Did you build your own house?

[Forgottonia]

When I was a kid I worked as a carpenter's assistant for my grandfather while he built our house. The build took about a year and a half. I was 9-10 years old. My job was mostly to fetch tools and parts/lumber, help clean up, and other odd jobs that a kid could do. It was a blast! I learned a lot, and got to spend time with my grandfather.

I learned a lot from my grandfather. During his career he moved around a bit because jobs were hard to come by during the Great Depression, and often didn't last long. He had been a cabinet maker as a young man, then in general construction, then a camp carpenter at the Hoover Dam, then a pattern maker for the Air Force in WWII, and finally a farmer after the war.

 

[loganb]

I've never built mine, done substantial remodeling on the last 2 and work for a building materials manufacturer so I see and hear stories about this from dealers frequently.

I would never ever encourage someone to actually build or GC their own build as a first time major projects. The stress is significant, the cost over runs especially in this market are significant and if working under a construction loan in areas with significant permit/inspections you could be in serious financial issues when things go off the rails for one reason or another. Having to hire subs to come in and finish/fix something with no relationships in the market, in this tight market for labor would not be desirable.

If you want to consider this more, find some friends needing help on a remodel or addition and be honest about your skills and see if you can help them for as long as possible. As others have mentioned building a house is not a part time endeavor. You could volunteer for a group like Habitat for Humanity on their builds where they are very practiced on training new volunteers to build and could also build relationships and knowledge of some of the suppliers/contractors. After considerable practice and learning on other people's dime, if still interested then consider a build of a garage or other non-habitable structure as the cost, stress and code challenges are less when it's non-habitable vs the dream "for ever house"

And cost estimates right now are meaningless unless they're from your geographic market and in the last 6 months max. Price swings are far to great and too fast, some big box (Menards for example) have material only house kits, you supply foundation but the kit includes everything else I believe so may be a way to get some ballpark baselines of material only costs on the very low side

 

[duneslider]

We just moved into our house in July so built in the recent construction climate. We ended up about $200sqft, not counting the lot and the money we spent out of pocket on all the extras like permit fees, sewer and water connections, landscaping, and a ton of other misc things.

We did get hit pretty hard due to covid increases but at the same time I feel like we lucked out in many ways and were able to manage some of the costs by doing more on our own or changing our finishes to things that were a little less expensive. We ended up with 2700sqft finished. The house did appraise for a lot more than we have into it but that doesn't really mean a whole lot since we have no intentions of selling but it at least makes us feel like we made a good decision.

From when we purchased the lot until we moved in was about 14 stressful months. For sure the most stressful year of my life. I drew the plans which I had mostly done before the land was purchased. It did require some tweaking to make it fit the lot. It is a sort of odd shaped lot and making it fit the required setbacks was a challenge and required a little compromise on the garage size.

My wife says she would never do this again. My background is a degree in Building const/Construction Management. A flooring contractor for 10 years and currently a project manager in a commercial specialty. I could have built the whole house on my own, or even been the GC on my own. Knowing how hard it is to deal with subs right now I made the decision to seek out a good custom home builder who would let me do what I wanted. I found a great builder to work with. He had good subs and he let me do whatever work I wanted to do. Even at that I was at the house almost every night working on something, or fixing something that I didn't care for to keep things somewhat on schedule. Even with the relationships the builder had it was very hard to get subs there ontime and to finish the job. For example, the exterior sub just stopped responding, he got so busy with a bigger builder he didn't care and was done. We had to find a new exterior guy to come and finish.

I personally don't feel like we would have saved enough doing it all on our own to make that much stress worth it. We were lucky enough to rent a house about a block away from the build and due to covid I was working from home most of the time and able to run over anytime I was needed.

It is hard to say what was most challenging. A year of building a house it a huge amount of stress. Trying to deal with budgets and everything costing more than you thought was extremely hard and stressful. I don't think anything ended up costing what the initial quotes were. We had a 50K contingency in the budget and that was gone before framing was finished. Every time we sent a draw to the bank on the construction loan required a conversation with them about how we were over budget on different lines and how we were going to manage that. I would probably say the biggest challenge was time and money, there was never enough of either.

