Regarding the deck that has been there for 25+ years - best case scenario is that an architectural firm would have to draft up drawings and a survey of it, and the town would have to inspect it and find everything up to current code.

I'm a draftsman and project manager working with an architectural services company in Southern California.

I have seen examples of GC's adding upwards of $1,000 to the architectural fee and passing it along to the investor. 2.

. ;)Being a small company, and with myself as one of the founders I did everything from software architecture to onsite consulting and design to contract negotiation.

The buildings are solid and they are going to last.... and they're simple.No fancy stuff to break.Maybe a bit of architectural character that you can charge more for.

Im not sure what residential architecture rates are, maybe $75 - $100 an hr. 

It has a unique architecture style with the front too and sometimes its nice to have something like that to show to renters.

Architecture student here- with regards to the question of the "underlying condition" issue, remember that if you simply refinish a porch/stoop, and there are issues of the foundation structure, the refinished material may crack immediately. 

As it turns out, I checked with my HOA and mounting a dish anywhere on the property requires going through the HOA architectural review board with supporting documents, ie diagram showing where the dish will be placed.  

He and his partner always managed themselves and used the secretary at this architectural firm to do some PM tasks like calling tradies and advertising vacant properties.One day, when the boss and his partner were overseas and without regular phone contact, a tenant called and said his skylight over the bed is leaking, it's horrible and a disaster.