Among the first questions we ask a potential new client is if they’ve considered what budget they have for their project. This can sometimes be an awkward conversation to have, but it is a critical conversation to have. It is critical, before design begins, to know what you can afford. We understand some (most) clients don’t know what to expect their project to cost and we can help guide that conversation and ultimately provide a cost. Likewise, we understand that you may be one of the lucky ones with a large sum of money you can spend, but don’t necessarily want to spend it all on one project. Everyone has a budget whether it is based on available funds or perceived value. This may be a controversial statement, but I find it dishonest when someone says they don’t know what their budget is and being dishonest is the worse way to begin a relationship. A client may not know what the cost is, but they certainly know what they are willing or able to spend. Another way to put it, if you have $500,000 in your pocket, but are only comfortable spending $200,000 on a particular project even though you could spend more, then your budget is $200,000. It’s ok to say you only want to spend a certain amount, even if you have more, but that information is crucial to share from the very beginning.
We don’t ask this question to see how much money we can get from clients. The price for a project isn’t going to change based on the client’s financial situation. Rather, we ask to determine if a project is viable and if so, how to best design towards the budget. As a design/build firm, our intent is to only design what we build and only build what we design. While we may ultimately get paid for designing a project that can’t be built due to budget constraints, it is not in the client’s best interest to do so and to be honest, serves as a distraction and inefficient use of resources for our primary goal as a design/build firm. Please be honest with us and yourself in this conversation. Intentionally stating a low budget may result in a design that doesn’t meet your wants and needs and ultimately may wind up costing more for design with revisions to get the design to where you truly want it. On the other hand, stating a budget higher than actual constraints (or declaring there is no budget) may result in problems, such as a design that can’t be built for the actual budget (remember, everyone has one) and possibly require more time and money to make revisions to bring the project back to reality.
Most of our clients self-finance their projects, but if you need financing assistance, you should begin the conversation early with a professional lender to determine what you can comfortably afford. The process to secure financing can take weeks if not months, so it should not be treated as an afterthought. It’s important to know early on what financing options are truly available, not what one thinks they can obtain. We don’t want to assume you can obtain $300,000 in financing and then after the design is complete discover that only $200,000 is available. While we don’t provide financing, we do have some lenders we can recommend if needed.
Ultimately, we want to avoid is all too common scenario of beginning the design process without first considering the cost, only to find out that the dream design far exceeds the real budget. We want our clients to determine what they can afford and openly and honestly share that information, so that we can work together to design a quality and complete package that fits the budget.