There are a lot of things to think about if you are really going to do it all on your own. For example on truss day the framer had 10 guys there who were all experienced and the crane was there until it was dark and they still ended up needing a reach lift the next day to finish off some of the trusses. No way I could have done that sort of thing myself, I don't that many friends willing to spend that much time doing that sort of work.

Would I do it again. Maybe but not anytime soon and the current construction climate would really make me think long and hard about it. I do feel like we got a nicer house and nicer finishes than we would have had if we didn't do it the way we did and we are extremely happy with what we have. Just a side note, we are still waiting for some of our appliances that we ordered in Oct of 2020.

 

[toyotadriver]

Another thought....don't design your house yourself. Either buy a premade plan or spend the money to have a drafting company design it for you. I had a picture and a rough idea of what I wanted for the floor plan. When they showed me the layout of their plan, it was MUCH better than the stupid ideas I had. My brother in law wrote his own floor plan and ended up with a lot of issues that would have been prevented by having a professionally drawn set of plans. The cost is worth it.

 

[jtprettyman]

Built one for ourselves, and this led down the path to becoming a GC and building many others, ultimately buying an entire phase of a subdivision. As said above - 99% of the people who tell you they are 'building their house' are just writing checks to a builder, actually building yourself is an entirely different ballgame. If you could find a GC to do a foundation, frame, and dry-in, it may be more manageable for you to take over from this point assuming you have the labor skills and project management skills. A couple of mine -

 

[southernfriedcj]

I'm a home builder/real estate developer.
I've built 900+/- houses and the last 3 of my own houses.

I pity anyone that's building now. My business partner and I sold two of our subdivisions this year and we have another tract being subdivided now and then we are done.

I've been building my personal house for several years. Just on the weekends until this past February. I haven't taken a day off since.

I cleared it. Business partner and I built the 40x60 pole barn. I prepped the basement slab. Business partner and I framed the house (4,800 square feet). I set the windows, doors, ran the siding (1x6 clear pine primed and painted all 6 sides), built both front porches, did the 450 amp electrical service, ran the waterlines(manifold home runs), trimmed it, painted it, stained/finished/ installed the master cypress v groove ceiling, primed/painted/installed the pine kitchen bead board ceiling/built arbors over 4 of the exterior doors, installed the metal porch roofs, did a 3 coat hard coat stucco on the chimney, ECT.

Waiting on dry weather to pick up 2,200' of 4" red oak I'll install/sand/finish. Then it's tile time.
After that I'll acid stain the basement floor and built the back screen porch and landscape.

Right now I'm wiring the 40x68 shop and running the cornice so I can paint the cornice before I get the roofer out here.

Material prices, selection and availability ****. The quality and cost of subcontractors ****.

I got 3 quotes to run the soffit and fascia on the shop. 240 linear feet.
$8 per foot, $10 per foot and $15 per foot.
That's a one day job and should be $5 per foot on the high end.
I'm doing it myself.

I got 3 bids to frame the shop (I wanted to do it myself but my business partner is building his own house and 40' trusses are too dangerous for 1 man to set).

The quotes were $7 per foot plus $650 for nails, $5 per foot and $3 per foot.

The $3 per foot was a framer that has framed a couple hundred houses for us and he was my first choice.

We agreed to the scope of work (he knows I'm a framer) and that his guys would frame it and he would be there with them.
Long story short, he sent a sub crew and didn't supervise them. I ended up watching them for three days. Terrible and sloppy job.
It took 3 of Paul's guys two days to fix a 3 day framing job.
I used 2 cans of paint Marking it up.

Dealing with dubs makes me want to curb stomp them.

 

[southernfriedcj]

Shop with a crappy framing job.

It took me 7 days, 29 tandem loads of red dirt, 12 loads of rock and 100' of 18" pipe to repair my clapped out construction driveway a couple weeks ago. I had to buy the material but I did all the grading and pipe.

