Hey all, my wife (30) and I (31) are in the infant stages of building a home. We have one three year old son and one on the way. At this stage we have our builder (a trusted family friend who is a home builder and has already done remodeling work for our family in the past that we are very pleased with) we are now confronted with the age old question:
Should we use an in-person architect, online plan, or a local draftsman from a building and lumber center?
We already have the lot (fairly flat, minimal trees, with no obviously glaring building difficulties). Getting to this point has been years in the making and its very important for us to start off on the right foot while not spending money frivolously as we have a modest budget.
The build: A modest 1600-1700sqft open floor plan two story with unfinished partial basement. We like to live efficiently and simply. As stated, we already have the lot. We also have water, sewer, and electrical in place for hook ups therefore our budget for the physical structure build is between $400,000 and $450,000. Style-wise we like the “simple is stronger” approach to architecture and are leaning towards a more modern “farmhouse” vibe (although we hate that term) attached is an inspiration picture.
The Decision: The in-person architect we might use is a colleague of our builder and there is trust and synergy in that relationship. He is hourly at $125/hour and expects to cost around 3% of the total build cost ~$12,000-$13,500. The online plan my wife and I have found is ~$3,000 and very detailed but would need minor adjustments (bedroom sizes and adding a basement). As far as a draftsman, there are a few local guys that said they could draw up something for us for around $1,000 if we give them details. We understand that each has its trade offs in quality, cost, flexibility etc.
We do not expect reddit to take this difficult decision off our hands, however we would greatly appreciate any feedback/opinions on the matter from you all with much deeper knowledge and experience than us! Thanks in advance!
Replies
Your specific set of facts strongly selects hiring the architect who is a colleague of your builder. His 3% fee would be dramatically lower than the typical 8% to 15% you might find elsewhere. It’s hard to guess why his fee would be so low, but perhaps in part he trusts the builder enough that he need not include so much detail to lock in an unknown builder into correctly delivering a satisfactory product. The trust between them is a valuable benefit. Good design is not a frivolous attribute and is well worth paying for, especially at a bargain price, although it is surprising he can offer such a service for only about 100 hours of his time if he bills all his hours.
The online $3,000 set of plans, once modified, and then supplemented with required information for your local building department and site conditions and engineering, may end up costing about twice as much. Probably much more since engineering on a set of home plans can cost well over $3,000. Moreover, since you appreciate efficiency, will you get the space-planning and energy-saving efficiencies from online plans than you can from an architect who would meet your priorities, something that all too few homebuyers ask for?
A set of plans by a draftsman that only costs $1,000 is a huge risk for an investment you’ll be spending over $500,000 for in total. I’m not saying draftsmen aren’t qualified and skilled; some are even better at home design than architects. But that’s not likely for just $1,000. You don’t want to figuratively end up with a Yugo when you could have had the design quality of a Toyota once it is all done. How will your trusted family friend/builder be with you in your future after working with plans that likely aren’t as professional as he is sometimes used to, or force him to charge extra for change orders or repairs?
For another family without factors slanted so in favor of your builder’s architect, this decision would be harder. For you though, it should be easy.
Thanks so much for the thoughtful feedback! We will keep the community posted bon our progress!
Hey there, As a design/build company owner, I would absolutely hire an architect, especially at that bargain cost. There is so much more to building a house than making the outside aesthetically pleasing. The simplest dimensional changes can have profound functionality improvements... extra storage, better views, and better material usage. Architects should consider the lot characteristics.. where the sun rises and sets... snow, wind, rain direction... Architects can advise on what materials to use where and why... none of these incredibly important considerations will be included with generic online plans.
Probably the best and definitely the least understood reason to hire an architect is to SAVE money. If the builder has a full set of plans to work from, the building goes together quickly and without decisions still being made. The cliche "time is money" is probably truest in the construction industry. Good luck!
When you buy plans online you will almost always have to engage a design professional to sign off on those plans to satisfy the local building official, particularly when there are design items that just do not fit into the prescriptive tables in the Building Code.