Architect search - financial differences

Then I will first have talks with my top candidate and if it doesn’t work out between us or he doesn’t want to, I will go to the next on the list.

Have fun with that. It’s a great process. Of course, you only commission the draft if the architect has understood you and you feel good about him. If you give a lot of yourself, he will also be "excited" about your project. If you are building in Oberberg, I highly recommend my architect via PM.

But that doesn’t seem to be the case; if I give him my budget, he either has to stick to it or reject it from the start.

A tip from my own painful experience: Put the construction cost ceiling in writing in the contract and get expert advice on the wording. There are very significant differences in the implications between a specified cost limit, a stated construction budget, and the various cost estimates used as a basis.

, your experience sounds very positive. I can only hope that it goes the same way for us. Recommendations are always good, but we are building on the other side of Cologne; that is probably too far for your architect. Besides, I still have to earn my spurs before I can send a PM: "Private messages are only allowed for users with more than 100 posts." :-)

Thanks for the tip, ! I really need to get informed about that. I believe that, besides gut feeling, is the central point for me!

Find an architect who listens to you. Explain to him how you want to live. Ideally with pictures. If he is interested in your project (not just interested in the money), commission him to make a design. If he cannot listen, does not understand you, or you do not understand him, then look for the next one. If the design is good, then ask him for a fixed price for further collaboration and proceed with the next steps up to the approval planning. It’s all very simple when you combine heart, people skills, and intelligence.

That’s exactly how we did it. After the general contractor attempt, my ex-boss suggested I try an architect because he had good experiences. He recommended his ex-girlfriend (with whom he had not built). On a personal level it was a good fit, but after she laid out her HOAI contract up to service phase 4 with the middle rate and multiplier 3 + 5% incidental costs at the end of the first appointment (which overwhelmed me at first), the search continued and was then a bullseye :-) with sense/understanding/creativity and price/performance.