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Hi everyone Need a fresh pair of eyes (and a brain) as a sounding board. We are veeery early on in the process of considering a new build. Currently approached a few architectural firms to get a feel of what they may offer. Output: 1) Firm A - purely architectural design firm, no fancy accreditations (at least not published). Good customer service, prompt turnaround, good reviews on Houzz, extensive experience, nice looking designs. Would only do design drawings Stage I / Stage II, and go as far as introduce you to three vetted builders. No further. Cost for services c.£5,000 (drawings and submission to LA only, all extra fees for surveys, BCO, SE etc extra, of course). Do not consider pre-submission of drawings to LA, just go straight through for proper submission. I liked them. 2) Firm B - an architectural designer, not RIBA / ARB. Significant number of glowing customer reviews on Houzz, good portfolio (not Norman Foster, but comfortable modern standard). He would do all the drawings for about £6,000, and then is happy to fully project manage the whole process. Not big fan of extensive tenders, prefers to use a main contractor of his choice (the contractor is a fully integrated building company, also has glowing reviews, some key accreditations, and a very nice portfolio, something we would strive to achieve in our house). For project management he charges 6% of the building costs (haven't yet discussed fixed price with him, but will attempt). DH liked him. 3) Firm C - an architects bureau, RIBA, etc etc, very fancy. Costs are 2.5 times more than Firm B, happy to project manage as well but won't even give us an approx. fee structure even though we've clearly stated our budget. Reviews are good, but portfolio looks pretty ugly (uber-modern "shipping-container-style" houses, odd choice of materials, etc). Don't really like them but it was good to get a quote for comparison. I know lots of smart and talented people on BH have managed to do their own drawings and submissions and project management, but that's not our case, sadly. My DH has got time on his hands and is happy to muck in with some not too complicated labour, but hopeless at project management. I am good at project management, spreadsheets, cost calculations, etc (corporate commercial background helps somewhat! ?) but am in a demanding full-time job so not able to closely run a tight ship with builders. So, what shall we do? Option A - go with Firm A, get drawings and pl permission done cheap and then tender for a main contractor (potentially approaching the preferred builder of Firm B)? Option B - just go with Firm B straight away, let the guy do the process for us but try shift him onto a fixed fee away from percentage? Also, should we be worried if neither Firm A or B are RIBA / ARB / CIAT etc? Your views, please. Thank you