Hiring and Architect/Engineer

[Kevin Boyd]

I have a 2 story duplex in Tampa, Fl. I am looking to probably tear down (it's over 100 years old) and rebuild. This will be my first ground up construction. I got a quote for just doing the design and CAD without engineering and blueprints. The price I got was $25k. I thought this was really high?  This is the sort of design I'm interested in.

[Jared W Smith]

You have validity to a degree. However you get what you pay for. Workers that can physically do the design work on their own: Are they licensed? Are they insured if they make an error? Will they work within your budget but take far more time (120+ hrs) since they are doing it outside their normal day job? All these are risk the owner would need to take into consideration. Is it worth it? I do not know. @Jim Goebel

You are correct in that there are many that can technically do this, but yes your biggest difficulty would be 1- finding them, 2- them be willing to take on a large new build project and 3- guaranteed that they won't screw up your project design, your timeline or both. There's a reason they work underneath someone else; a partner/principal. They are not liable for what they do during their day jobs.