 

[southernfriedcj]

Master cypress ceiling. That's cedar shingles on the vault wall. I had the for the chimney, but I decided to stucco it.
Light fixtures are back ordered for several months.

The green paint is supposed to be light grey primer. It's hard to cover (basement and floor 2 are painted).

 

[southernfriedcj]

I wrapped the entire exterior of the house in 1" Dow board (R5) and the walls are 2x6 with Spider insulation.
It gets cold here in Georgia. Just yesterday it went down to 74 degrees outside. I had to wear shoes. My feet got cold.

 

[southernfriedcj]

When you are a 1 man show you need several ladders so you can go from ladder to ladder instead of up and down.

The board and batten is fiber cement. The lap is 1x6 pine.

 

[MushCreek]

I found designing our house to be one of the most fulfilling parts of the process. I spent about 5 years studying hundreds of designs online and in catalogs, studying the topography and orientation of our property, and bouncing ideas on forums. Our house has proven to be perfect for our particular wants and needs. Many, many commercially available designs are awful. I suppose I could have worked with a designer/draftsman/architect, but that wasn't in the budget. The one drawback is that our house would likely be tougher to sell than a typical tract home because of some of the unique features, but I don't care about that. After seeing some of the train wrecks that professionals design, it has occurred to me that perhaps I have a pretty good eye for design despite a lack of formal training.

Our kitchen is a good example of carefully thought-out design. I laid it out so food goes from the fridge (storage) to the prep sink (wash/prep) to the prep area (with a place to sit down while doing prep work) to the range for cooking, to the other sink (yes, I have two sinks) for clean-up. There are no upper cabinets because I hate 'em and the wife cant reach 'em. We have windows instead for wonderful natural light. There are 33 drawers for storage rather than lower cabinets where you have to get down on the floor with a flashlight to find the stuff buried in there. I designed my own drawers so they are frameless, there's nothing to catch so the drawer can't jam, and the bottom drawers incorporate the toe kick for 4" more depth. The refrigerator is recessed into the wall so it is flush with the cabinets instead of buying a pricey counter-depth fridge. The whole kitchen cost $8K, including appliances. I put that much though and detail into the entire house, part of why it took me so long to design and build it.

 

[firebirdparts]

Our kitchen is a good example of carefully thought-out design. I laid it out so food goes from the fridge (storage) to the prep sink (wash/prep) to the prep area (with a place to sit down while doing prep work) to the range for cooking, to the other sink (yes, I have two sinks) for clean-up. There are no upper cabinets because I hate 'em and the wife cant reach 'em. We have windows instead for wonderful natural light. There are 33 drawers for storage rather than lower cabinets where you have to get down on the floor with a flashlight to find the stuff buried in there. I designed my own drawers so they are frameless, there's nothing to catch so the drawer can't jam, and the bottom drawers incorporate the toe kick for 4" more depth. The refrigerator is recessed into the wall so it is flush with the cabinets instead of buying a pricey counter-depth fridge. The whole kitchen cost $8K, including appliances. I put that much though and detail into the entire house, part of why it took me so long to design and build it.

That sounds really interesting. Especially the drawers.

 

[firebirdparts]

Keep in mind that construction and construction material costs are extremely high these days. Also keep in mind that some critical construction materials are simply not available. This, and the possibility of having little or no access to qualified electricians, HVAC installers, and lessor qualified roofers, and plumbers could cause you and your husband a ton of grief.

I will say, FWIW, that lack of access to electricians, HVAC installers, and plumbers could cause you a ton of joy. Roofers, not so much. It's not fun to put a roof on, but it's also not a skilled trade.

Wiring, plumbing, and heating all benefit from elegance (plumbing demands it) and it's a joy to me to build this stuff. You can add any sort of featurism you like, and it's permanent. Whatever elegance you give it stays forever.

 

[Prospecter]

We began a 2 year renovation project in 1985. As we close out 2021, we are almost done. We are teachers, so had some extended time in the summer. We put an 1840s cape on a new foundation, and added on 20x70 addition and a separate workshop. Hired the excavation and foundation work. We did plumbing, electrical, roofing, built chimneys, super insulated, sheetrock, and on and on. We did a vaulted ceiling in sheetrock. The one SouthernfriedCJ did in t&g is a better idea. Large expanses of sheetrock tend to have problems at the seams. One advantage we have is no inspections required.

