Who says clients don't pay for modeling?

[lbuttery]

My partner and I just landed a contract with major remodeling builder and they pay 3% of project cost for design of as-built and re-model and working drawings to go to permit.

They only do projects $100K and up, so if we work with smaller builders we will probably charge a sqft cost of $2 - $3 or a minimum fee which we are still trying to determine.

We work in the DC metro area. for projects outside of the area we may lower the sqft or minimum to be competitive in that
market.

I like the 3% of project cost as it lessen's the need to haggle over each project. For our first project we are taking 2% and will work torwards the 3% level as we "prove" ourselves.

Our first project was done as a freebie for a smaller builder but it was very instrumental in landing the contract with the major builder so it payed off and was very helpful to our learning curve.

Onward and upward.