Honorarios del Arquitecto

Hello, good afternoon everyone, I am Architect Abraham Cota Paredes and in this video we will be talking about design fees, how much do we charge? It is very important that you are clear that we are talking about an Architecture Office that is in Mexico, in Guadalajara depending on where you are, you can be in Ecuador, Bolivia, in the U.S.A... anywhere in the world, obviously the rates will change depending on what We have been working for some time on some projects in Dallas, Texas, in the United States and it was interesting to realize that how the rates are there, in the United States they charge up to 7 times more. that here in Mexico approximately, that is the study that our clients gave us, that is also a reason why they hired us, it was more economical for them specifically, we will share the example of our office, it is important to say that everyone charges differently in Mexico There is a tabulator that the Mexican Chamber of Construction gives the rates but honestly I don't know anyone who uses them, you know?

So what have we all learned? with the passage of time to put a value on our work, unfortunately universities, at least where I studied, teach us many things, but they do not teach us how to charge or give value. to a render, a plan, a model, they do not teach us how to generate a business structure to be able to sustain ourselves because we always talk about art and architecture but we do not talk about it. Architecture is our mechanism that we use In order to survive and be able to solve our needs, it is very It is important that you are clear that you should never leave aside that it should be economically viable, whatever you are trying to develop, do you understand me?

You always have to look for both parties to win, so that the client benefits as much as you. One of the main pieces of advice I can give you is that as life goes by, and time goes by, you always learn from your mistakes. The statement states that you don't learn anything, so this first recommendation would be to never work without payment in advance because when you work without payment in advance, things are left very open in the air, there is not enough commitment, neither for the client nor for the worker. for the worker who will carry out the work to get us used to making our profession something solid, something defined and respectable, something organized and committed, I believe that this is the first way to generate something that will help us sustain ourselves throughout our lives, so having said that, we Over time we have given the value to a project I repeat it is just the way we work here at COTAPAREDES we have assigned a rate for each square meter of design that we have approximately a cost of 350 Mexican pesos Mexican currency to 400 Mexican pesos why Do I use these cost relationships?

Since we have been charging this same amount for 7 or 8 years, I think it is an interesting estimate of a range of value for that square meter of construction that could also be a square meter of design. Let's give the example. A client comes to us with a 100m2 plot of land and wants a house, he wants a house, with us the first thing he wants is a project, he doesn't know who will build it, he doesn't know about the future, so he comes to us and asks for a Project for your house, what do we do?

We look at the size of the land because many times there are clients who already come with a lot of knowledge, they already know what they want, they have a lot of information about their land, some even present themselves with plans in AutoCAD but there are others who do not, some only have the writing of property where are the actual measurements of the land, so in this case let's imagine that the land is 10 by 20 meters, 200 square meters, so the client only wants to build 100m2, what do we do? and this we have decided to make many things easier for ourselves, we ask the client if he has an idea of ​​how much he wants to build, he tells us approximately, if not, then we have to put values ​​​​by asking about the program of rooms, bathrooms, etc. sizes of the spaces, so with that we can do an approx. of meters but if you have an already defined idea, we take that in this case what we would do, if the client says I have 200m2 of land and I want to build one of 100m2, what we do is multiply 100m2 by 350 pesos 350 Mexican pesos then this gives us 35,000.00 pesos Mexicans 35,000.00 Mexican pesos what is this rate?

This fee is the cost per architectural project and what it consists of here in the office, we divide it into 3 stages, the first is the preliminary project, building permit and license floor plans, be careful, this is just architecture and design, It does not include the management of construction permit issues and the third stage is the executive project. What is each one? And what percentage of those 35,000 will we give to each one? This will end up being the choice of each office, completely the philosophy of each person, we give the plan a value of 50%, permits and licenses, we give it 35%, I'm not sorry, that was a mistake.