Before we shifted from renovation to house lifting and house addition, we built a 24x30 "Practice Garage." I had heard the divorce stories and wanted a smaller, non-critical project we could walk away from to see how we'd manage as a family. Obviously, it worked out because we kept going with the house lift and addition. Everyone was interested, and helped according to their time and abilities. Aside from saving on labor, we also saved by shopping for materials. cedar shingles and T&G from a local mill, cabinets from the ReStore, salvage insulation, etc.

We initially bought for $35,000 (11% apr) and refinanced for $100,000 (7+%) (which included most of the $35,000, and a $15,000 car loan so we would only have a single payment). We paid off the car portion in a couple years with extra payments. House is now about $250,000 with 35 acres according to Zillow, in coastal Maine.

 

[Bob Peach]

I`ve built the last 2 with my wife and 6 year old son. First one was a burned house. We tore it down and hauled it to the dump in an old Ford pickup. We lived in a tent in the backyard. Took 6 months to tear down to the deck and rebuild. We did everything but the Electrical hookup.

When we found put the schools were awful, I bought a half acre lot in another town and we built a new house. Same crew, wife and 7 year old son. I designed a 3 bed 2 bath contemporary. Only work subbed out was foundation, septic and plumbing (Worst plumber ever)! Once the house was framed, I wired ,insulated and sheet-rocked it. Built all the cabinets and did the trim and painting. House and land was $24,000 in 1978. A couple years later added a 700 square foot shop. 12 foot ceiling open span. Built my own trusses. Monolithic pour dug and did concrete myself. Cost was $4,000. Later added a 20 x 24 office for shop. That cost $ 3,000.
I would never do this today in my 70`s. I grew up helping my father build houses, No power tools , digging cesspools by hand, lumping brick and mixing mortar. The only way we were going to get a house was to build it. We shopped for bargains and did as much of the labor as possible.
it`s not perfect but we like it and we have had a great life here. I would not change a single thing!

 

[cannuck]

My maternal Grandfather was a marine carpenter and taught me respect for his trade. When Dad was ready to retire, he and I built a package stick built woodframe. about 5 years later I designed a unique A-frame in a remote community. Couldn't find a GC who would/could do it, so wife and I + help from family and friends spent spring through fall building in early AM. late night and Sundays (as I worked about 55 hours/week). Don't regret taking that on at all but just additions and renos for next many years. Next (and LAST) will be workshop on farm and our family home. Difficulty will be building a new and a bit exotic (all concrete) construction method, so have no dillusions that it will cost a lot more than I estimate, take more time and will involve a LOT of screwing around with government agencies, etc. but IF you know you have the tolerance and skills, why not?

 

[stripedbass]

I build my first house in 1987 at 24 with my wife. One of the most rewarding things I did. Took me 3 years at night and weekends (was working full time) and I did everything but the foundation, sheetrock and insulation. I would have done the sheetrock and insulation, but reached a point where I needed a boost to get it done. I did all of the finish from 5/4 red oak that I milled myself and used for the raised panels, cabinet frames, stair treads, balcony, etc. from. Next house was a complete rebuild in a better town, would have never been able to keep upgrading houses if I had not built the first one for 85K including land. Attached is a picture of me and my wife back in 87. I am a big fan of seeing people take on what others think is hard and impossible. If you are willing to learn and work hard, it is possible.

 

[FredWanaker]

"Did you build your own home." It sure feels that way sometimes with all the work we've done here over the last 30 years.

 

[rburke65]

No….I didn’t and have never built a house

 

[finn]

Something I always wanted to do, so we bought lot on the lake 440 miles North of our house in the Western Suburbs of Chicago and had a basement dug and an unfinished shell put up to be used as a vacation home, and ultimately a retirement home.

Lots of work, but I learned a lot, too.

After I retired, we bought the house next door, and did a total gut job, including floor joist replacement on that.

