A question I get constantly from prospective clients is what they can or should do before they officially sign with an architect. The honest answer depends on how holistic the architect's services are. In my practice, I act as the project manager and coordinator for the entire process, which means clients often come to me before they've even settled on a property. If you're working with an architect who offers a narrower scope, just design and permit drawings, there are still a handful of concrete things worth having ready.
The Groundwork You Can Start Gathering
A survey of the property is always going to be necessary. So is a zoning analysis, which some architects handle directly and others outsource to an expediter for more complex sites or dense municipalities. Depending on the project, you may also need a soils report, and if there are mature trees on the property, an arborist may need to inspect them.
Beyond that, gather whatever administrative records you can find: permit history, title reports, and especially any existing architectural drawings from a previous owner or architect. If you can track down the file from whoever worked on the house before you, that gives your new architect a real starting point instead of measuring everything from scratch.
Why You Should Still Talk to the Architect First
Here's the catch. Even though all of that can technically be done before an architect is onboarded, I'd always recommend talking to the architect first, or ideally bringing them on before you commission any of it. A basic example: not every surveyor produces a topographic survey with the same level of accuracy, and if your architect needs a specific type of precision for your site, a survey done by the wrong provider may not actually be usable. The same logic applies to structural drawings if you're renovating an existing home. You might need elevations and roof plans you wouldn't think to ask for on your own.
I've also seen the reverse happen, where a client requests a survey only for an interior scope, only for it to become clear in our first real conversation about their goals that they're also considering exterior changes down the line. If that's on the table at all, it changes what survey you need today, because redoing it later costs more than getting it right the first time. An architect who's engaged with your actual goals, not just your stated scope, can help you avoid paying for the wrong version of something you'll need anyway.
Getting Your Financing in Order
The other piece worth having ready before you start is a clear sense of your financing. Clients sometimes underestimate how much they'll need to pay out on a monthly basis once a project is underway, across the various consultants and contractors involved. Having your funds genuinely available, not just budgeted on paper, is what keeps a project moving once it starts.
Soft Cost vs. Hard Cost, and Why the Difference Matters
This is probably the single most common point of confusion I run into with new clients: the difference between soft cost and hard cost. When someone tells me they have a certain amount to spend, I always ask whether that figure represents construction cost or total project cost, because those are very different numbers.
Soft costs, meaning architecture fees, engineering, permitting, and other professional services, typically run somewhere between 15 and 25 percent of total project cost, sometimes more depending on the scope. So if someone comes to me with two million dollars total for a project, and that figure includes soft costs plus a reasonable construction contingency, their actual construction budget is going to be meaningfully lower than two million. That's a very different number to design around than if the full two million was earmarked for construction alone.
This single distinction is behind a lot of sticker shock later in the process. Getting clear on it early, before you've fallen in love with a scope of work that doesn't match your real construction budget, saves everyone time and disappointment.
The Bottom Line
None of what I've described here is design work. It's information gathering, and it's worth doing well before any real design thinking begins. Once an architect is engaged, the goal is to weave together your site, your program, your budget, and who you are as a client into a first cohesive direction, and that only works if the groundwork underneath it is solid. Getting these pieces in order before you sit down with an architect, or better yet, having that first conversation before you commission any of it, sets the whole project up to move faster and with fewer surprises later.