Client Pricing

[MonroeR]

Hello, 

  I am a self employed carpenter (20 years experience) who primarily buys, remodels and sells homes. I have been using chief architect (2019 home designer architectural) for several years now to do “as built” and, most importantly, the 3D 

renderings of what I want the finished product to look like. 

   I have really enjoyed using the program and am in the process of starting a side gig designing and selling custom home plans. I’ve done a few free ones for friends of mine to get acclimated to working with clients and am now working with my first paying customer. I have a couple of questions. 
   First of all how should I approach pricing? Initially I priced it at 75 cents a square ft for plans and 3D. What I hadn’t factored in is I had plan 1 about 50% done when they decided they wanted a different plan. I had plan 2 about 75% done and they decided they wanted a completely different layout. I have plan 3 almost completed and they love it but now decided they can’t afford it and want a plan for a smaller home.

    Is it normal to have to do multiple plans before they settle on one? Is there a point in the project where if they want to scratch it and go with a different plan I need to charge extra? Should I just charge by the hour? I’m sure some of it is due to my inexperience in the home designing field.

   Side note:

   Part of my plan with doing the home designing is to be able to slow down on the carpentry side of things. My body is starting to let me know I can’t do this forever and I’m wanting to get into something less physically demanding. Would you recommend home designing or should I look elsewhere? Pros? Cons?

  Long winded, I know. Any info is much appreciated. 

[Rookie65]

My first suggestion is if you are going to design for clients, upgrade to Home Designer Pro so you have more flexibility of framing choices, creating different wall types, etc. What I have done is created a "Master Plan" that has the defaults set to what is most common for my area. That way, when I get a new design, I start with my master, and then rename the new plan so when I change the defaults for that job it doesn't mess up the master plan. 

Secondly, if you are not a licensed architect or engineer, make sure that fact is clearly explained ahead of time. Depending on where you live, you probably can design plans without being licensed and your state may have guidelines.

As for pricing, what I do is allow my clients 2 rounds of included revisions before the final plan is started. Any revisions after the 2 rounds that they initiate, depending on what it is, become invoiced on an hourly basis. I don't sweat moving a wall or window, yet size changes, roof changes, the larger items that affect the size, structure, etc.  It helps keep the people who can't decide from expecting a bunch of changes for nothing. Plus your time is worth money in providing them this service. Keep each version of the plans, as sometimes they will go back to what you had done before, or want to keep a particular item and you can copy and paste it to the new plan. Just start with the initial plan, and "save as" a new name so the defaults are still with it. Something as simple as naming it the next number so you can keep track of them. And always get a deposit before you start drawing anything. Provide them an estimate beforehand so they know the approximate price and can't come back with a complaint about the price afterwards and leave you with nothing.

Out of curiosity, how did you come up with that rate to charge? Did you check what some other people are charging for plans in your area? What I have created is almost an "A La Carte" pricing system. Each project type has a certain base price, with a square foot adder to it. That way, you have a certain price initially for your time, then the adder is a small amount based on the size.

That's my 2 cents.

[MonroeR]

8 hours ago, Rookie65 said:

My first suggestion is if you are going to design for clients, upgrade to Home Designer Pro so you have more flexibility of framing choices, creating different wall types, etc. What I have done is created a "Master Plan" that has the defaults set to what is most common for my area. That way, when I get a new design, I start with my master, and then rename the new plan so when I change the defaults for that job it doesn't mess up the master plan. 

Secondly, if you are not a licensed architect or engineer, make sure that fact is clearly explained ahead of time. Depending on where you live, you probably can design plans without being licensed and your state may have guidelines.

As for pricing, what I do is allow my clients 2 rounds of included revisions before the final plan is started. Any revisions after the 2 rounds that they initiate, depending on what it is, become invoiced on an hourly basis. I don't sweat moving a wall or window, yet size changes, roof changes, the larger items that affect the size, structure, etc.  It helps keep the people who can't decide from expecting a bunch of changes for nothing. Plus your time is worth money in providing them this service. Keep each version of the plans, as sometimes they will go back to what you had done before, or want to keep a particular item and you can copy and paste it to the new plan. Just start with the initial plan, and "save as" a new name so the defaults are still with it. Something as simple as naming it the next number so you can keep track of them. And always get a deposit before you start drawing anything. Provide them an estimate beforehand so they know the approximate price and can't come back with a complaint about the price afterwards and leave you with nothing.

Out of curiosity, how did you come up with that rate to charge? Did you check what some other people are charging for plans in your area? What I have created is almost an "A La Carte" pricing system. Each project type has a certain base price, with a square foot adder to it. That way, you have a certain price initially for your time, then the adder is a small amount based on the size.

That's my 2 cents.

Thank you for they detailed reply! Yes, upgrading to Home Designer Pro is number 1 on the list before my next client and possibly even before I finish the current project. I like your idea of starting from a master plan. So you're saying that if I start a project from the master plan and name it "John Doe 1" for example, then change the defaults it won't also change the defaults on the master plan? I always assumed changing defaults would affect the entire program and any plan in it. 

   Yes I make it a point to let clients know that I'm not an engineer or an architect. Both the local counties I do carpentry in don't even require building permits to build a house. I need to check for state guidelines, I guess. 

  Thank you for the helpful tips. I have been saving each version of the plan as "plan 1" "plan 2" "plan 3"etc.. I have taken a deposit but haven't done anything in writing which I will definitely do for next time. As for pricing, I just made a rough guess as to how many hours I expected to have in the plan and how much I wanted to make hourly. I haven't checked for any other home designers in my area. I feel like I'm pretty close on price but next time I will definitely have to factor in how many major revisions are included in the pricing. I kinda wanted to get a feel for what is industry standard as far as revisions/pricing. 

Thank you for taking time to answer my questions!

[MonroeR]

8 hours ago, solver said:

 

I'd ask on ChiefTalk. Most everyone there is a pro, while most everyone here is DIY.

 

https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/forum/18-chatroom/

 

It's good to search and read too as I'm sure this has been discussed.

 

And like Keith said, plan for an upgrade to Pro. I cannot imagine doing plans with anything less. 

 

Chief Premier is now subscription only at $200/month or $2000/year, and I know people like Keith do fine with Pro, but I'd look hard at upgrading to Chief. On average, there are 168 working hours (40 hour weeks) in a month. That's $1.20 an hour at the $200/month rental.

If all you do are 2D plans, then pro works OK, but there are many, many things that Premier does easily that Pro simply cannot do at all.

 

 

Good idea. I assumed most ChiefTalk users are mostly licensed engineers & architects and pricing would be much different than somebody like me just starting out is why I asked on here. I'll do a search on ChiefTalk and see if in can find some helpful discussions. I done a search on HomeTalk here before starting the thread but couldn't find anything related to client pricing. 

 

   I will be upgrading to pro soon for sure. I love all the features of the premier but can't justify the price just yet as I am just starting out and may only average 10-20 hours a month. Once I get a more steady client flow, I could see the value in premier. 

 

I'll definitely be checking out your YouTube channel. 

Thank you for your time!

 

[DavidJPotter]

       In thirty years I have never come across a Structural Engineer using Chief. I have several Architect clients over the years. In my experience most of Chief Premier users are also Professional Builders. I myself was a construction supervisor and started drafting using Chief back in 1994. The majority of users I know are self employed builders who also design and draft their own projects, the rest are strictly drafter/designer persons working as part of an Architectural firm. 

        All my Engineers seem to use AutoCAD,

 

DJP