Hello everyone,
We have a plot of land and are currently looking for an architect. I was thinking about hiring one (or maybe two?) architects initially only for design phases 1 and 2 to see if it’s a good fit before commissioning the remaining phases.
I have a few questions about the design phases:
Since the architect’s fee is based on the total construction cost, wouldn’t it be in the architect’s interest to design a more expensive house – or to include a larger contingency – while I want to keep costs as low as possible? Or is it the case that the architect cannot bill beyond our budget limit because that would violate our contract?
Is it also likely that architects might reject our project if it’s not profitable enough? I’m especially thinking that there might be established architecture firms with a certain reputation that only want to design single-family houses above a certain budget, versus more typical architects here in our city who are happy to work on projects at any standard. Is that true?
Strictly speaking – assuming they take the job and the construction budget stays the same – would both charge the same amount (according to HOAI)?
And finally: Under HOAI, the architect receives a virtually fixed price for their services. But when do I decide that the service is complete? I could send the architect back to the drawing board ten times because I’m not yet happy with the design. With very intensive collaborative planning, their hourly rate would end up being quite low…
Thanks in advance! Looking forward to an exciting house-building phase with you here in the forum!
Best regards,
Bob
We have a plot of land and are currently looking for an architect. I was thinking about hiring one (or maybe two?) architects initially only for design phases 1 and 2 to see if it’s a good fit before commissioning the remaining phases.
I have a few questions about the design phases:
Since the architect’s fee is based on the total construction cost, wouldn’t it be in the architect’s interest to design a more expensive house – or to include a larger contingency – while I want to keep costs as low as possible? Or is it the case that the architect cannot bill beyond our budget limit because that would violate our contract?
Is it also likely that architects might reject our project if it’s not profitable enough? I’m especially thinking that there might be established architecture firms with a certain reputation that only want to design single-family houses above a certain budget, versus more typical architects here in our city who are happy to work on projects at any standard. Is that true?
Strictly speaking – assuming they take the job and the construction budget stays the same – would both charge the same amount (according to HOAI)?
And finally: Under HOAI, the architect receives a virtually fixed price for their services. But when do I decide that the service is complete? I could send the architect back to the drawing board ten times because I’m not yet happy with the design. With very intensive collaborative planning, their hourly rate would end up being quite low…
Thanks in advance! Looking forward to an exciting house-building phase with you here in the forum!
Best regards,
Bob
H
hampshire26 Feb 2019 22:21bobbelche schrieb:
So I will first have discussions with my top candidate, and if things don’t work out or he’s not interested, I’ll move on to the next person on the list. Enjoy the process. It’s a great experience. You should only commission the design once the architect has understood you and you feel comfortable with them. If you share a lot about yourself, they will be more enthusiastic about your project.
If you plan to build in Oberberg, I highly recommend my architect via private message.
bobbelche schrieb:
But that doesn’t seem to be the case; if I give him my budget, he probably has to stick to it or refuse from the start. A tip from my own painful experience: Set the maximum construction cost in writing within the contract and get professional advice on how to phrase it. There are significant differences in the consequences between a fixed cost limit, a stated building budget, and various cost estimates as a basis.
B
bobbelche27 Feb 2019 10:50@hampshire, your experience sounds very positive. I can only hope that it will go just as well for us. Recommendations are always helpful, but we are building on the other side of Cologne; that is probably too far for your architect. Also, I still need to earn my stripes before I can send a direct message: "Personal messages are only allowed for users with more than 100 posts." :-)
Thanks for the tip, @Fuchur! I really need to educate myself about that. I think this, besides my gut feeling, is the key point for me!
Thanks for the tip, @Fuchur! I really need to educate myself about that. I think this, besides my gut feeling, is the key point for me!
hampshire schrieb:
Find an architect who listens to you. Explain how you want to live, preferably with illustrations. If they are genuinely interested in your project (not just the money), hire them to create a design. If they can’t listen, don’t understand you, or you don’t understand them, look for someone else. If the design is good, ask for a fixed price for further collaboration and proceed with the next steps up to the building permit / planning permission stage.
It’s really simple when you combine heart, people skills, and common sense. That’s exactly how we did it. After trying a general contractor, my former boss suggested we try an architect because he had good experiences with one. He recommended his ex-girlfriend (with whom he hadn’t built). The personal connection was good, but after she presented her HOAI contract up to service phase 4 with an average rate and multipliers 3 plus 5% overhead fees at the end of the first meeting (which overwhelmed me at first), we kept searching and finally found a perfect match :-) with sense/common sense/creativity and value for money.
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