A picture is worth a thousand words––but how about a thousand dollars? For a set of good floor plans, it is worth that and more, according to Housing Design Matters. Home building and designing professionals know the worth of well-designed architectural plans, but getting homebuyers to invest money into the idea can be a challenge. Visualizing the value of design is harder than quoting material costs, but Housing Design Matters says that designers can prove their worth by linking how the plans will interact with a family’s daily routine, bring the space to life by explaining the layout, and underscoring the importance of having an architect in your corner when the unexpected happens.
Perhaps the real question is how do you assign a dollar amount to design? Every architect dreams of the unicorn client who understands the value of design and trusts you to make something spectacular – but if you ran your business on those clients alone, you’d be out of work in a hurry.
There are clients who are new to the idea of hiring an architect and don’t know what to expect. It’s somewhat understandable – you never hear about the cost of drawings on HGTV (I know my interior design friends can relate to that one). With unlimited access to Houzz, Architectural Digest, or simply the fact that they live in a house, everybody likes to see themselves as a designer to some extent – or they know a guy who works for AT&T and draws houses on nights and weekends (I heard his roof plans don’t work).
