Few questions about home designers.

[TheChocolits]

Hello fellow designers!

Now I know I should probably already know these basic knowledge for a home designer like me but apparently I'm still not certain that I do yet, u see, I've decor'd some houses for people before in the past but never actually designed an entire house for someone else, so lately I've been asked/hired to design a house for someone (yeah my first paid job, lol) .. and well, I've got a few questions concerning the process of designing someone else's house.

Hope it's not too much trouble getting some answers, but first, I'd like to know how do u become the owner of the house u're going to design?(coz only home owners can get around with the house tiles). I've heard of this method of first creating your design on TC and then letting the house owner copy it but then, this house owner I'm designing for doesn't really know how to go about with the housing tiles. So is there any other way to go about it? ... my accounts are tied to houses already and I'd rather not risk my houses by swapping (as my employer suggested). And since new accounts can't be transfered houses to, I was wondering if there're other safe methods for doing this?

Also, I was wondering how does every designer go about putting a price on their works?....It's my first job and I've set mine pretty low since there isn't an official proffession like this on my shard. And is it advance payment first or after the work is done?

And, what are the downside of taking on a job like this?... With so much questions like this, u think we should open a sticky thread here concerning this profession? heheh. Well, I'd just like to hear some of your thoughts concerning this profession.

Anyways, I'd very much appreciate any and all replies. Thanks in advance.

Good day,

 

[Sarsmi]

The only ways to do it are to have access to their account, to have a free account to swap houses, or to have them copy the design. Which sucks, would be great to have little deeds for house designs...oh well, maybe in 2015 or something, hehe.

Dunno how much to charge. I'd probably base a fee on the size of the house and if you're going to be decorating as well, and how involved that is going to be.

 

[TheChocolits]

Ahh, well, so I thought.... would be great if we really could have some kind of housing blueprint which can be in form of lil house models that can be put up for sale, heh wishful thinking

Anyways, I'll see how this goes n if I have any other questions concerning the job I'll be back here,

Thank u so so much Sarsmi!

 

[Tina Small]

How about doing something like this:

Get an account on a site like Photobucket. (I believe they offer free accounts.) Then place a house of the necessary size on Test Center and create the desired design. Have the customer inspect your house to see if it is to their liking.

If they like the finished design, go into house customize mode and make screen shots of every floor, walls up and walls down, so they can see any hidden details. Also take screen shots of anything else in the house that you think might be helpful, e.g., how you built stone countertops, a bent staircase, etc.

Next upload the screenshots to your Photobucket account and put them in their own separate album. Then, if necessary, tweak the access for that album and give the URL for the album to your customer.

How/when you exchange payment is a detail I haven't quite worked out. However, I think uploading the screen shots and giving your customer access to the screen shots should be a very safe way of getting your "work product" to your customer.