Reality check
Four questions. You get a cost range, an honest read on whether your settlement covers it, and a move-in projection built from what actually happened on 1,191 real Palisades rebuilds — not generic industry averages.
Permit data as of August 5, 2026 · We never see your settlement or personal details — only anonymous usage counts
Before you sign
A cost range is only as reliable as the firm delivering it. These are worth asking whoever you interview — printable, so you can carry them into the meeting.
A rebuild is new construction on a lot with history — not a remodel. Firms whose work has mostly been kitchens, baths and additions are running a different business, with different subs and different scheduling.
Listen forA specific number and a few addresses. "Lots" is not a number. Ask separately how many were ground-up rather than gut renovations, because the two get blurred.
Capacity cuts both ways. Too few can mean they are not winning work; too many means your superintendent is split across sites and your job waits its turn.
Listen forThe number of active jobs and how many site superintendents cover them. One superintendent across five active builds is the answer that should worry you.
The person who sells you the job is frequently not the person who runs it. You want to meet whoever will actually answer the phone in month nine.
Listen forA named individual, their role, and what happens when they are on holiday or leave the company.
On a fire rebuild, the geotechnical findings, the insurance number and the permit track all constrain the design at once. Firms that outsource these resolve conflicts in the field, which is the expensive place to resolve them.
Listen forWhether estimating and scheduling are employees or subcontracted, and whether preconstruction happens before or after the drawings are finished.
You are entitled to see your own schedule, budget and change orders without asking. A builder who cannot show you the system usually does not keep one current.
Listen forA named platform and a live login — not screenshots. Ask to see a real project dashboard, with the client details redacted.
Sites are hard to stage. Fifteen minutes on a live job tells you more about how a firm works than any portfolio — housekeeping, safety, whether the crew knows who the superintendent is.
Listen forA yes, and reasonably soon. Hesitation is information. So is a site that has clearly been tidied for your benefit.
Similar in scale, terrain and construction type — not just similar in price. A firm with ten flat-lot builds and no hillside experience is learning caissons on your budget.
Listen forProjects matching your lot conditions. If yours is a hillside or bluff parcel, ask specifically what they have built on a slope.
Every builder says they have capacity. The honest ones will tell you where you sit in the queue and what has to finish before your job gets real attention.
Listen forA date with a reason attached. "We could start right away" from a busy firm deserves a follow-up question about who would be running it.
This is where fixed-price jobs stop being fixed. The contract language around changes matters more than the headline number, and it is the single most common source of dispute.
Listen forA written process, a markup percentage stated up front, and allowances set at realistic figures rather than low ones that guarantee overage later.
Anyone can supply three delighted references. How a builder handled the job that went sideways is far more predictive of your experience than how they handled the ones that went well.
Listen forWillingness to have the conversation at all. A firm that claims no project has ever run over is either new or not being straight with you.
Ask these of every builder you interview, including the one that funds this site. A firm worth hiring will answer all ten without getting defensive.
Everything above is what a builder tells you. One thing you can check independently, for free, in about two minutes: the state licence record. It is the only part of the interview that does not depend on taking someone at their word.
Look up a licence at CSLBcslb.ca.gov · Search by licence number, business name or personnel name.
Licence tenure, scope and complaint history are public for every California contractor, so you can run this check on any firm on your shortlist — and you should run it on all of them rather than only the ones you are unsure about.
It is a planning range, not a quote. The cost side uses published 2026 Los Angeles rebuild cost guidance; the timeline side uses durations observed on real Palisades permit records. Neither can see your lot. A geotechnical report and a builder walking your parcel are what turn this range into a number you can budget against.
From the permit histories of real Palisades rebuild parcels — 1,191 applications for the plan-check figure and 30 completed homes for the construction figure. We show the middle half of outcomes, quartile to quartile, rather than a single average.
Only 30 Palisades rebuilds have reached a certificate of occupancy so far, so that is the entire available sample. Those homes are also, by definition, the fastest ones — they finished first. Treat the construction leg as optimistic and weight toward the long end.
That the number is our own reasoned adjustment rather than a published figure we can cite. Site and foundation conditions are the main one: nobody publishes a clean per-square-foot cost for caissons and retaining walls because it is entirely parcel-specific. We flag these so you know which parts of the estimate rest on published data and which rest on our judgement.
First, confirm the real number with a builder’s site-specific estimate — that is the document that makes a shortfall arguable rather than anecdotal. Then read your extended replacement cost, code-upgrade and additional living expense coverages separately, since they are distinct limits. If the gap is substantial, consider a public adjuster or an attorney before accepting the settlement.
Cost starts from published 2026 Palisades per-square-foot rates — which already include Chapter 7A compliance, since every rebuild here must meet it — then adds a site and foundation allowance set by your neighborhood's terrain, and design, engineering and permits at 15–20%.
Published sources disagree with each other on construction rates, and we use the higher band. For someone budgeting a rebuild, being over-warned is the safer error.
Timeline is projected from durations observed on real Palisades permit records — 1,191 applications for plan check, 1,006 for mobilisation, and the 30 completed homes for construction. We show the middle half of outcomes rather than an average.
Figures marked our allowance are our judgement rather than a published number we can cite. We separate them because the difference matters when you are deciding what to do with a settlement.
Read the full basis on costs and the insurance gap and permits and timeline.