We don’t cost you; we add value in
amounts much more substantial than your investment in our services.
How
do we do this?
Here are several examples: |
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FOUNDATION SITE
ASSESSMENT, SITE PLANNING, SITE SELECTION ANALYSIS:
CASE STUDY #1Allowing
us to help you select your site can save you up to $482,000.
We can definitively say this, as our Falcon Cliff Lodge site was
selected carefully and our floor plans carefully adjusted to
suit site contours, therefore minimizing the cost of the
foundations, an extremely reasonable $18,000. Another
project where the homeowner decided on a steeper site than our
recommended choice, ended up costing $500,000 for foundations. We
encourage you to engage us to analyze your site options BEFORE
you buy them! SAVINGS: $482,000.
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SITE PLANNING OPTIONS
CASE
STUDY #2A client in Knoxville,
Tennessee hired us to perform a site assessment, prior to building
their home. They were convinced that they were going to build
their home on a particularly rough and sloping portion of their
site. Their foundation cost to conform to this craggy, sloping
area would cost about $150,000. We examined the site with a
probe and while we did discover what appeared to be bedrock down
about 3’ from the surface, the fact that an old logging trail
was right next to the area where the client wished to build their
home (and down about 10’ lower) and that we observed numerous
fragmented boulders and broken rocks coming through the surface
soils, led us to believe that in fact this was not an area of solid
bedrock, but rather, broken boulders, which can be readily removed
by a bulldozer. Therefore, we recommended to the client that
they have their road excavator flatten the area for the home, which
would take about 2 days of ‘dozer time, or about $2,200.
Therefore, their foundation would cost about $20,000 instead of
$150,000, less the excavation cost of $2,200. SAVINGS:
$127,800.
EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR
SPACE PLANNING OPTIONS:
CASE STUDY #3One
of our clients asked us to add a powder room to one side of their
foyer in a home we were designing for them. They were
convinced that we would have to add about 4’ to the entire
depth of the house to make room for this requested Powder Room.
Over the depth of this particular home, this would have added about
$54,000 to the cost of the project. We felt this did not make
sense, so we brainstormed several options and came up with a more
linear solution for the Powder Room that did not require an extra
square inch! SAVINGS: $54,000.
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SPECIFICATIONS,
ROOFING DESIGN, MATERIAL ANALYSIS:
CASE STUDY #4All
of our clients want a roof that doesn’t leak. We have
found a special membrane in lieu of the more traditional roofing
underlayment that adds about $900 to the initial cost of the
roof, but that the manufacturer indicates will render the roof
waterproof, even if water occasionally gets through some of the
roof shingles. This should save homeowners water damage
and roofing replacement cost for several years, allowing greater
time between roof replacements, which on a conventional roof
could extend your waterproof performance possibly by several
years. SAVINGS: $18,400. |
RESALE VALUE
CASE STUDY
#5We have home designs that have
appraised at 200% to 300% of their construction cost, including the
site. This is a phenomenal return on investment, when one
compares the more typical 5% national average and even against the
15% in mountain regions. If your home costs $750,000 to build
and your site is worth $100,000, you may realize a resale in the
$1,600,000 to $2,350,000 range with one of our designs, depending on
circumstances *. A more normal return on average home designs
might net you 5%, which would be $850,000 x 0.05= $42,500 +
$850,000= $892,500.
*Past
returns may not apply to your circumstances or to future returns and
there is no guarantee of this level of performance, which is
market-driven. Furthermore, the homes must be built according
to the design and specifications recommended by Rand Soellner
Architect to have the maximum resale value and any alternations from
those recommendations may adversely affect your resale.
Over-personalization is one example, construction in a sub-standard
neighborhood is another. Please consult Rand Soellner
Architect to assess your situation, to help you maximize your
return, before you buy your site.
SAVINGS/potential
increased return: $707,500 to $1,457,500.
So, when you are
considering whether or not you can afford us or any other licensed
mountain home architect, review the above items, then ask yourself,
“How can I afford NOT to hire a licensed mountain home
architect?”
Your return on resale, savings on
maintenance, savings on foundations, roofing, planning efficiencies
and other items should result in your saving the architect’s
fee within the savings, possibly many times over, and certainly in
the enjoyment of a properly designed home.
HOW TO BEST USE EXISTING
STRUCTURES ON YOUR SITE TO SAVE BIG DOLLARS
CASE STUDY #6Recently
Rand Soellner Architect was asked to analyze a client’s site on
a large lake north of Atlanta. The clients felt that the
needed Rand’s council on how to renovate the existing 1960’s
home into a nicer, more functional 21st century home. After
visiting the site, Rand came to the conclusion that to extensively
renovate the existing home would be much more costly that new
construction, because his clients would have to undo carefully and
slowly to then redo, carefully and slowly. Rather than suggest
this rather typical approach, Rand suggested the following:
- Only perform modest finish renovations to
the existing home
- Declare the existing home to be a Guest
House.
- Build a nice new, but smaller than normal
new house slightly removed from the existing home.
- Attach the new home to the existing with
a bit of covered deck.
SAVINGS: $450,000.Also,
the resulting smaller new home + existing guest home resulted in a
complex worth more than either a renovated existing or only new home
would have provided, as it is larger. Sometimes, this “thinking
outside the box” of normal concepts can save our clients
hundreds of thousands of dollars! |
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