Am i being unreasonable?

Dear  Dean – I saw that your post is from August so chances are that you’ve already moved ahead with your project. If you have not, I would advise you to go through www.arcbazar.com. They’re good at doing remodels and charge fraction of what it costs a traditional designer. On top of that, you’ll get to choose from 5-6 designs and you can pick the one you like the most.

edjones

in Architecture 12 years and 7 months ago

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deancollins | 12 years and 10 months ago

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Am i being unreasonable with my expectations that these architectural fees are out of whack?

Basically we just purchased an adjoining studio in our building and are going to gut renovate it to turn this space into a master bedroom/walk in closet/ensuite.

We’ve renovated previously so have a fairly good idea on costs with an expectation that the costs for this renovation will be about $42,500

We decided we might want to work with a different architect this time around as we found someone local to brooklyn on Houzz.com and met with him onsite (no i dont think its appropriate to name them so i wont be).

We’d already reviewed his porfolio online and liked what we saw so when he came over for a 30-40min sit down and a walk through for the space we were happy when he said his time was billed at $140 per hour and that he needed a $4k retainer to get started.

Pretty much after the meeting we decided we were going to engage him but there was one question we forgot to ask so sent a followup which lead to 3 or 4 emails quickly going back and forth which quickly lead us to the resolution that there was no way we could afford this architect.

Although the hourly rate was only $140 the architects expectation was they would spend 30 hours in the “design and concept stage” and a further 60-65 hours taking this design and turning it into a plan ready to submit to DOB/Landmarks

So just to get to the stage of applying to the city we would already be at $13,300 just to get to application stage.

Expiditor fees + landmark/dob fees + asbestos testing fees would be in addition to this. Plus of course on site hours with GC and for final inspection would be in addition again.

Basically we are looking at $19-20k in “fees” just for adding a second bedroom on a $40k budget.

So i wanted to test the water with my fellow brownstoner buddies, Am i being unreasonable? Is this a case of manhattanitis or am i being cheap?

snarkolepctic | 12 years and 10 months ago

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That is absurd. I could see spending that for a full apartment renovation but not for this. Why can’t you just use a good contractor?  You may still need an expeditor but it seems ridiculous to spend another $20k to do this.  I would think permits and expeditor etc…shouldn’t cost you more than $4-6k. It’s a tiny project.  Focus on contractors who think creatively. Talk to everyone you know and compile a list of names and then go from there.

slopemope | 12 years and 10 months ago

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you found them on the internet.  on Houzz, no less.  do you personally know the person that recommended them?  if not, run.  chances are better than not they recommended themselves to you.  would seem he has nothing to lose and lots of sucker referrals coming their way.  in any case, if this person isn’t ready to cap their fees on a small project, for whatever reason, forget it.

jigman | 12 years and 10 months ago

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We often charge 11%-13% the construction cost in fees + expeditor fees, so even at that rate, you are considerably lower than what you were quoted. (+/-$8,000). I would gather more proposals before committing.

dazednconfused2 | 12 years and 10 months ago

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30 hours to do schematic design for a bedroom and bathroom?  60-65 hours for LPC/DOB drawings?  That’s nuts, especially considering the LPC application for this is a nothing.  Our fees would probably be in line with arch_tect’s, and I’m sure that’s for the entire job, including construction administration and signoff.

curated | 12 years and 10 months ago

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Give Jock Deboer a call…he posts here all the time and yes the fees you were quoted are too high

tanner | 12 years and 10 months ago

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I got a quote that worked out somewhat similarly a couple years ago, using someone reputable from this site (and who had done the original reno on my place).  I decided to interview several other architects and all four of the others came in at a fraction of that cost.  When I told the expensive one I wasn’t going to hire him because it was so out of my budget, he was PISSED!  Having very rough sketched some ideas and met with me once (before I hired him, of course), he apparently felt I’d wasted his precious time.  Unbelievable!

deancollins | 12 years and 10 months ago

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Hi Tanner, no this guy was totally reasonable when i was querying how his numbers stacked up against a $40k project.

He kept saying well you should realise a project of $100k will have a component cost for architect and associated fees of about $20k…..i was trying to answer with ok but this job only has a budget of $40k.

We’ll see how it turns out in the end.

ac-architecture | 12 years and 7 months ago

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Dean, Please give me a call to (917) 656-7507 or email me at  antonio@acarchstudio.com. I am sure I can give you a much more reasonable proposal while providing you with high quality work. I would love to take a look at your property, no strings attached. Antonio  acarchstudio.com