Four kinds of work on the same houses.

A house does not look after itself, and a tenancy is only as good as the person in it. We handle both ends. We price the house against what is actually renting nearby, photograph and list it properly, and then do the unglamorous part — screening — with real care. Credit, income, employment, prior tenancies, references followed up by phone rather than skimmed. The right tenant is the single largest factor in how a property comes out the other end, and it is worth the extra week to find them.

Once someone is in, we stay in it. Rent collection and accounting, renewals and rate reviews, the walkthroughs at both ends with photographs on file. Maintenance is answered rather than deferred — and because we hold the trades in house, a leak on a Sunday is a call to our own plumber, not a hunt through a list of numbers.

We let furnished by the night and unfurnished by the year, and the same standard applies at both ends. Short-stay guests get linens, a stocked kitchen and a clean on departure. Annual tenants get a landlord who fixes things.

• Rent analysis against comparable homes, not guesswork
• Photography, listing and syndication
• Tenant screening — credit, income, employment, references
• Lease preparation and renewals
• Rent collection, accounting and owner statements
• Move-in and move-out walkthroughs, documented
• Maintenance answered in house, trades on call
• Turnovers, cleaning and linen for furnished stays

Thinking of selling? We will put together a price analysis on your home and walk you through it, at no cost and with no expectation. Not a portal estimate — a considered read of what has actually closed nearby, what is standing on the market and why, and what your house does better or worse than its comparables. Because we remodel houses for a living, we can also tell you which improvements will return more than they cost before a sale, and which are money you will not see again.

Buying? We would love to help. We look at a house the way a builder looks at it: what the bones are, what the deferred work will run, whether the ADU you are imagining is realistic on that lot. That view is hard to buy separately and it changes what a property is worth to you. Then the ordinary work, done properly — offers, negotiation, inspections, escrow, and an honest opinion when a house is not the one.

If a house you buy is one you intend to rent, we can carry it straight into management, and the analysis that got you there is the same analysis that sets the rent.

• Complimentary price analysis for sellers
• Pre-sale advice on what to improve, and what to leave
• Preparation, staging direction and listing
• Buyer representation across the South Coast
• Condition and cost-to-cure read on any property
• Offers, negotiation, inspections and escrow
• A straight answer on ADU and remodel potential
• Hand-off into rental management if you want it

Village Properties

Broker associate

Sales and purchases are transacted through Village Properties, where Rachael Bissig is a broker associate. See agent page →

DRE #02114508Goleta Santa BarbaraMontecito

Most remodels go wrong in the gaps — between the drawings and the framing, between the framer and the plumber, between the last trade and the inspector. We closed those gaps by owning them. Stud Finder Construction is our general contracting company: new builds, remodels and additions, ADUs, kitchens and baths, and the ongoing maintenance that keeps a finished house finished. Pipe Perfection is our plumbing company, so everything the water and gas touch is ours too — rough-in, repipes, gas lines, drains, and the vintage fixtures that most crews would rather not take on.

Each company was founded by someone who still does the work. Erik co-founded Stud Finder and has spent twenty-five years building houses on this coast. Joe co-founded Pipe Perfection and reads a plumbing system the way a builder reads a frame — where the access point should sit, what the line will be asked to carry in five years' time. He plans for the house a house will become: a repipe sized for the bathroom that is not there yet, a run set where no future wall will have to come down to reach it. Given two ways to solve something, he will make the case for the one still right in a decade. Rachael sits across both, with twenty-five years in real estate, design-build and investment property. So the work is judged twice — once on whether it is well built, and once on whether it was worth building. That second question is the one most contractors are not asked and cannot answer.

We also like old houses, which is a minority position. Craftsman and Spanish Colonial stock, original galvanized in the walls, plaster worth saving, decades of deferred decisions to unpick. The Spanish bungalow on West Islay came back as a full remodel with a detached studio behind it; its neighbour got a chef’s kitchen, spa baths and a wine room; Chapala was taken back to white rooms, wood floors and a plant room off the living space.

Both Islay cottages and Chapala are houses we remodelled ourselves. Anacapa and Crestline are ones we steward. See the list →

• New home builds, start to finish
• Remodels and additions
• ADUs and guest houses
• Kitchens and bathrooms
• Historic restoration and period repair
• Full plumbing: repipes, gas, drains, fixtures
• Permits pulled and inspections met
• Permaculture and edible gardens

A property is a set of systems that quietly go out of tune. Irrigation drifts and a hedge dies on one side. A condenser loses charge and nobody notices until August. A gardener stops edging and the place starts to look tired eighteen months before anyone can say why. Estate stewardship is the standing attention that catches those things while they are still small.

We manage the people as well as the parts. Gardeners, housekeepers, pool and window crews — scheduled, checked, and answerable to us rather than to you. Irrigation is walked zone by zone and repaired. Plumbing, electrical and HVAC are serviced on a calendar instead of an emergency, and when something does fail, the plumber is our own.

You get one point of contact, a rhythm of inspections with photographs, and a straight account of what was spent and why. Between stays, between tenants, or between owners — the standard does not move.

The Hall House on Anacapa Street, built in 1888, is a house we keep rather than one we built — grounds, systems and guests, held to the same standard as the ones we did. See the list →

• Scheduled inspections, documented with photographs
• Vendor management — gardeners, housekeeping, pool, windows
• Irrigation walked, zoned and repaired
• Plumbing, electrical and HVAC on a service calendar
• Seasonal preparation and storm checks
• Vacant-home watch between stays and owners
• Preventive repair before it becomes a project
• One point of contact and a clear account of spend