Help needed on pursuing side jobs

[denrich71]

I am wanting to get some input from some of the users here. I am thinking about starting to draw up house plans on the side. I know this is an Autocad forum, but was wondering if any of you have used any different software that will aid you in creating house plans. If we aren't able to talk about the competition on here maybe someone could point me to a different site. I was also wondering if any of you have done this before or are currently performing this service, how you are charging your client. Are you charging a price per square foot or are you charging a flat fee. I live in an area that is a resort town. When I heard what some of the other people in the area were charging for house plans, I was shocked to say the least. I have heard in the range of 1.00-1.25 per square foot. Does this seem reasonable. I thought it seemed high. Anyway, input from everyone will be greatly appreciated.

Dennis Rich

[Sammie]

Hi Dennis,

Please note I have *moved* this thread from the Coffee Without CAD forum to this one as I believe it would be better served here.

Thanks,

Samantha
Forum Moderator

[blads]

I am wanting to get some input from some of the users here. I am thinking about starting to draw up house plans on the side. I know this is an Autocad forum, but was wondering if any of you have used any different software that will aid you in creating house plans. If we aren't able to talk about the competition on here maybe someone could point me to a different site. I was also wondering if any of you have done this before or are currently performing this service, how you are charging your client. Are you charging a price per square foot or are you charging a flat fee. I live in an area that is a resort town. When I heard what some of the other people in the area were charging for house plans, I was shocked to say the least. I have heard in the range of 1.00-1.25 per square foot. Does this seem reasonable. I thought it seemed high. Anyway, input from everyone will be greatly appreciated.

Dennis Rich G'day Dennis

greeting from down under - I'm an accredited Building Designer (http://www.wja.com.au), so my best for software would be to use Autodesk REVIT BUILDING v8.1.

I charged a flat rate for the inital design, then usually a rate per sq. metre for working drawings (CD's). Unfortunately I can't tell you if its reasonable or not...
for a house say 200 m² (2150 ft²) : your charge @ $1.25 = approx $2700 that is well below Aussie rates...

so stay there we dont want you undercutting us :grin:

[Steve_Bennett]

When I heard what some of the other people in the area were charging for house plans, I was shocked to say the least. I have heard in the range of 1.00-1.25 per square foot. Does this seem reasonable. I thought it seemed high. Anyway, input from everyone will be greatly appreciated.

Dennis RichThat does seem very low. You could compare it with how many hours you think it would take to design & look at what you would want to be paid hourly, then figure out a sq. ft. cost. A man's gotta eat!

[david_peterson]

I've seen prices anywhere from $500.00 to $5000.00 for about the same amount of SqFt. The difference is in what you get. If that's all you need to do is start with a a concept they all ready have and you're not going to certify that it will pass code or even be build-able is some cases; (I used to be a house estimator for home center; I've seen the difference between them) That's the $500.00 set. It consists of a floor plan and window sizes/locations; no elevation; no details and a note that says something like "Graphical representation only J. Smith designs has no liability for anything show, or dimensioned in this document.
The $5000.00 fee gets you a set of plans that would contain elevation, floor plans, sections, schedules, details, and in some cases specs on manufactures. Also comes complete with renderings, fly-bys and Walk through. It would have been looked by an engineer (maybe) and will pass building code review. It may also make you liable.
In other words; You get what you pay for. Just like anything else.