architects fees - for bidding/visits before hired?

Hi, Is it customary to be charged hours spent by an architect who you do go on to hire for their visiting the site, bidding the job, and assembling references for you?  If your architect spends extra time on site chatting with you or workers, is it reasonable or unreasonable to ask those hours to be written down? Thanks for sharing any professional standards – we don’t want to be unreasonable but were surprised my some items in a recent invoice.

elm_bk

in Brownstoner Renovation 12 years and 4 months ago

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joearchitect | 12 years and 4 months ago

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Most architects do not charge for the initial site visit, client meeting, or time required to put together a proposal or references – its just one of your business development costs.  Once you hire the architect however, it is reasonable for them to bill for the time spent on your behalf.  If the site visit includes a bunch of chatting I might round down the time, and I don’t charge for travel, which could be another hour or two. You shouldn’t hesitate to ask them about this and other questions you may have – who knows, they might have a legitimate reason for billing the way they did.

elbow | 12 years and 4 months ago

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I’ve not come across an architect, lawyer or GC who has charged for an initial consultation, but have found it challenging to find plumbers, electricians or ac repairers who will come without charging.

jcarch | 12 years and 4 months ago

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You mileage may vary with different architects – there’s no one way to do things, but I don’t charge for the initial site visit, or for putting my proposal/references together for a prospective client.  That time is effectively ‘built in’ to my larger fee for projects as part of my overhead. It sounds like your architect is charing your hourly for the project.  If I’m charging hourly have a 60 minute site meeting, I do not only charge 50 minutes because pleasantrys were exchanged during the meeting.  But I spent an hour after the meeting on site chatting with the client or architect about our hobbies, I would not charge for that hour. jcarch ———————— James Cleary Architecture

http://brownstoner.staging.wpengine.com/jamescleary

slopemope | 12 years and 4 months ago

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http://brownstoner.staging.wpengine.com/forum-archive/2008/04/architect-consu/