Hire The Architect Or The Builder First?

Who should I hire first, the Architect or the Builder?

That's a question many home buyers ask before they embark on the home building process. We have our building lot, now what?

Over my 30+ years of building homes I've watched Clients proceed in both directions with quite different results. I'll start with the Client that hires the Architect or Plan Designer first. 

Architect First:

The problem with this approach, Client is left to deal with the Architect without feedback from a Builder. 

The Architect has no idea how much the home he is designing will cost. Most times he provides a cost per SF of living area that has little basis on actual market pricing.

Most Architects are hired to design commercial buildings and design very few residential homes. If that's the case, the Clients home will have more of a commercial building feel. If you decide to hire the Architect first, make sure he is a "Residential Architect".

Architects are artists and design really cool features but have no idea home much these exciting details will actually cost. Redesigning after the plans are completed when the Client discovers they can't afford them can really be expensive. 

The Architect isn't motivated to control the final building cost he's excited to see his cool design get built. 

Even if the Client asks a few Builders for check prices along the designing process, the Builders are motivated to provide the lowest quote possible as they know from experience:

1. Providing a more realistic estimate will eliminate them from consideration.

2. There isn't enough information to provide accurate pricing.

3. Any price they provide is submitted without an obligation to be accurate.

Client periodic meetings to review plans take months and months as the home gets larger and larger. Eventually the plans are completed and submitted to multiple Builders only to find out they can't afford the mansion they spent $10,000's designing. 

I can't tell you how many times I've seen this happened over my building career. The plans end up being thrown in the trash!

Submitting the plans to multiple Builders at this point isn't going to help you discover design flaws either. Can you imagine submitting the plans that you worked on for a year and spent $10,000's designing, so proud to display and one of the Builders telling you there are design flaws that will  require a re-draw? The Builder doesn't want to be eliminated from the project so he says nothing and builds it as drawn or tells you during construction when it will cost even more to fix it. 

Builder First:

Custom Home Builders have a team of professionals that they work with every day. Suppliers, Subcontractors, Interior Designers, Interior Architects, Landscape Architects and Residential Designers or Residential Architects. They are use to coordinating experts from entirely different fields.

That's important, as you want to hire someone that can bring together as many experts as possible to you custom home project. All these specialist see your home from a different perspective and Clients need an advocate that can manage this team. A good Builder will bring his team to bare early in the design process.

As soon as a Builder expects a team member to see an issue that is beyond their normal thinking, there is a problem. Expecting a painter to think "waterproofing", a framer to think "attic air flow" or a roofer to think "attic Ventilation" there is going to be a problem. THE BUILDER IS THE ONLY TEAM MEMBER THAT SEES THE ENTIRE PICTURE. That's why hiring the right Builder that has lots of experience is so vital. He knows from years of problem solving what to look out for. He knows because it's bit him in the butt before!