builder actually delivered against what was promised, test every network point, get the internet live, set up televisions, audio, printers and cameras, and bring your old equipment across. You walk into a house that works. I send photographs and a short written update as it goes, so you are not guessing from another state.
Tell me what you are trying to do
Not what you think you should buy. What you want the room, the house or the business to do. The first conversation costs nothing and often ends with me telling you the job is simpler than you were told.