The speed camera at the stoplight

Clients regularly asked me why they should pay for an owner's representative on top of a general contractor they already trusted. I built one explanation and reused it instead of a technical pitch about scope and change orders. It's the camera at the stoplight, or the patrol car parked around the corner. Nobody speeds when they know somebody will call it. An owner's rep isn't there to catch every mistake after it happens, it's there so nobody on the job cuts a corner in the first place, because someone accountable to the owner is watching. That line became my standing answer for why nearly every project should carry an owner's rep, and it's one of the clearest, most repeatable pieces of doctrine in my whole career. The value isn't a document or a checklist. It's the simple human fact that people behave differently when someone accountable is actually watching.