Who says clients don't pay for modeling?

[James Eggert]

This is a great thread regarding different pricing issues. The variety of ways to achieve your desired rate is only limited by how you present what you can do. There will always be someone who wants it cheaper, just like a builder or remodeler who sometimes has a potential client who mentions cost every other sentence. I am a design/builder so I can bring both sides to the table.

A service is sold for whatever you sell it for. Simple enough when said, but in most cases the higher prices are based on what you bring to the table. If I want to spend my time doing work for another builder, the compensation is set at an agreeable rate. This rate may be discounted when compared to strickly a design for a homeowner. However, the constant in both of these situations is "What else are you bringing to the table?". Design in and of itself could be simplified to moving or adding walls and doors, adding space or alloting space for different solutions, specifying materials to achieve an end result, offering changes to something that a client can't determine or visualize, etc. Remember, I used the term simple, I'm not trying to analyze the whole thing. But an important part of that design process not only involves space relationships but it requires, I'll say it again, REQUIRES, your input into how materials and technologies and new products can be incorporated into the desired end design! What good is the design if the HVAC chases aren't thought out? What else do you leave to the contractor on site to "solve himself" because the design fees didn't allow enough time to provide these details and suggestions? How can you design anything without thinking about in the back of your mind how to get from point A to Point B. When I design, structural aspects, at least for me, are foremost in my mind because of the builder part. It doesn't matter if I am the builder or someone else is; they will need this info and it needs to be thought out before, rarely later "we can add a beam to solve that!".

I guess what I'm saying is look at what design means to you and what it means to your client. Develop that correlation and then adjust your prices accordingly. My market does not allow a 5% increase! It allows whatever I want that increase to be!

Because of what I bring to the Table!