All Forum Posts by: Nicole S.

@Mike H.

Agreed, we did not pay the last invoice until he sits down and resets expectations with us which he has yet to do. 

@Manolo D.

I had thought about using a drafter, with hindsight that might have been better. The contract did come from the Architect but there wasn't anything in the contract we were opposed to. I think the real gray area is how did he come to a not to exceed price of $6,500 yet we are not complete and still far from permitting. 

@Connor Wingfield

You hit the nail on the head. Our expectations have been mismanaged. I take some responsibility - perhaps I should have been more aggressive about the process with him. Now I'm having to get involved in permitting and answer simple questions for him that he can't seem to solve - such as finding phone numbers for city departments. 

@Steve Haight  

Thank you, I will need the prayers. I will likely never build in the City of Seattle again. The permitting process is a convoluted mess. I have confidence in my project management abilities - I mean, habitat for humanity builds houses with volunteers, how hard is it? ;-) You're right though, I have a big learning curve but all my mentors kept telling me, "you just have to do it." 

@Logan Gilbert

1) I can tell you that in the last 15 years of managing my family's rentals, we have a policy that we do not rent to friends and family, no exceptions. I can painfully recount every time we've rented to a friend or family member and it's never worked out in our favor, no matter how great the relationship was to start. Spare yourself the heartache and the money and rent to people you don't know. They have more incentive to abide by the terms of the lease. Same thing in reverse, don't befriend your tenants, maintain a professional landlord-tenant relationship. 

2) You are the landlord so maintenance is on you and if something breaks, it breaks. Unless the tenant puts golf balls down your sink, you can assume it's a maintenance item that you as the landlord are responsible for. Most tenants don't intentionally break things and usually abuse is obvious. If you want to move forward, come to terms with regular maintenance items - broken locks, appliance failures, etc. Then, when it happens you're not bent out of shape over it and you don't feel compelled to figure out who last used the washing machine - usually that has nothing to do with it's failure. 

3) Leases evolve - it's good to get a lease from a real estate agent or your local rental agency uses. We have a local group called RHA that you can subscribe to as a landlord and use their forms. They might be national. A bad lease could get you into trouble. I've seen one page leases and 30 pages leases that include everything from  crime-free/drug-free addendum, pet addendums, oil tank addendums, etc. I've never been able to use a template lease without modifying. Or, have an attorney draw one up for a couple hundred bucks. 

4) Most tenants want one-year lease minimum - six months is ok but every time you turn a tenant it's a pain - you have to do a move-in and move-out inspection, advertise, clean, repair, run applications and sign a lease. Spare yourself and get a long term tenant. Typically leases over one year require notary. 

@Account Closed

Great advice. The AIA contract is pretty straight forward. I think my confusion was how the cost of the project so far has exceeded his "not to exceed price". I also think it's a gray area as to how much design time is included in his fee and what is considered to be above what he estimated. We didn't have a lot of changes - I was very clear as to what I wanted, we only had a few minor tweaks and most of it was due to his interjections of items we didn't want. He must have redesigned the elevations a dozen times, none of that was at our direction. There was a point where we feared we wouldn't be able to afford the home so he took it upon himself (and he even sent the plans with those exact words) and reduced the size to get it within our budget. 

Anyway, I think I know where I stand and I feel much better now that I've spoken to BP architects. Thanks to everyone for their input and expertise, I don't know what I would do without BP. 

@Account Closed

Fair enough. His contract does refer to consulting as extra so I assume that refers to the engineering portion (his time and their time).  

I do have to wonder if we'd be better off hiring a firm that spits these houses out all over the city. The design we want is contemporary (which is just a square box) and also, an experienced builder will know what the city wants for permitting. It would seem it's been a while since he's gone through permitting and we might be paying for his learning curve in time and money. Then again, it sounds like we're getting a good deal right now and maybe I should just be thankful. 

We also had some special requests to the plans that are unusual to the designs we're seeing right now (our kitchen and living room are on the top, third floor; we have an ADU in the basement and we're building to protect the view from the house next door that we own).

Your expertise is much appreciated. 

@Micah Truman

Thank you so much, this puts my mind at ease! I think his price was low due to the fact that he has some health challenges (which may be way it's taking longer to complete the plans) and he's retired. He is licensed, has a large portfolio and is a member of AIA but I agree, low prices should raise an eyebrow. Being that I've never done this before, I didn't know what to expect. 

Thanks again, I feel a lot better about this now. May I ask who you hired to build your house? We're still interviewing contractors but we just eliminated one because he only builds green which would change our design substansially. 

@Alec Sithong

Thank you - it was an AIA contract preceeded by a proposal. He did tell me that he should've warned me that additional work due to engineering would be extra. Not too big of a deal, if the work needs to be done, it needs to be done and I'm willing to pay for it. 

@Matt Burr

Thank you, he is licensed (retired) and just doing small projects. Glad to hear that the costs I'm paying are low comparatively. I read BP's New Construction Diary by J Scott (free download on BP) and they paid $2,500 for an architect in GA and other posts for single families have described lower costs. Maybe the rumor is true, Seattle is one of the most expensive cities in the nation! 

Thanks tons for your help, I really appreciate it. 

Good evening BPers

I'm tearing down and building a single family home in Seattle. Our architect gave us a not to exceed quote of $6,500 and to date we've gone beyond that. Being that I've never been through this process I'm not sure what to expect. It's been a year and we haven't even submitted the plans to the city for permitting yet. We were very clear about what we wanted in the beginning - I sent him pictures, specs and I even drew out what I wanted. 

What should these services actually cost us? And, does the architect usually take you through the permitting process? He also sent our plans to an engineer, the engineer charged us $3,600 and on top of that he charged us an additional $1,900 for the time he spent working with them on the plans. Is this normal? 

I've read through several posts and costs seem a lot lower elsewhere in the country. 

Someone walk me off the edge of the cliff please! 

Nicole 

thank you @Andrew Syrios  I'm not comfortable being in the subordinate position and @Jeff S.  you make a good point, this is a one time deal, I'm not in the business of loaning money so the risk you describe is great and we would stand to lose a bundle if something goes wrong. Thanks for your time, I appreciate it. 

@Ian MacIntyre - yes, this is in Washington (state)...

@Jeff S. you are correct, this is probably a loan to fix the house and not to purchase, you can't even by a trailer in Washington state for $30K! You have scared me and I'm very appreciative, lenders don't settle for second position for good reason and I don't want to either. 

@Mike Hartzog  thank you, I had not considered scrutinizing his deal before investing and to make sure that there's equity left. I am very much out of my league here.

@Pari Thiagasundaram , so true, you sold me on that point, this is far too much work for a short term loan! Too much work for very little return. 

@Nghi Le  thank you for the great advice, it would not be worth it if I didn't charge him a point or two and thank you for informing me on the documents needed. 

Thanks again everyone for your expert insight, I really appreciate you taking the time!