10 Things Dream-Home Clients Should Know
1. ‘Quarterback’ Architect
Think of your dream home project as a collaborative team-effort with your registered architect as the ‘quarterback’. The architect should act as the facilitator of the project design and submittal process, coordinate the work of numerous project consultants and engineers, and perform as the owner’s administrator during construction. Work such as soliciting consultant proposals, procuring bids, tracking relevant submittals, interviewing builders, and reviewing the deliverables of consultants should primarily be their responsibility, not yours alone as the owner.
2. A Fun Process
The design and planning experience with your architect should be drama-free. Realistically, there will sometimes be stress, but the overall tenor of the process should be fun, inspiring, and engaging. Families designing their dream home should look for architects who are invested in the success of the project and have a client-centric, no-ego mindset.
3. Budgeting Right
Develop a realistic pre-construction, construction, and furnishings budget. Your architect should engage qualified contractors to provide opinions of cost early on at a concept and schematic design level. Simple decisions such as adding retaining walls, slope stabilization, a projecting deck, etc. – can represent outsized costs and should be understood in the context of other needs and wants. Clients may accept early cost estimates given by an architect and find themselves 200% over budget because they added features along the way, or the architect failed to review costs with builders at the time.
4. 3D Models and V.R.
I highly recommend working with an architect who 3D models and visualizes your home with digital walk-throughs and virtual reality. These tools are enormously helpful in understanding the spatial experience and flow of your home design. Some architects charge extra for this service, others include it as a standard service.
5. Meetings & Drawings
Always have your architect open the 3D model during your meetings and discuss the design and your thoughts / feelings with that resource available. Some architects only present limited points of view to their clients through static renderings or drawings. These are helpful, but oftentimes they are not comprehensive enough.
6. Contracts & Professional Liability
Ensure that your architect and other design professionals have professional liability insurance (request their COI). Review contracts with all design professionals carefully to ensure that there are no unfavorable provisions limiting their professional liability for your project. Ask your architect to explain some of the fundamental provisions in the owner/architect contract, such as the meaning of ‘Instruments of Service’.
7. Professional Fees
Architect fee structures can be presented as a % of construction cost, a fixed fee (based on anticipated construction costs), a $ per s/f calculation, or an hourly rate. Architects often link their fees to construction cost so that if the scope or scale of the project escalates, they are still fairly compensated for the extra work.
8. Big Firms / Small Firms
Recognize that larger studios and firms have more staff resources, but their services are more expensive than a small studio or much more than a solo practitioner. Moreover, the larger the firm, the less time the principal or senior architect will spend with your project and the more it will be delegated to junior staff.
9. Permit Expeditors
For LA hillside and CA coastal projects, ask your architect about working with a permit expeditor. The bureaucratic elements of the permitting process are complex in these jurisdictions and many projects run aground because of delays and frustrations with the permitting process. A permit expeditor can consult with your architect at an hourly rate to ensure that the home design conforms to the LABDS, CCC, Planning, Public Works, etc. requirements. This minimizes the amount of back and forth within the process and cuts down on additional service rates with your design and engineering consultants. Nevertheless, it normally takes at least one re-submittal to get that stamp of approval from a government department.
10. Make a realistic schedule
Great design does take time. Work with your architect to develop a realistic project schedule, accounting for ample design time as well as submittal turnaround and construction. Depending on the scale of your project, consider phasing certain aspects of it to simplify the initial construction project and cost.
