LA's mandatory soft-story ordinance put small landlords on a clock for work that adds no rent and that no bank will lend against.
We became a PACE-certified contractor with an engineer under the same roof, so financing was on the table in the first conversation.
The mandate created demand. It didn't create the ability to pay. Every other contractor pitched the fix, and the owner's real problem was money.
We signed a lot of soft-story retrofits right away. Within about three months we had signed more than $600,000 of retrofits in West LA, most running $50,000 to $70,000 each once demo, patching, analysis and soft costs were in.
Solve the buyer's constraint, not the one your trade is built to solve.