Anonymous wrote:Thanks all. I think my sticker shock on this is probably a good barometer if we can afford the project all together. I would hate to spend $20k just for the builder to tell us we can’t do the project with our total budget and then it’s $20k down the drain.

It's important when hiring an architect to understand how to end the contract and what the deliverables are. We had a contract that capped around $22K for an addition and major renovation, but with a soft bid process about $5K in. It was clear at that point that pricing had changed so much that our vision was not aligned with our budget (they were about $400K apart). We could have scaled back plans or tried to come up with more money to go forward but we were so frustrated we exited the relationship.

We thought we could whittle down architectural fees to somewhere around $16K for plans for whole house remodel. But it ended up being closer to $35K once you factor in costs for utility drawings and electrical drawings. The $35K is what other architects quoted us originally and they were basically right