We give 15% to permits and licenses and we give 35% to the executive project. Why so? Why is the plan 50% because here is the architectural idea, what does it include? Plans, elevations, sections of facades, sometimes we include a 3D MODEL and a photorealistic render, so why 50%? for the plan because here is all the conceptual work, the Architect does what can happen if the project decided by the client only really wants to give you the plan, he can work on that architectural project and it can be taken to another office to develop the plan. you gave them to an office that likes to do executive projects, licenses and permits and they will develop your idea, that is why it is so important that your idea is charged a lot, so that even if the client will make use of that idea in another place where he wants to do it, you have received a good fee, for your conceptual work, this is where the heart is, the next stage is the permits and licenses, these are the plans that we generate to be authorized by the town hall or town hall where it will be built.

So generally these plans are faster to develop because the complex and creative load was generated here so here it is only a matter of developing depending on the specifications of each town, city or country but generally it is faster that is why we ask for 15%. and the last stage is the executive project, in this stage we ask for 35% because we have to draw many floor plans, if you are a client and you are watching this video, the executive project is where each specification of the project is what color the gates will be of window, the measurements of the window, what color is the floor, what material, what are the bedrooms like, what is the kitchen like, how are the lamps, where are the contacts?

That's why it is called executive because it helps the builder to execute it for us as Architects, if they let us develop the 3 complete stages of the project, it helps us to ensure that the project is done as it is designed, 100% as it was conceived. What happens if the client does not hire the executive project? If he says, you know, which architect will only have the plan because I have someone here in my office who will help me do the executives or the permits, I just want the idea, you say okay, go ahead, but in the end I always say that it is the easiest way.

To destroy an Architectural project is to make a mistake with the finishes if you do not use the adequate floors, if you do not place the carpentry as it should be, if you do not place the appropriate lamps, if you do not use the plants that it should have, the project will not end as it should be, so I recommend that you always sign the 3 stages at the end. Architecture for us has to have all three because when you deal with permits, the project can have many changes depending on the city council. We work a lot within private condominiums where there are many limitations, the project will always undergo changes, you know?

Actually right now we are working on a couple of projects and we are in this stage, the second, what is happening? We draw the plans for the construction permit, we send it to the condominium regulations and then to public projects of the City Council, in this case of Guadalajara and they return it to us with many changes with problems to be resolved, things that are not well drawn, so they are The architects are the ones who work to make the necessary changes for the project to be approved, you know? So... everything has its reason if we don't do the executive project, well... many times we know that the project will not end as well as we expected.

In our experience, our best projects have been the ones we built because in the end the decisions fall on us and It is our responsibility to convince the client, but when another person is building, if the client does not completely trust the Architect or has doubts, it is often a "love triangle" between the client, the contractor and the architect, that is when communication can break down. and the decisions are made without the approval of the architects, that is why the 3 stages are very important, this is how we charge our fees, it can be a lot, it can be a little, depending on who you are, how old you are.

They are, how much experience do you have? Probably those who have little experience earn more or less than me, I don't know in the end, always remember this is not worth what you deserve, but what you know how to negotiate like this. You have to be very intelligent in giving that value that you consider to your work, your projects, and also depending on the business model you seek to generate, if you only work with projects, imagine how many 100m2 houses you would have to design per year, this price? to be able to have a life of a certain luxury, level, or whatever you like to call it, of certain comforts, and that tells us about things that we may have to talk about in other videos so this one is not as long as having an office and that is something What we have talked a lot about in the last articles of the magazine 477, a little commercial for you to read, I think it comes out this week, it is a digital magazine established in León, Guanajuato, I think it is very worth following because many of us Different architects are writing articles and there are writings about people from all over Latin America, it is really worth it.

That's all for today, we appreciate you following our channel, we are grateful, don't forget. To subscribe today we start the Architectural Design Workshop look at the workshops, that is where knowledge is the key to knowledge is to share it thank you very much, this was Abraham Cota Paredes