Casa Fresco › About
Casa Fresco is two people: a broker and a plumbing contractor.
Sam Fox Brennan finds the property and runs the numbers. Eduardo Cota prices the work and runs the job. We own the company together and put our own money into our projects.
We started Casa Fresco because the Central Coast is full of property that could be more than it is. It is also full of people who own that property, or want to own a piece of it, and need a partner who can get a project priced, permitted and built. We work in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Fresno counties.
- Sam Fox BrennanCalifornia real estate broker, DRE #02178674
- Eduardo CotaCo-founder of Modern Perspective Plumbing, CSLB Lic. #1102487 (C-36)
Sam Fox Brennan
Co-founder and managing partner · California real estate broker · DRE #02178674
Sam is Vice President of Glenn Martin Company, a full-service brokerage in Arroyo Grande that has served the Central Coast for more than twenty years. There he oversees brokerage, leasing and property management. He grew up working in his family’s agricultural business in Woodland, California, which gave him a background in sales, operations and hard assets. He is a Cal Poly graduate.
For Casa Fresco he finds the property and prices it from recent sales and rents. He has MLS access on the Central Coast and in Fresno County.
Sam also prepares broker opinions of value, which are not appraisals, and helps exchange buyers find replacement property. Those are his own services as a broker, DRE #02178674. Casa Fresco is not a brokerage, and it is a separate company from Glenn Martin Company.
Eduardo Cota
Co-founder and managing partner · Modern Perspective Plumbing · CSLB Lic. #1102487 (C-36)
Eduardo is co-founder of Modern Perspective Plumbing, a licensed California plumbing contractor based in Grover Beach. The company has a service division and a new-construction division. It does the plumbing on everything from residential renovations to ground-up commercial buildings in San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara counties.
For Casa Fresco he runs estimating, budgets and field execution, so our construction numbers come from the person who will run the job.
- Company
- Cota Companies LLC dba Modern Perspective Plumbing
- License
- CSLB Lic. #1102487
- Classification
- C-36 Plumbing
The license is held by Eduardo’s company. You can look it up by number at cslb.ca.gov.
Casa Fresco hires and manages contractors as the owner, and only on property it owns or co-owns. Plumbing on our projects is done by Eduardo’s company. The other trades are licensed contractors hired for the job.
What we check before we buy
Different things decide a project on the coast and in Fresno County.
On the Central Coast
Water. Whether the parcel can get water for another unit, or sits under a moratorium or a waiting list.
Zoning. What the lot allows, and what state housing law adds.
Coastal review. Whether the parcel is in the coastal zone, where a project usually needs a coastal permit as well as a building permit.
In Fresno County
Purchase price. In the Valley the value comes from the price paid, so we start there.
Cost of the rehab. What the work will cost, from Eduardo’s budget.
Resale depth. How many buyers there are at the finished price.
We pursue only the projects where the numbers and the entitlements both work.
How we work
The order we work in, from finding a property to selling or leasing it.
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Find and screen
Sam screens the MLS for distressed sales, stale listings and estates. We also want to hear from owners directly, before a property is listed.
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Run the numbers
Eduardo writes a planning-level construction budget and Sam pulls current rent and sale comps. Then we run the checks listed above. We expect to pass on most of what we look at.
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Put it in writing, then get it built
When a project has a partner, the terms go into a written agreement first. Then, as owner or co-owner, we manage the entitlements, the licensed contractors on the job and the leasing.
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Deliver and report
We carry the project through to a sale or a leased building, and we report to everyone with money in it along the way: where the project stands and where the capital sits.
What we are, and what we are not
Casa Fresco is a private real estate investment company, owned and run by the two of us. It is not a real estate brokerage, and it is not a contractor for hire.
When Casa Fresco buys a property it buys for its own account, as a principal, and intends to make a profit. Nobody at Casa Fresco is the seller’s agent, though one of us, Sam Fox Brennan, is a licensed California real estate broker (DRE #02178674). An offer from us is not an opinion of market value. You may get more by listing the property, and we encourage you to get independent advice before you accept.
If you have a property or a project in mind, send it to us.
We read every message and respond personally, usually within two business days.
- Call(530) 635-8196
- Emailcasafrescogroup@gmail.com
- Office407 Traffic Way, Suite B, Arroyo Grande, CA 93420