Project Manager vs. General Contractor for Palm Beach County Rental Renovations: 3 Roles, 1 License Question

Owner Guide · Renovation Roles · Palm Beach County, FL

By Jean Taveras, Broker-Owner, Atlis Property Management · Updated October 2026

Every rental renovation has the same three jobs: someone decides what gets done, someone does the work, and someone makes sure the work gets done right, on time, and for the agreed price. On a rental make-ready, owners frequently try to do the first and third jobs themselves and discover halfway through that coordination is a job of its own.

Owners hear two titles for that coordination role, "general contractor" and "project manager," and the words are used loosely. This guide separates them using Florida's licensing law, explains who holds which risk, and gives Palm Beach County owners a way to compare the options on the same scope. It does not quote national markup percentages or price-per-square-foot averages, because those numbers vary by home and contractor and are a poor substitute for itemized bids on your own property. For larger projects, see our guide to major renovations without the headaches.

What Florida Law Means by "Contractor"

Florida's construction licensing law is Part I of Chapter 489. The definitions in §489.105 set the vocabulary. Under subsection (3), a contractor is the person who, for compensation, undertakes to, submits a bid to, or does himself or herself or by others construct, repair, alter, remodel, add to, demolish, subtract from, or improve any building or structure for others or for resale to others. The statute then splits contractors into two divisions.

• General contractor (3)(a). A contractor whose services are unlimited as to the type of work, who may contract for and perform any activity requiring licensure under the part, except as Section 489.113 provides.
• Building contractor (3)(b). Limited to commercial buildings and residential buildings that do not exceed three stories, or to remodeling, repair, or improvement of any size building if the services do not affect structural members.
• Residential contractor (3)(c). Limited to construction, remodeling, repair, or improvement of one-family, two-family, or three-family residences not exceeding two habitable stories above no more than one uninhabitable story.

Two more definitions matter to owners. Subsection (6) says contracting includes not only doing the work but also the attempted sale of contracting services and the negotiation or bid for a contract on those services, and if the services require licensure, so does offering them. And subsection (4) describes the primary qualifying agent as the licensed person responsible to supervise, direct, manage, and control construction activities on a job for which he or she has obtained the building permit. In plain terms, the licensed person on the permit is the person the law holds responsible for the construction.

Notice what is missing. Section 489.105 does not define "project manager." The label does not settle the license question; the activity does. This is general information, not legal advice. If a firm's role is unclear, ask it in writing whether it holds a Chapter 489 license and who will pull the permit.

Three Ways to Run a Palm Beach County Rental Renovation

Each structure puts the contracts, the responsibility, and the coordination in a different place.

The general contractor model gives you one contract and one party responsible for the work, which is valuable when trades depend on each other or structure is involved. The tradeoff is visibility: a GC's overhead and profit usually live inside the bid, so it is harder to see what you pay for coordination versus the work itself.

The owner's representative model keeps the coordination fee visible and separate from trade pricing, but you hold more contracts.

Property manager coordination is a variant of the representative model with one advantage: the coordinator already knows the home, the tenant situation, the association rules, and your standards, so there is no learning curve and no second set of records. Our make-ready and renovation management page explains how that works between tenants. Self-coordination can work for small single-trade jobs, but Florida's owner-builder exemption in §489.103(7) is written for owners improving one-family or two-family residences for their own occupancy or use and not offered for sale or lease, which rarely describes a rental.

How to Compare the Options on the Same Scope

The only fair comparison is the same written scope priced every way you are considering. A lump-sum number from one company and an itemized bid from another cannot be compared. Use five lines.

1. Trade cost. What the plumber, electrician, painter, flooring installer, and cabinet shop charge for the work, itemized by line.
2. Markup or overhead. Any amount added to the trade cost by whoever sells you the job. Ask whether materials are marked up and whether you can see the original invoices.
3. Coordination fee. Any separate fee for managing the project, and how it is calculated.
4. Change-order rules. How extra work is priced and approved. A low bid with loose change-order terms is not a low bid.
5. Schedule. Start date, finish date, and what happens to the rent in between.

