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Signature planning journey · Santa Barbara area

Estate Project Planner

Seven compact steps that turn a vague project idea into an organized, defensible brief: vision, jurisdiction, scope, site conditions, finishes, cost assumptions and documentation. The planner produces no prices and no permit predictions — it organizes your thinking so every professional conversation starts further ahead. Nothing leaves your browser unless you export a file or choose to contact us.

Sources verified 2026-10-23. The full content of this page is readable without JavaScript; the interactive planner works entirely on your device.

Step 1 of 7: Project vision

0 of 12 questions answered

Define what you are actually trying to achieve before anyone talks about cost or permits.

What kind of project is this?

Choose the closest fit. You can change this later — the planner adapts.

What matters most to you?

This shapes which tradeoffs the overview highlights.

Your living overview

Updates as you answer. These are educational drivers and dependencies — not prices, not quotes, not permit predictions.

Cost drivers that likely apply

  • No specific cost drivers identified yet — as you answer more steps, the drivers that apply to your project will appear here.

Agency and professional dependencies

  • Dependencies will appear here as you confirm jurisdiction and scope.

Your brief, your device

Export a JSON brief to keep or share with any professional. Optionally keep a draft in this browser — only with your explicit consent, deletable at any time.

Questions to bring to any professional

  • Which of my assumptions would you test first, and how?
  • What information would make your first site visit materially more useful?
  • Which professionals should be engaged before design begins, and in what order?
  • What is the most common way projects like mine go over budget, and how is that controlled?
  • What decisions will you need from me, and by when, to protect the schedule?

Decision checkpoints

  • Jurisdiction confirmed through official records — City and County systems are separate
  • Overlay research flags checked against official viewers and maps, not assumptions
  • Existing-conditions documentation gathered or gaps explicitly accepted
  • Planning range explored in the Estate Budget Simulator with assumptions you can defend
  • Professional team scope agreed — architect, engineer, contractor — before commitments

Who to involve, and when

  • Architect or residential designer

    To translate vision into a permittable design — earliest for new homes, additions and major renovations.

  • Structural engineer

    Whenever scope touches structure, foundations, retaining systems or seismic performance.

  • Geotechnical engineer

    On hillside, coastal-bluff or unknown-soil sites, before foundation design.

  • Licensed general contractor

    For constructability input and eventually construction — ideally with early budget feedback during design.

What this planner does not do

  • This planner produces no prices, quotes or estimates — numeric scenario modeling happens separately in the Estate Budget Simulator, with your own assumptions.
  • No permit predictions: whether a project is permittable, and how long review takes, is determined by the governing agency, not by this tool.
  • No determinations about your parcel: overlay flags are research prompts to check against official viewers and records.
  • No professional advice: the planner organizes your thinking; it does not replace an architect, engineer or contractor.
  • Nothing you enter leaves your browser unless you explicitly export a file or choose to contact RSA.

Official sources

Verified 2026-10-23.