I haven't seen Diginahole around here lately - I know he's had lots of things going on with family and business - but he was pursuing a similar relationship.
I would think there should be a little courtship; you want to make sure they can do the kinds of things you need them to, and in a professional manner. and they'd probably like to know that their names will be attached to a good final product.
Agla can answer better than I can, but I just read somewhere that the typical minimum fee for an LA to do a residential design is something around $1K. Now don't quote me - I know LA's who will work for much less.
But I would think that in the ideal relationship, you use them for design, they refer clients to you.
I was going to try something like that locally - we weren't giving up design, but an LA moved to the area and wanted to have a short list of good contractors to work with. It didn't really work out, but then the business model seemed only in my favor - we did our own designs, she referred work to us. She never saw an upside. That reminds me - I should give her a call this spring.
