If there is a builder’s design centre this is likely not a custom home and you should be using the designer attached to the builder.

Our interior designer designed all the interior spaces with 2D images that showed layout of everything. In addition to this she chose, with us of course, all the materials used. They were not from a design centre but all across our area depending on what we wanted and prices.

You need to go with them to the design center . A home should reflect your taste not some designers taste. I always take my clients when I go shopping , I might lean them toward something but ultimately it is their home not mine. Also as mentioned you should have a very clear idea of your budget for upgrades.

Kristin S nailed it.

Usually the "designer" at the design center is not a designer at all. S/he is an employee of the builder put in place to encourage upgrades. Usually you pay for the upgrades right up front before the build. The upgrades can't be financed in with the rest of your home if you are planning to finance IME. If they don't require 100% payment for the upgrades, it will be a substantial portion (at least 50%) from what I see with the production builders here.

Bring your own actual designer. Don't send them in your place as Patricia Colwell mentions. It is your home, your taste.

Thanks everyone. I’m familiar with the process. I was looking for a range of what to expect to pay. Unfortunately I need someone to go in my place as I can’t travel at the moment. There are very clear expectations of what I want. I just don’t know the going rate. If anyone has used a designer in a project like this what did you pay? That would be helpful info. Thank you

What you pay is really regional, so knowing what others paid isn't going to help you. That said, if you're in the PNW, I'd expect to pay at least $125/hour, and likely more like $175-200/hour. If anything, I would expect a higher charge for this v. other services, as the designer isn't going to be compensated via a markup on products, and it's a fairly small project, which often increases hourly cost.

Without doing space planning, or furniture purchasing, you can expect to pay a lot more than $200 an hour. You’re asking for a short term bit of labor with a high potential for customer dissatisfaction and buyers remorse based on your non involvement. No sane designer would take that in without a pretty high fee to do so.

Think % of home construction value, not hourly. Traditionally, that’s in the 5-10% range for services. You might negotiate doen from that given that it’s a limited amount of choices that exist, you don’t want space planning because that ship has sailed, and you're promising no handholding needed. There’s still the concept development phase needed to orient to your preferences, plus all of the selection time. It would be wise to also have some supervisory and quality control visits as well. If the builder would agree to it.

you've been given ideas of pricing. Now, look on houzz for some in the area you are building and then contact them with your request and get their rates. Best of luck.

@User: 5% to 10% on a production home with limited selections and no chance of changes? That's high. JMO.

Custom home with much more involvement - makes sense.

Choosing what the builder will allow from a very limited selection - no way. You are talking about a couple of hours at most maybe 10 or so. Not worth $5,000 per hour (made a bunch of assumptions to get to this number, it could be substantially more depending upon OP's location and price point). That's outrageous.

IMO no sales centers should be open right now and you certainly do not want to send a person to do what you don’t want to do. Right now building is at a real slow pace anyway since crews should not be working together at all so pretty sure you will have some time. As for giving you an idea of price that is impossible , maybe the builder can send you at least a list of all the upgrades available with the price for each in your home.