Building with architects - experiences, tips?

Thanks first of all for all the many answers. I think that also underlines our gut feeling once again. The first architect, as already said, charges according to the average rate, fee zone III and 4% ancillary services. That sounds fair to me. What is usually common?

I have had very, very good experiences with a Type 1 architect. Whether yours acts like mine, I don't know. He did much more than he billed for. Our Type 3 was a younger female architect who first wanted to sign the contract for service phases 1-4. Only then would she even start with the requirements gathering. Type 1 was different. He came after 2 weeks with a hand-drawn floor plan without prior payment, where only fine details had to be adjusted. Experience simply cannot be beaten. @Type 2: What does 1 year of planning mean? 1 year until the submission of the documents for the building permit? If that is what is meant, then that does not work for me at all!

Number 2 is an artist. Don’t do it. The most amazing houses here are managed by such an artist and all have one thing in common: they never get finished and costs explode.

Number two estimated the planning up to before the preparation of the award would take about a year (service phase 1-service phase 5).

What do you mean by artist? I wouldn’t have thought of number two as an artist. The process and the large team assembled was very professional.

That's a joke. Up to 1 year for service phases 1-5? He would be out with me. 90% is just downtime where Type 2 takes care of other projects and is not available to you. My architect would have needed 1-2 weeks for service phase 5. The most time-consuming part, which everyone underestimated, was the coordination between the building authority, the development plan architect, and the neighbors to determine the site conditions for the submission planning. Otherwise, service phases 1-4 would be completed within 2 weeks.