About US
Built by Owners, not just contractors
We renovated more than 200 units of our own before we ever touched yours.
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Who you're hiring
Anchor & Edward Liss
Before Anchor existed, our founder was buying, managing, and renovating apartment buildings across Chicago, and hiring contractors the same way every property owner does: hoping the bid was honest and the budget would hold.
Anchor wasn't started by a contractor looking for clients. It was started by a property owner who needed a contractor that didn't exist yet.
For over a decade our founder has worked as a real estate broker while personally owning and operating rental buildings throughout Chicago. That meant living on both sides of every renovation: writing the checks, setting the rents, and watching which upgrades actually got a unit leased faster and at a higher price, and which ones were just money down a hole.
That lesson is the entire reason Anchor exists. We founded the company on the belief that a contractor should be able to tell an owner, in plain numbers, what a renovation will cost, what it will return, and how long it will take to pay for itself, and then actually deliver on that number.
After 200-plus renovated units, we've built a working model for what upgrades pay back and what doesn't. That's the model every Anchor estimate is built on.
The Difference
Scope Vs. Return
Most GCs sell you a scope. We sell you a return. Ed Liss is a Chicago real estate broker who owns and manages rental property, and that single fact changes what gets recommended, what gets skipped, and what actually shows up on your rent roll.
The Usual Contractor
Bids The Work
Quotes a scope you wrote, builds it, invoices the overages.
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Won't give you a number until they've walked the unit
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The estimate is a starting point, not a price
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Change orders land after demo, when you have no leverage
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Recommends finishes that photograph well, not ones that rent
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No opinion on whether the project is worth doing at all
Anchor Construction
Underwrites the asset
Prices the outcome, then builds to it.
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Prices published on this page, by unit type
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Fixed budget, agreed before demo starts
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Changes priced and approved before anyone proceeds
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Specs chosen for what Chicago renters actually pay more for
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We'll tell you when a scope doesn't pencil, and what does instead
How It Works
Five steps. No surprises in any of them.
01
Walkthrough
We seee the unit, hear the goal and look at the rent roll
02
Underwriting
Published price confirmed, add-ons scoped, return projected.
03
Fixed proposal
One price, one schedule, signed before demo.
04
Build
Weekly photo updates. Changes priced before they happen.
05
Rent-Ready
Handed back listing-ready, on the date we gave you.