You will speak to two or three architects before you choose one, and those calls are short. These eight questions surface almost everything that goes wrong later, and they take about twenty minutes to work through.
The eight questions
Ask them on the scoping call, in this order:
- ✓Are you licensed in the state where I am building, and what is your licence number?
- ✓Have you permitted a project like mine in this jurisdiction before?
- ✓What exactly is in the deliverable — which sheets, at which phase?
- ✓What is explicitly excluded, and which consultants will I need to hire separately?
- ✓Is this a fixed fee or hourly, and what triggers a change order?
- ✓How many plan-check revision cycles are included in that fee?
- ✓Who stamps the drawings, and who answers the plans examiner's corrections?
- ✓What do you need from me, and by when, to keep the schedule?
What good answers sound like
A strong answer is specific and unflattering where it needs to be. “Two revision cycles are included; a third is billed hourly” is a good answer. “We handle everything” is not — it usually means the exclusions have not been thought about yet.
On licensure, the answer should come immediately and with a number you can verify against the state board's public registry. On this platform that check is already done: every architect you are matched with is verified as actively licensed in your state before they reach you.
“The architect who tells you what is not included is the one who has actually thought about your project.”
— Priya N., AIA · Licensed CA
One question to ask yourself
After the call, ask whether you understood the answers. You are about to hire and pay this person directly for months of technical work — clarity on a twenty-minute call is the best predictor you get of clarity when a correction notice lands.