I would like to get some input from fellow colleagues. I feel that I may have lost a couple of opportunites to engage potential Clients of residential projects, due to the fact that I have been away from the residential practice for a long time, and am not aware of current construction cost.
I may be paranoid, but I feel that potential Clients may want to trick architects either by giving them very high budgets, or very low budgets to test their knowledge and reaction. Last December 2016, I had a one-on-one meeting with a woman I had met a few weeks earlier at a networking meeting – during our chat over coffee she expressed that she and her husband were thinking of building a brand-new home and were looking to find a site, and then out of the blue she came out asking “Do you think we can build a 2,000 sq.ft. house for $600,000.00?” – she had previously expressed they didn’t want to do anything too complex or “fancy” (her own words) – Now I know that is not an exorbitant cost for new construction in Massachusetts, but it is somewhat generous especially if someone wants to do something very basic, and I replied “I am sure you can” – in the following months I have followed up with emails, but never heard from her again…and now after a few months I am wondering, if she on purpose shot out a high budget, in her view, expecting to hear from me something like “You certainly can for that money, but we can certainly look at other options to see if you can do something better and less expensive than $600,000.00” – I have been wondering all along if she thought that I would base my design fees (which I don’t, but I didn’t tell her, as I thought this kind of discussion would be premature) as a percentage of construction cost and therefore, instead of being honest with her, I would accept a higher budget to drive higher fees…..am I paranoid? Did I give her the right answer?…or as I have been thinking I messed up a potential opportunity?
The second instance is only from only a few days ago, on Saturday, March 11, I met a young couple who were referred to me by another acquaintance met at a networking group. They have a 1,600 sq.ft. ranch with a finished basement. They would like to add an entire second floor and wondering what they can do to preserve some if not all of the cathedral ceiling of their living room which extends for almost half of the house. As we started to talk and I introduced to them the concept of the LLC and the fact that, if engaged for the final design, my fees are not based on a percentage of the construction cost, I eased them into sharing with me their idea of a budget for their project, which they expressed to be between $150,000 and 200,000. During the course of the meeting I acknowledeged their budget limits, we wrapped up and I offered to send them the letter of agreement for the LCC (I had got the idea they liked the idea of starting with a LCC) – she replied they would get back to me on Monday. Well on Monday, instead of getting an email asking me to proceed with the draft of the LCC agreement, as I was sure I would get, I got an email telling me that she and her husband had realized they needed to figure out more things and more specifics about the scope of the project before proceeding. There was a polite exchange of two or three emails, with me offering to help along the way as they were evaluating their project, since one of my primary goals is “to educate my potential clients” as I expressed to them. Now I am wondering if they on purpose had established a very low budget to test my knowledge: $150.000 and $200,000 for a 2nd floor 1,600 sq. ft. addition may not be adequate, especially considering that there may be substantial structural modifications (I have been thinking about this today). So they may have thought “How can you educate us, if we know already that to build our project our budget is not sufficient, and you didn’t say a thing? – Come to think of it, a project like theirs, may require more of a $250,000 to $300,000 budget. Once again am I being paranoid? Did I give them the right answer?…or as I have been thinking I messed up a potential opportunity?
Thanks,
Umberto
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