Who says clients don't pay for modeling?

[gpickren]

I think the issue is whether your clients are wholesale (i.e. architects and builders) or the owners. If wholesale, renderings are an extra that comes out of the fee.

Basically architects view them as a necessary evil that the occasional owner or planning commission may require, but do not consider them to be part of their standard design package. They do often provide a artfully done, hand-colored perpective which they like to prepare as an artiistic expresssion. When the subject of 3D renderings comes up, the architects say, "I don't get many requests for that?" Of course not, he does not present the possibility.

Some builders appreciate 3D models and renderings as a sales tool for a spec house.

Neither of consider 3D modeling to be the reason the client chooses you in the first place. That is the way to charge for models -- make it a key integral part of the design process. For most homeowners the 3D model and renderings ARE the plans. Almost everything else is totally meaningless. They go through the process and end of with a set of plans to bid out, yet most don't know what the building will really cost, nor do they have any real idea of what it will look like in real life.

I spent thirty years financing real estate, the last seven devoted primarily to financing custom homes and major remodels. Over half the people who came in with plans could not afford to build what they had designed. I had a big barrel full of plans with a label on the side that said, "The Million Dollar Round File." That is because I had plans that owners paid a million dolllars for but could not build in that file. Pretty expensive art work.

I also had a "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" folder which showed a collection of remodels ranging from great looking to hideous. I wondered "do homeowners really have so little taste." Well, a few are lacking, but most simply had no idea what the addition would actually look like and a 2D elevation can be very deceiving.

So I simply ask if the client would like to purchase his home sight unseen or be able to tour his home while it is in the process of being designed. Give them a test. Let them try to read a set of regular plans and spot some hideous design flaws from the elevation. Then, show them how you do it. Are the schematics an extra? Chief's renderrings are the schematics.

Here's a photo from the "Good, Bad and Ugly " file. You decide which and why.