As homeowners who are considering doing your home renovation or improvement, what would you rather do?

• Hire an expert and pay for their service
• Pick the expert’s brain for the price of a cup of coffee
• Watch YouTube and Do-It-Yourself (DIY)

The online world with YouTubers sharing their knowledge and expertise is the current world we live in. There is so much information we can find for ‘free’ in the online world. Everyone can be an expert and celebrity just by using their phone camera and sharing their knowledge.

If you love looking for home renovation ideas and DIY, it’s so easy to get hooked on watching those YouTube channels or TV shows like the Block. Yes, I get drawn into some of those too! The sad truth I discover is, it looks so easy to do when you were watching it until you try to do it yourself. It doesn’t always turn out the same!

Is it worth hiring an expert?

I get what you are thinking. It can feel unjustified to hire an expert to do a job that we think we can DIY. Why not save their fee and use it to fund the actual project cost?

I have been there too! I have to learn the hard lesson of getting stuck not knowing what to do and being frustrated to the point of giving up before I realise the value of hiring an expert.

My specific story and situation might differ from yours, but it is about the value of hiring an expert. I have this mindset in hiring experts for my personal development journey. I too like to DIY on my learning.

I used to think I can read and learn on my own, especially in this world where we have so much free information at our fingertips.

One of my first experiences with hiring experts, a team of experts, is when I embark on my journey to write the book Future Home Design.

My initial thought is, how complicated can it be to write and published a book compare to building homes? How wrong I was! I don’t know what I don’t know!

The valuable lesson and also the fruit from that experience is, it takes me less time to reach my goal when I am surrounded and guided by experts. I also avoid costly mistakes because I don’t have to trial and error. Those experts can give me a tried and tested blueprint I can follow. I hire and pay them to save me time, resources and the risk of failure.

But…you might have this question, just like I did at the time, how do you know whether they are a real expert, a wanna-be expert or a self-proclaimed expert? Everyone can say they are experts and they are the best!

That is true! I heard this saying: you know a good tree from the bad by the fruit it produces.

Take, for example, hiring an architect or a designer for your home renovation and extension project. You might only want to renovate your kitchen, and bathroom, extend one part of your house to be more open plan and add a spare guest/study room. It’s a simple house, how hard can it be, right?

You have an idea of what you want to do, you have excellent taste and a good design flair. You can get a lot of floor plan designs over the internet that you can adapt, mix and match as it suits your needs and style. So, you can do the design and you just need a builder to go along with your design and build your dream into reality.

I wish it can be that simple and easy! That will make our lives and work as architects like a walk in the park! 

Plus, we don’t have to go through 5 years of university study, a few years of working experience and passing registration examinations before we can call ourselves an architect.

Most homeowners see architects’ services as unaffordable. It is only for the rich and famous and for complicated projects.

Do you need to hire an architect to build a house?

Here are some misconceptions about an architect’s role:

1. Homeowners hire architects to design fancy-looking houses. This is the biggest misconception in the mind of most homeowners. Homeowners have the idea that architects only serve high-end, rich and famous clients who have an unlimited budget. To be honest, it is rare to meet clients, no matter how rich they are, who have an unlimited budget and let us go wild with our imaginations.

2. Homeowners hire architects to draw amazing floor plans. You can shop around and search for floor plans for free everywhere; at display homes, in magazines and in the wonderful world of the internet. There are people who sell floor plan templates or published floor plan collection books. The truth is you want to hire architects for their ability to create spaces that are inspiring and give you the wow factor than just being in a room that has no character. Architects think in 3-dimensional spaces as opposed to 2-dimensional floor plans. What looks good on a floor plan might not have the same feel in 3-dimensional space. This is one value you want to leverage when you hire an architect.

3. Homeowners don’t need to hire architects during the construction stage. A lot of homeowners have been told that they can manage the construction stage on their own and work with the builder directly. That is true. However, you need to understand that the construction stage is time-sensitive, fast-paced and high-risk. There are moving parts that are critical at this stage; time, quality and cost. If you don’t know how to manage those 3 elements, they’ll affect the success of your project. Homeowners can benefit from architects’ service during this stage. The construction stage is the most stressful and crucial time of a project, even for us architects. I can’t imagine why homeowners would risk their biggest investment and life savings for the perceived benefit of saving the architect’s fee. It is sad to hear a lot of horror stories where things went south because homeowners take on the burden and risk of managing this stage on their own.

If you want to know more about the ins and out of building and renovating your home and pick the brain of an architect for free, grab the digital book Future Home Design here https://studiom514.com.au/free-resources

If you prefer the paperback or audiobook version, you can get them from Amazon https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B09KGW89K9

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