Fix an Unfinished Remodel in Palm Desert

The bids do not match because the house was never written down

Palm Desert unfinished remodels have a recognizable shape. The house is a winter place. The contractor was fine until spring. Then the calls slowed, the tile sat in the garage through summer, and by the time you came back you had a stack of "we can finish it" numbers that do not describe the same work. One includes the shower pan. One assumes the pan is fine. One is a single line that says "complete remodel."

You cannot choose among those bids. You can only guess. Justin's job is to turn the guess into a cost-to-complete: photos, a punch list, an itemized estimate, and a reading of the original scope, contract, payments, and change orders. He has 25+ years in construction and real estate, and he uses that on your side of the project. The valley overview is here: unfinished remodel, before the second contractor. The engagement itself is described on the owner's representative page.

What "cost to complete" means in a Palm Desert house

It is not a rounded contractor allowance. It is a room-by-room list of what remains, priced against the condition the last crew actually left. On these houses that list usually includes items people forget when they are trying to get someone, anyone, back on site:

• Finishes stored in a garage that spent June, July, and August above any reasonable temperature. Some of that material may no longer be usable. The budget should say so after it is looked at, not after it is installed.
• Air conditioning and plumbing that sat idle. An empty summer house with open lines is a different starting point than a house that was lived in last week.
• Work the heat will not allow yet. Exterior paint, some roofing, stucco, and a number of adhesives wait on temperature. A September bid that ignores that is a bid for a different month.
• Country-club and HOA reviews, when the unfinished work touches the exterior, a courtyard, or a golf-course side. The association's calendar is part of the schedule.
• Inspections that were skipped when the crew left. The remaining budget includes getting those closed, not only the pretty work.

Troy Pro's public location is Palm Desert, CA. If you are not in town, the assessment still starts with the house, not with a phone description of the house.

Your first week, if you are here or if you are not

Owners managing a Palm Desert remodel from the coast or from out of state lose time by waiting until the next trip. Use the week you find out the job has stopped.

1. Secure the site. Change codes, lock the house, and make sure open walls and missing doors are covered. If the air conditioning for the occupied part of the house still runs, confirm someone local can tell you it is on. Standing water and a dark thermostat are the two things that get worse while you compare contractors.
2. Document the current condition. Every room, the garage inventory, the mechanical equipment, and the bid sheets you have already received. Photograph the bid next to the room it claims to finish. Those pictures are how you stop the next walkthrough from inventing a scope.
3. Gather contract, payments, and change orders. Draws, selections, texts where someone agreed to "just add" a wall or a fixture, and the permit set. The gap between what you paid and what is built is the gap the next contract will fall into if you do not measure it.
4. Do not hire the next contractor blind. Hospitality is not a scope of work. A friendly walkthrough that ends in a single price is how the last job got fuzzy.
5. Get an independent cost-to-complete before you authorize more money. Then have licensed subs price that list. You sign their contracts and you pay their invoices. If the argument is about money already gone, or someone is talking about a lien, take that to a construction attorney. Nothing on this page is legal advice.

Start with a call or text to 760-760-TROY, or the contact page. Broader Palm Desert advisory is on the Palm Desert city page.

How Justin stays on the owner's side through the finish

After the budget exists, the work shifts to coordination. Justin helps you line up local licensed subs against the itemized scope, reviews bids so you can see what was included, and watches change orders so the job does not regrow in the group text. You remain the one who hires and pays the trades.

You pay Justin nothing until the project is complete. That includes the punch list you accept at the end, not a promise made in month two. One project at a time.