Licensed architects will usually be more expensive because they have liabilities that home designers do not. To cover them, architectural fees are often higher and may include insurance, engineering and other consulting expenses and overhead.
Home designers will often have a lower hourly rate. Alternatively, depending on your project, a home designer may charge a flat fee, based on the square footage of your project. Residential designers normally don’t attempt to estimate or claim control over the entire cost of your project. This results in savings because, at appropriate points during the project you will only be presented with the actual cost engineering, construction, impact and permit fees.
As an additional service, a home designer can be by your side as a consultant throughout the construction process. In other words, residential designers get paid to do exactly that: design your home & communicate that design to the builder.
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