One of our biggest distinctions is—we typically send an in-house, multidisciplinary team of experts to evaluate a property. Marx Okubo’s PCA teams typically include multiple full-time employees with education, training, and credentials in architecture and engineering who have years of experience working with each other. An experienced in-house team can more thoroughly evaluate a property—there are not only more eyes, but also our team members have diverse experience, more specialized expertise, time to focus on specific aspects of a property, and the capacity to provide a more comprehensive assessment of each system and the property as a whole.

Our more detailed PCA scopes are tailored to clients who have a vested interest in the long-term performance of an asset, and therefore their due diligence needs and expectations are higher. Our multidisciplinary team of experts allows for a wider sampling of the property’s components. As PCA work relies on representative sampling to help clients mitigate risks and maximize opportunities, the more that is sampled, the more accurate the assessment is likely to be.

We don’t take things at face value. We will move furniture or panels during a site visit and make extra effort to see and inquire about what is necessary to more fully evaluate a property whereas a baseline ASTM standard PCA specifically excludes moving or removing anything to get a better understanding. For example, when it’s safe and appropriate for the scope, it is common practice for our MEP engineer to remove covers from major pieces of equipment to look at the internal components. Sometimes, it’s not possible to fully evaluate these types of systems based solely on their exterior appearance. This is particularly true and critical for larger or complex building types and systems.

We fine-tune our PCA scopes to meet our clients’ needs. Baseline ASTM standard PCAs are often completed using standardized reporting templates and not tailored to a client’s specific needs or timing. For example, if a client’s goals are to purchase and redevelop a property, we will customize our evaluation and recommendations for that specific purpose and deliver the key information on a timeline that meets their sometimes-accelerated needs. We will identify costs for improvements/renovation of the property if requested by the client—whereas a more standard PCA specifically excludes any upgrades or enhancements to a property and only provides costs to maintain a property “as is.”

With experts in regional offices across the country, we have a more thorough understanding of local/regional variations in how things are built, how they perform, how they need to be maintained, and more. Because of this local insight, we can provide more detailed assessments because we know what we can anticipate in various climates and regions.