The questions owners actually ask.

We are based in Irvine, California and build throughout Southern California, with most of our work across Orange County — Irvine, Newport Beach, Tustin, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and the surrounding communities. If you are outside that area, get in touch and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right fit rather than stretching to take the job.

No. Plenty of our conversations start with a lot, an idea and a budget range. If you already have an architect, we will join the team early and review the drawings for constructability. If you do not, we can point you toward architects and designers whose work we know and who suit the kind of home you are describing.

Earlier than most people expect. The decisions that determine what a project costs are made during design, not during construction. Having a builder review drawings while they can still change means pricing alternates as options rather than as change orders, and identifying long-lead items before they become schedule problems.

We focus on new residential construction, whole-home renovations and substantial additions rather than small repairs or single-room updates. If your project is smaller than that, tell us anyway — we would rather point you to someone better suited than take work we are not the right fit for.

Yes, and we prefer it. Design Collaboration is one of our four service lines. Your architect and designer keep authorship of the design; our job is to make sure it can be built the way they drew it, on a budget and schedule everyone has agreed to.

Custom homes in Orange County generally run from around $250 to $800 or more per square foot, with most projects landing between $400 and $600 and luxury builds above that. The spread is driven far more by your site and structure than by your finish selections. We wrote a longer piece on what sits inside and outside that number in our blog.

We build a line-item budget during pre-construction rather than quoting a single lump-sum number, so you can see where the money is and which items are firm versus which are allowances. Any change order is priced and approved in writing before the work happens — never discovered afterwards on an invoice.

An allowance is a sum carried for something you have not selected yet — tile, fixtures, appliances, hardware. They are unavoidable early in a project. They cause trouble when they are set unrealistically low to make a bid look competitive. We call ours out explicitly and tell you what standard of product each one assumes.

It depends on what we can see. On new construction with a complete drawing set and a known site, a modest contingency is reasonable. On a renovation of an older home, where conditions behind the walls are unknown until demolition, it should be larger. We would rather have that conversation at contract stage than halfway through the job.

For a home improvement contract, California caps the down payment at $1,000 or 10 percent of the contract price, whichever is less, excluding finance charges. That is set by Business and Professions Code section 7159.5 and enforced by the Contractors State License Board — it is not something a contractor negotiates. Progress payments thereafter should track work actually completed.

It depends on the project and how complete the drawings are. A fully documented new build can be priced firmly; an exploratory renovation often cannot be, honestly, until walls are open. We will tell you which situation you are in and why, and we will not put a confident number on something we cannot see.

In this market, 18 to 30 months from first design conversation to move-in is a realistic planning range, with roughly four to eight of those months consumed by permits and entitlement. Your drawings, your jurisdiction and your lot all move that. We give you a real milestone schedule during pre-construction — after we have read the plans, not before.

The City of Irvine targets roughly four to six weeks for residential plan check, and requires electronic submittal. That describes one review pass, though. What stretches permits from weeks into months is correction cycles — and those are usually caused by drawing sets that were not coordinated between consultants before submittal.

In most Irvine communities, yes. Active HOAs with CC&Rs are the norm, their architectural review typically needs to happen before city submittal, and committees often meet monthly. Missing a meeting date can cost four weeks without a single drawing changing, so we work backwards from the HOA calendar on day one.

We do. We assemble the submittal package, coordinate with your architect and engineers, and manage plan check corrections, HOA design review and utility approvals through to permit issuance. You should not be the one chasing a plan checker.

You hear it from us first. On a construction site something eventually moves — a long-lead item, an inspection date, a condition found in the ground. What matters is whether you find out when it happens or when it becomes unavoidable. We would rather deliver bad news early than manage it quietly.

Often, yes. Occupied renovations need deliberate sequencing around utility shutoffs, dust control and access, and we plan that phasing with you before demolition starts. We will tell you which days water and power are down, which bathroom stays live, and what replaces the kitchen while it is out.

One person, for the whole project. Not a call centre and not a rotating list of coordinators. You get weekly progress updates without having to ask for them, and a number that reaches someone who knows your job.

Containment is a scope item with a cost, not a courtesy — zip walls, floor protection, sealed HVAC returns in the work zone, and daily clean-down. If it is not in the scope it does not happen, so we put it in the scope.

We work to the hours permitted by your jurisdiction and your HOA, and we agree the specifics with you before we start — including which entrance the trades use, where deliveries go and where everyone parks. Most friction on occupied sites comes from these details being left unspoken.

We work with the same vetted trade partners project after project. Continuity is what makes quality repeatable rather than accidental, and it means the people on your site have worked together before and know how we expect the job to be run.

Yes. Rana Development holds California General Contractor license #1146815 and is bonded under bond #101009138. We are happy to provide current insurance certificates on request, and every California contractor's licence status is publicly verifiable through the Contractors State License Board.

California's 2025 Building Energy Efficiency Standards took effect on 1 January 2026. For new single-family homes, heat pumps are now prescriptively required for both space heating and water heating, solar PV is sized to an updated formula, and most climate zones require battery-ready provisions. These decisions have architectural consequences, so they belong in schematic design rather than at rough-in.

Talk to us about it. California's ADU framework has changed substantially through a run of recent legislation — more permissive setbacks and heights, pre-approved plan sets, a 30-day permit decision window, and in some jurisdictions the ability to sell an ADU separately as a condominium. What is feasible on your specific lot depends on your city, your utility connections and your HOA.

Those conditions change the engineering rather than the intent. Hillside sites bring retaining, stepped foundations, drainage design and often geotechnical requirements. Coastal sites bring corrosion detailing, upgraded flashing and different material choices. Both need to be priced honestly at the start rather than discovered during construction.

We coordinate and attend inspections, and we inspect our own work against the drawings before anyone official asks us to. Finding our own defect is inconvenient; having an inspector find it is expensive.

We walk the home with you, agree and complete the punch list, and hand over warranties, manuals and closeout documents. You should finish the project with a folder that tells you what is in your house and who made it, not just a set of keys.

Workmanship is warranted under the terms set out in your contract, alongside the manufacturer warranties on installed products, which we hand over documented. We will walk you through exactly what is covered and for how long before you sign — not after something fails.

Yes. Things settle, seasons change, and small items surface in the first year of any new home. We stay reachable, and we would rather come back and look at something than have you wondering whether it is normal.