Who says clients don't pay for modeling?

[gpickren]

Thanks, Lorin, you raise some great points. One of the reasons those in the cities can charge big fees is that they HAVE TO. Otherwise, they cannot afford to live there and be able to sell the jobs. Especially for remodeling jobs, some have to be there. To sell the jobs, to build the jobs, to expedite the plans with the cities, etc.

A 60's tract house in fair condition in a fair neighborhood in Orange Country now costs well over $500,000. The guys who remodel such a house have to charge rates that might seem very high by small town rural standards just so they can afford their own dumpy little 60's house. But, they can afford to outsource design work to those who live in more affordable areas who can get more than they can charge in their small town but less than if they were living in the town making their own sales. Not to mention the fact that they can get more work than that is available in their town.

If the Chief users can network using each others strengths everyone can benefit. Where the system breaks dow is if people start coveting what someone else is making even thought what they are receiving is very fair by their local standards.

My personal goal is to teach contractors locally how to work with me. First, I sell and design the jobs for them. In doing so I show them how to sell design build. My objective is to replace myself as the salesperson so I can move to my place in the mountains. I cannot make enough money in that little mountain town to be able to afford to live there. But, when I live there I can do so for far less than it costs here. So when I move, I would want to reduce my fees to provide an incentive for the contractor to make the sale, handle the measuring, and city work himself either doing it himself or subbing it out depending on his work load.

Look, this is the nature of the construction business. A contractor may have a crew that can do foundations and framing. But then he gets some opportunities for increased business but his crew can't handle it. So on certain jobs he subs out the foundations and/or the framing. It is the same thing with design provided we are working on a common standard.

Chief provides that if we learn how to use the tools and how to work with each other.

I read the comments about the advantages of Autocad in certain areas of plan production. Now I know one thing for sure I don't have time to learn two systems. So if a situation presents itself where someone experienced in Autocad can remove a production bottleneck. Well, Hallelujah! They should do the work and free me up to sell another job while the market is still available.