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tfld, I'm not calling anyone out (or why you think something is targeted at you) and agree with everything in the above post.
All that I am trying to do is to point out that there are a lot of factors that go into the 10-20% contract administration fee that I don't think everyone realizes. Using Stonehenge's contractor who only has a cell phone as an example, it sounds like all he does is call people up, line up all the subs and walk away with 10%. That guy is most likely a pretty hardnosed character who keeps everyone in line, on time, right materials, good craftsmanship, good management of change orders, .... . He is dealing with subs who, like any of us, will find holes in the contract that present opportunities to upcharge to correct. Many of the subs have very strong personalities and will try to get their way whether it is by arguing that some material or workmanship is acceptable or that "the contract spec's or plans do not say that, so if I'm going to do that it will cost $$" and so on.
Now the cell phone guy has probably got a group of subs together that he has worked with for a while. They know he won't take any nonsense, they get familiar working around each other, they know when they can have a change order and when they have to suck it up, so it makes the cell phone guy's job look pretty easy. In fact it probably has become pretty easy. But, if you don't have the knowledge of construction, some contract law, and the hard nose personality it takes to push these guys when they need it and fend off their assertions that something is an extra or that it is not part of their contract you'll wish you never thought about contract administration.
Not every sub will try to work you over and sometimes the subs will handle the work simply carrying out their responsibilities and you really are almost totally unnecessary. But, there are always holes in plans and spec's and eventually someone is going to bring them up either because they and you never saw it coming or because they saw it from the get go and knew they could hit you for the extra when it came up. When there is a change order, you have to go to the homeowner and tell them you were not specific enough in the plan or spec's and the job is going to cost them more money. You better be able to handle that experience also.
The tough thing is that most designers are not working in the markets that need as much design work that requires contract administration. It is where competitive pricing is a big factor. People simply don't want to pay for things that they don't feel they need. It might be true that having an independent designer oversee the whole project on a $100k job might be in the best interest of the client. But when they interview a few design/builds with great portfolios and excellent reputations that will do a schematic landscape plan for $1k-2k, they tend to see less of a benefit and decide to keep the other $10-$20k for something else. That is certainly the case if the landscape job is under $50k. The less subs involved the less likely someone will pay for contract administration.
I believe that until you are regularly getting design work for jobs over $100k, you are not going to find too many people willing to pay for contract administration. I'm not saying it is right or wrong. I'm just saying that you can't get paid what you want to get paid unless someone wants to pay it.
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