Applied Design & Entrepreneurship (Olisof Properties)
As Founder and Managing Partner of OLisof Properties, I transform distressed residential properties into highly desirable homes by applying a rigorous industrial design methodology to the built environment. My approach goes far beyond superficial aesthetics; like seeing the inherent potential in a raw material, I identify the 'beauty in the bones' of a house, envisioning its optimized form and function. This involves comprehensive design planning, from re-imagining kitchen layouts for optimal workflow to meticulous material selection for both enduring beauty and durability.
Drawing directly on lessons learned from large-scale manufacturing environments like Fiat, I meticulously standardized materials and components across multiple projects. This strategic decision yielded significant benefits: enabling better pricing through bulk purchasing, maximizing compatibility across houses, and allowing efficient inventory transfer. Crucially, it dramatically enhanced worker efficiency and speed, as our teams became intimately familiar and comfortable with consistent materials and installation processes.
Beyond design and materials, a key to our success lay in mastering project timing and logistical orchestration. Much like cooking a complex meal or coordinating an assembly line, I learned to understand the precise dependencies and durations of each trade. Knowing, for instance, that plumbing must precede drywall and paint allowed me to schedule work in an optimized sequence, minimizing downtime and maximizing efficiency across simultaneous projects.
This integrated approach, combining astute design, strategic material management, and disciplined logistical timing, enabled us to drastically cut project durations. We moved from initial remodels taking 6 months to completing multiple properties in under 6 weeks, averaging just 3 months from purchase to sale. This demonstrates efficient, value-driven design applied at a significant scale, transforming not just houses, but also the renovation process itself for superior results.