Interior Designer question....
 

I will shortly be shopping interior designers to re-do my parents former apartment prior to sale.

I gather most of them work on a cost plus basis; ie, they arrange all the materials and labour and charge a percentage on top of gross for their services.

1. What, typically is that percentage? Is there a range within one negotiates?

2. Anyone work with designers with other fee arrangements?

I would be interested to hear from anyone with experience in this.

If you are keeping it for yourself then an interior designer is a good call.

If you are selling then I would suggest clearing it out completely, paint a nice warm neutral color.

If hardwood have them refinished, if carpet replace with some cheap Home Depot stuff that presents well.

If kitchen and baths need redoing take the money you will spend up front and throw it into the deal.

Then get someone to stage it and be done with it.

Most people will want to put their personal stamp on the place.

Good luck on the sale.

My wife is one.

She works on hourly fee many times. Generally they are buying product from designer outlets. These designer outlets general sell to the designer for less then retail or they will cut the designer back a commission. These discounts can range from 15 to 40 percent.

If you get a decent designer you will probably still pay less than retail for the furniture and she will still make some money on the mark up. win win.

Behind the scenes a judi works her a** off. As much as it seems like all they do is furniture shop it is much much more.

As far as contractors at the house goes rules vary depending on location. In california an interior designer is not allowed to pay the " cabinet " contractor and in turn collect money from you for their services unless the designer actually holds a contracting license.

Often the " paint " or " cabinet " contractor will bill you directly and pay the designer a fee for the referral.

Interview a few different ones. Once you make your decision give him or her a budget and then get out of the way and give them the ability to make decisions so they can get their woek done.

Have fun.

Actually the opposite is true. If we were keeping it for ourselves, we would design it for ourselves. But our taste is fairly esoteric. And we want to sell the place.

So the reason for getting a designer, was to get her to completely redo the place consistent with what the market is looking for.

Perhaps different markets are different. I was under the impression pretty well all designers in NA worked on a "cost plus" basis.....

get a sale stage person
it is a slight but real difference
and cheaper too
rent the stuff to stage the property

It is done all the time lic. or not. On many of the high end jobs, the profits are so good. gotta put the kids to sleep, but will back later for more details. I rather work for designers rather then bill the home owners themselves. I am well aware of the lic. deal, with It would not be my ass should something go wrong, it is the designer's.

You seem to have an eye for reasonable taste. Why not DIY? How hard can "contemporary" be? Watch HGTV for a week or two. Hit up some model homes/apartments/condos in planned communities. You're going for bland/unoffensive/clean to appeal to the widest range of buyers.

I'm with nota. Why would you spend $$$ remodeling a property when you can spend $, and have a professional person 'stage' the property (bring in furnishings and decoration just for the sale period), and move on.

I find it grim, but its the less expensive path that most take.

1. No time for this.

2. I don't have access to the sub-trades—and that's key in this town.

3. Also: not interested in bland. This is a very trendy marketplace, and the place has to make an impact.

Again, I think maybe it's this market. It's hard to "stage" an apartment that two old folks have lived in for almost 20 years. It needs new paint, wood floors, new bathrooms, updated kitchen etc. etc.

I am reliably informed by my RE agent that for every dollar put into the reno, I will see two or three dollars more in the sales price. That seems to be the rule of thumb around here.

Anyway....love to hear from anyone who has actually dealt with paying designers....

I find it astonishing, but your market is quite radically different, and you are only 2 hours up the road.

I have a friend who's family is Cantonese. The amount of money flowing into your area is amazing. So perhaps my advice is off base.

But......new bathrooms....new kitchen...in these parts, when done properly, those are expensive items. Spending $100k USD on a kitchen is easily done.

A savvy real state agent with some design knowledge will know exactly what the market will support. They should also know people that will stage it for you. When ever we buy and sell properties, we gut the whole thing and rebuild it back up. Everyone was staged before it was on the market. Our prices ranged from 2500 to 4000 dollars. these numbers should be pretty close with your location. Everyone sold within 3 weeks once it goes on the market.

YOu may want to renovate the kitchen and the baths to bring in the big dollars. those are the first thing we do without question. I don't care how clean or good they are, its going. Buyers who are spending large sums of money know that a bath or kitchen is not brand new. We put in custom kitchen and baths jsut for that very reason. Buyer do not want old germs. Plus, the cabinets come our of my cabinet shop and my other guys are doing all the remodel. I ahve a bit of control there.

Trendy area would be like loft living in Santa Monica or West Hollywood? Most contractor hate condos. God know I have done enough kitchen and bath remodel in those condos in West Hollywood. All of them for gay guys with lot of money. what you need is a contractor that will put in a kitchen and bath with a designer that can coordinate paint, type of finish flooring, and the rest of the house.

I worked with a good number of interior designers. The high dollars jobs, the designers usually get bits from us and turn around and sell it to their clients. Some times the whole job including landscaping. Which we do not like to do. They make additional visitation charges that are usually a flat rate every time they come out. I know that's at least 200 bucks for 15 minutes of walking around looking at progress. In my next life, I am coming back at a gay interior designer. Most designers I know work off a flat fee with so many visits included. Additional visitation fee is usually charge on top of that. My advice is to have your designer use their general contractor. That way, if there is a problem, the contractor will likely deal with issue that come up with the designer. If he wants to work for her again, he WILL fix or deal with the issues without having you involve. You want to write the checks, approve drawings, sit in their first few meetings, and make sure you have a schedule. Please make sure to schedule weekly or bi-weekly meetings with the both of them. Depend on the size and the length of the job. I make sure the owner and the designers are all involve and that they visit the job every so often.

I've had nothing but bad experience with an interior designer. Expensive and hard to get along with. Of course I wanted to live in the place afterwards, so I wanted some input as to what I could live with. Our biggest conflict was over a sofa. She wanted something stylish and I wanted something comfortable. I "ruined" her design by insisting that I be comfortable living in it.

Where is this? I just found the golden goose! :)

Seriously though, this is 180 degrees from what makes a lick of sense from what I've seen. Paint it, mow its lawn (figure of speech) and let the next guy dream of what it might be. I would be shocked if you got 80% of your "reno" money back much less 300%.

I realize high end markets can be finicky, but gutted and clean sells just fine and that won't cost you much.

Now if I'm wrong and this unique market actually exists...why are you not buying all non-reno'd properties in the area and tripling your reno money on the flip?

Edit:

On reading my response it sounds harsh, maybe I'm overestimating what you're talking about in scope.

Trust me this market exists. And many people do make their living flipping these kinds of properties. Doubling or tripling your reno-money obviously depends on the price for which you pick up the property, and with countless people in this business it's now very hard to find unrenovated high-end condos.

I think the place in question is in a very unusual market. Think rich foreign buyers paying cash and looking for chic, striking, more than upscale, très fashionable according to nouveau riche Asian tastes. Buyer has zero inclination to renovate, no more than they'd want to "renovate" the Lamborghini they're buying that weekend. Slapping a DIY facelift on a very outdated condo will simply set it up for someone else to buy, renovate, and profit.

Well, I've worked with designers and Realtors. If I were in your situation, I would hire a real estate agent that specializes in fixer uppers. He/she will be more in tune with what the market buys. And they have contractors ready to go. They also should have a line on the staging too. Some even have their own stuff. A little staging is better than none.

A professional designer won't make a dime off staging. And they will want to use high end window treatments when all you should be doing is 3-Day Blinds.