The fifth line is the one owners leave out. As of October 7, 2026, PBP Real Estate reported a median asking rent of $4,800 a month in Jupiter, $3,900 in Palm Beach Gardens, and $2,200 in West Palm Beach. Converted to a day, that is about $158 ($4,800 × 12 ÷ 365), $128 ($3,900 × 12 ÷ 365), and $72 ($2,200 × 12 ÷ 365). A structure that finishes a week sooner is worth about $1,105 on a $4,800 rent ($4,800 × 12 ÷ 365 × 7) before any other cost is counted. Our vacancy loss calculator runs the same math for your own rent.

A labeled hypothetical

To see how a visible coordination fee works, take a hypothetical make-ready where licensed trades bid $6,000 in total on an itemized scope, billed at their invoices. Under the Atlis pricing page rate of "10% over $1,000," the coordination fee would be $600 ($6,000 × 10%), and the owner's total would be $6,600 ($6,000 + $600). Every input is an assumption for illustration, not a typical cost. The point is the structure: you can see the trade cost and the coordination cost on separate lines, which is the comparison a lump-sum bid does not allow.

When a General Contractor Is the Right Call

Some jobs belong with a licensed contractor who takes responsibility for the whole scope and holds the permit. Typical signs:

• The work touches structural components, such as load-bearing walls, beams, or the roof structure.
• Several trades must work in a tight sequence, and a failure by one affects the others, as in a full kitchen or bath remodel that moves plumbing and adds circuits.
• The building department tells you the permit must be pulled by a licensed contractor for the scope you described.
• A condo or HOA requires a single licensed contractor with specific insurance before it approves the work.

Building permits come from the county's Planning, Zoning and Building Division for unincorporated areas and from the city for homes inside city limits, and requirements vary by jurisdiction and scope. Call before you finalize the structure. For repair-scale work, our guide to common rental repairs in Jupiter homes covers what usually comes up between tenants.

How to Verify Anyone Before You Sign

• License. Look up every contractor on the Department of Business and Professional Regulation's license search. Confirm the license is active and that its category covers the work. A roofing license does not cover a kitchen remodel.
• Insurance. Get a current certificate of insurance for general liability and, where the firm has employees, workers' compensation. Associations often require their own name on the certificate.
• Contract party. Read who you are signing with. Under §489.128, a contract entered into by a contractor who lacks the license required for the scope of work is unenforceable in law or in equity by that contractor.
• Fee in writing. Markup, coordination fee, and change-order pricing belong on paper before the first deposit.
• Approvals. Confirm association approval and permit status before demolition starts.

If you prefer to use vendors you already know, our article on using your own vendors in Palm Beach Gardens covers how to keep their paperwork in order, and our preferred vendor guide explains how vendors are vetted.

Common Mistakes Owners Make Choosing Between a GC and a Project Manager

• Trusting the title. "Project manager" is not a licensed category in Section 489.105. Ask what the firm actually does and whether it holds a license.
• Comparing a lump sum to an itemized bid. Price the same written scope every way, line by line.
• Ignoring idle days. At Palm Beach County rents, a slower schedule can cost more than a fee difference.
• Splitting a remodel to avoid a contractor. Section 489.103(9) does not exempt work divided into smaller jobs to evade the licensing law.
• Signing before approvals. Association approval and permits set the start date, not the contractor's availability.
• Assuming coordination covers everything. A coordinator manages the process; licensed trades still perform the licensed work. See our guide to keeping maintenance compliant.
• Over-scoping a rental. Finishes chosen for an owner's taste may never earn their cost back in rent. Our guide to renovating to attract long-term tenants helps set the line.

How Atlis Coordinates Rental Renovations

Our project coordination service is the property manager model in the table above. The project coordination page lists what it includes: a single point of contact, competitive itemized bids from our vetted local vendor network before work starts, vendor costs billed at the contractor's exact invoice and never marked up, on-site coordination with check-ins and change orders, and a final make-ready walkthrough to confirm the work matches the approved scope. Our pricing page lists project coordination as "Free under $1,000 · 10% over $1,000." The same page bills the leasing fee and lease renewals separately from the monthly management fee of 7–9% of collected rent for homes and condos, so those are never part of the monthly fee. Once the work is done, our average lease-up is 21 days.

Our eight written guarantees include no maintenance markup and a fee rate locked for the life of the partnership.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you have a renovation coming up and are not sure which structure fits it, we can walk the home, write the scope, and show you itemized bids so you can compare the options on the same page before you commit.