First Big Project

[NOOXY]

Hey guys i had a meeting last week with a client who bought about 7-8 achres of land and plans on doing a development on it ....he wants to start groundbreaking in jan 2006 and finish for the year 2007... I've done work for this client over the years so i know he's confortable with how i work and how i operate..i have most of the survey, topo plans and neccasary documents already and my tasks is as follows.

 

subdevide the land to accomadate 20 homes all same design and submit for approvals...

 

design house plans and submit for approvals to start the development..

 

overhead renders of the site, and pool side perspectives of the home...

 

i must say i'm overwhealemed by such a project & i know i can manage it but just looking for addional advice on how u guys would approach such a project.

 

I am currently working on a qotation for the client but i'm considering some form of contract too... i know that there will be a great bit of money involved in the deloment of this project and will be paid over a time period so i want to ensure that i take all the right procedures........suggesstions please.

[STRAT]

wow, congrats mate, sounds like a great project to land. well deserved

 

sorry i cant advise on the complexities of your contract, as my own private jobs only require a hand shake

[mbr]

Make sure you:

 

1. Don't under estimate the time needed, which is easy to do on larger projects

2. Don't under estimate the fees just because the numbers look big to you

3. Don't work without a contract (look around online, or if you can't find one, email me and I'll try to dig one up)

4. Don't work without getting the cash first.

 

I made a painful mistake a few years back by letting my client push me to do parts of the project that I didn't want to start (it was a contract for 3D animations and a website to present it - two separate contracts).

He was paying me on time, so I thought, 'sure, I can be flexible'. That was a $15k mistake (I still made a bunch because he was paying me incrementally, but I worked my butt off). I did 95% of both contracts and the guy decided he was changing the entire project (meaning all my 3D work and website would not longer be of use), so he didn't pay.

He was a developer and the contract was with the development, which, of course, had no assets, so I had nothing to go after.

 

Lesson: don't do work without the check in hand. You can be somewhat flexible, especially if you know the guy, just be sure that you don't do much. He's a developer, and their #1 rule is to cut any losses as fast as possible. They'll never incrue any personal loss, just the loss of the temporary biz they've setup for each project (usually LLC's). So if the project went south, you'd be going after the LLC, with no value or cash, and he get's away free. It's the nature of their biz and why we need to cover our end by getting fees up front.

 

5. Break up the fees into logical chunks:

- 30% up front

- 30% at model completion

- 30% upon rendering/lighting completion

- 10% upon delivery

or something like that

 

 

 

Good luck.