Your Architect May Be the Biggest Obstacle to Your Project

Your First Stop Should Be with Your Builder

Years ago I worked as a Project Manager for one of the big three remodelers in Houston. The owner, Lee, was a hard-edged remodeling veteran. His background was similar to mine in that he had vast experience as an artisan. He founded his company on the belief that the client’s best resource is his builder. I agreed, to a large extent, with most of what he espoused. I was to learn one more truism upon which I now run my own company.

One day we visited a prospective client’s home. She met us at the door, then led us through a beautifully laid out three story town home into a dining room, where a young man in slacks and shirt sleeves stood to shake our hands. She introduced him as her architect. An intricately drawn set of blueprints was strewn across the large dining table. We all sat, and over coffee, the owner and her architect shared their vision with us. I loved the new design and relished the challenge of so vast a project.

In the company, I was the PM who got the advanced projects due to my hefty experience as a builder. In my capacity with ‘special projects’, as we called them, I was familiar with the budgeting and logistics of complex builds. This one was a doosie. Lee asked the owner the salient question every designer should ask any client-to-be: “What is your budget for this project?” Before I go any further, allow me to explain why this question is important to the builder and disliked by the prospective client.

Every initial sales visit in which I have ever been involved, has been met with the expectation that I was a salesman trying to sell a job. Ultimately this is a reasonable and true expectation. If I were a tin man selling replacement windows or a Hardi siding job, it would be the only reason I was visiting. As a design-build contractor, however, the sales part of my job does not begin until the designer portion is complete. This small definitive piece defines the importance of your design-builder from an architect.

Should You Ever Tell a Salesman Your Budget?

Suppose you want to redesign your kitchen space. You have a good idea what you would like but you have no ability to create the design yourself. You have a choice to make. Should you jump in with both feet and talk to a remodeler or two, or should you do your due diligence and enlist the services of an architect?

The answer will surprise you. Lee asked the owner for her budget because he had to know what she was willing to invest in her renovation. In the kitchen example above, if you decide to do what would appear to be the responsible and reasonable thing and hire an architect, you have put yourself into a position where the design determines your budget. Architects, by in large, have no building experience. They have no more than a rough per square foot idea what his design may cost to build. He is a master of creating a design which meets his high standards or aesthetics, with as much wow factor as is expected in the trade publications he reads. The builder who is a true design-build remodeler creates the design based upon a budget limit.

The owner told Lee that she wanted to stay around $175,000.00. As I mentioned, Lee has an edge to him. He said flatly, “This design is at least $295,000.00.” He indicated the architect and said, “I’m sure he is a great architect, but he didn’t draw anything close to what your budget requires.” Lee could clear a room, no doubt. I would never speak that way to a client or even an architect. However, what he said was gospel.

As a word of advice - Hire a Builder not a Salesman