My home designer does floor plans, elevations, building cross section, insulation calculations, structural design, etc. Pretty much everything you need to get a price quote on building and get permits.

Price is going to be highly dependent on where you live.

First, you will want a designer who will work with you to explore and establish a design for your house which accommodates your life style, site and budget.

Second you will want a designer who will provide the drawings and specifications of the completed design of your house which are sufficient for bidding, construction and all permits, both for construction and occupancy.

The challenge for designers "connected to the build company" is that: 1) They may be agents of the builder and not you; 2) you cannot be sure that what they design and specify are not choices advantageous to the builder; 3) it is difficult (or impossible) to separate out the expenses for the designer and for the builder--design expenses are often hidden as a part of the construction price.

Best option may be to due your due diligence and check as many references as possible for the designer and builder before agreeing to proceed.

Good luck on your project.

Since there is no standard of education or testing for a "home designer", you could get everything under the sun as a possibility. It could be someone who just translates your napkin scribbles with AutoCad without regard to design principles or code requirements. Or, you could be rarely lucky and it could be someone who has an architectural education and just hasn't passed the exams, but who can make intelligent and thoughtful suggestions that create more than the sum of the parts "house plan".

Also, the points raised by Virgil are extremely important to sort out. If the designer works for the builder, you're not in the drivers seat at all, either on costs, or on clear responsibility for owning issues. Even if you have a financial contract with the designer first, the fact that he is employed by the builder makes the waters murky.

You definitely need to go in with questions, lots of questions.

One reason I went with this team over a true architect was A) Price B) I already knew about what I wanted and C) these guys actually talked to me about how I wanted to live in the house.

The architects I interviewed seemed disinterested in my opinions, lifestyle, and budget.

I also asked for houses they had designed on a river in the craftsman style. As my house is going to be on a river and I love craftsman style houses. I then drove by the completed projects a few were built in the last year a few built 5+ years ago.

I used a designer for my house plans because of the cost savings. In Ontario, designers have to be BCIN certified in order to submit plans to the building department. So you should check if there is a comparable certification in your area. If so, then you don't have to worry about whether the plans are according to code or standard building practice as long as the designer is certified. The one I used was very professional, suggested cost savings in several places, and incorporated all the details required for building permit and construction.

We didn't require too much creativity from him because we already knew what we wanted. We browsed lots of pictures of houses on houzz.com, found the one we liked, and asked him to design something similar.

Cost of hiring a designer here run from $1-$2 per sqft

This post was edited by Oldmaster on Thu, Sep 18, 14 at 18:06

I recommend having separate contracts for the design phase and the construction phase with the right to use the design or have some else modify it if you don't wish to continue with the builder.

This is the way major buildings are design-built but home builders seem reluctant to do it. Don't get trapped in a bad deal.

We recently had a horrible and expensive lesson related to having to work with the builder's designer. Although touted as a custom home, it was not and would never be. We realized too late the fix was in ... so we walked. We certainly won't ever get into a deal like that again. Good luck to you and I hope it goes well.