About the Process & Our Exclusive

Feasibility Study Project Starter

A Feasibility Study gives you the needed information to make informed decisions.

Let me start by saying I am not against Architects. For certain projects Architects are indeed needed and I will be the first to recommend a few if your project warrants their expertise. However, in my opinion, the large majority of projects do not warrant their involvement. We have years and experience of being a home contractor. We can often deliver better design (look at our projects and talk to our clients and judge for yourself) for half the cost in half the time. Hears the rub: Architects get paid to do design and produce plans, and they have very little accountability for the client’s budget or how long the project will take.

We’d like to tell you a story – For years, we had clients who had paid thousands of dollars to Architects for plans that were never built, and the story was always the same. The Architect comes to the client’s home and they start talking about the project. The conversation comes around to the budget. The Architect says something like “Your project typically costs between X and Y. I work by the hour, and my fee is usually a certain % of the construction cost.”

The client thinks this reasonable and starts the process. From the initial conversation to the completion of the architectural plans, things change and grow, and the budget grows as well with cursory acknowledgment . Then comes the revelation! The client puts the job out to bid, and the price to build comes back substantially more than the client was expecting. And, by the way the cost to produce the architectural plans ends up being substantially more than the client was expecting. That money is spent and you are not getting it back.

The client is left with a choice: Either pay the Architect to decrease the scope, just suck it up and pay the added cost, or don’t do the project at all. Those without means to suck it up don’t end up not doing the project (hence the many clients I have met with old plans). Or worse, they fall victim to a contractor that says he can do it for a number you like but is substantially less than the average bid (at the heart of many a bad experiences). Or get talked into a time and material contract thinking this will cost less only to be blindsided by eventual higher end costs than even your high bids was at the beginning. Ask me how many times I have heard that story! (T&M contracts are illegal in California for a reason)