I wouldn’t do it again. To much tedium, repetition, and minutia. In short, after you do it once, it’s terribly boring work. I really don’t understand how people on the trades do it every day for years on end

I was fortunate, as my career was in R&D, dealing with the unknown, where a short attention span like mine wasn’t a detriment. I can do things once, learn and enjoy, but repetition isn’t my thing.

I wouldn’t last a day on an assembly line..

 

[jar944]

Always planned on building my own home as I just thought it was something everyone did (family was in construction)

In the end I didn't build. I ended up buying for far less than I could build/have built. Was it how I would build, designed how I wanted and up to my standards on fit /finish, well no. It was however a good starting point.

 

[kaymccampbell]

1. How much did it cost you to build? About $50K.

2. How big is your house building construction materials? 2,000 sqft, evenly split between house and shop. It's pretty conventional stick built construction.

3. Do you have a pic you mind sharing? See below.

4. What was the most challenging thing about it all? Dealing with the scab job the foundation guy did. Not square, not symmetrical, not level. It was the only part we had contracted out.

5. Would you do it again? Yes. Though I intend to die here. I like this place.


This is Halfassed.

 

[freudianfloyd]

My dad built his house that he is currently living in. He also built each of my sisters houses, but unfortunately I came too late so I didn't get one.

 

[paredown]

"Did you build your own home." It sure feels that way sometimes with all the work we've done here over the last 30 years.

Ah yes--the 'Ship of Theseus' paradox--if you've replaced and rebuilt everything, is it still the same house?

I have not done a house from scratch--but I'm still limping through my second major remodel. (By major--walls moved, windows cut, damage cut out and repaired, new physical plant etc etc). I would like to do one from scratch, but I'm getting tired--no more 16 hour days for this guy...

Two thoughts--opportunity cost. Quality (and perfection of details aside)--can you make more money practicing your trade, than it would cost you to hire quality subs? (and believe me--I'm in full agreement with those complaining about wanting it done right might mean doing it yourself...) I remember walking a custom house (slick modern, geothermal heat etc)--and the GC telling me about the owner's insistence that he needed to stain the cedar siding himself since his dad was a painting contractor--he was slow, and he could have made a lot more money doing his own gig and contracting the staining out...

Second--are you prepared for seemingly endless details? (and worse--being an amateur means you will make decisions when you don't know what the consequences of your choices are--so you live with it or do it over.

 

[yeldogt]

I build my first house in 1987 at 24 with my wife. One of the most rewarding things I did. Took me 3 years at night and weekends (was working full time) and I did everything but the foundation, sheetrock and insulation. I would have done the sheetrock and insulation, but reached a point where I needed a boost to get it done. I did all of the finish from 5/4 red oak that I milled myself and used for the raised panels, cabinet frames, stair treads, balcony, etc. from. Next house was a complete rebuild in a better town, would have never been able to keep upgrading houses if I had not built the first one for 85K including land. Attached is a picture of me and my wife back in 87. I am a big fan of seeing people take on what others think is hard and impossible. If you are willing to learn and work hard, it is possible.

That's a good age to start and you had a helper !

I was a couple years older but in my case I got into rehabbing simple houses because I wanted to get into rentals ... at 24 you have a lot of energy and don't need as much sleep. It's a second job .. sweat equity on steroids. When I did my own I quickly understood how much harder it is to do work while living in a house. Learned a lot -- while it was always a side business --- the knowledge and equity it provided allowed me to have my first one built. I'm into old building -- so I'm a bit more hands one with them vs the new builds where it a vision that someone else does the grunt work

 

[brownbagg]

there a different from building it by hiring out subs and building it with your two hand, sub owe you nothing so they going come in high price and your not saving anything, it be cheaper just to buy one built or hire a house company to build it

i built mine with my two hand, no stress at all because i owe nobody and could take my time. my 1200 sq ft house with land, septic, concrete drive way and shop was $40.8 a sq ft. took me 18 month, paid out of payroll, no loans, no dead lines

 

[yeldogt]

there a different from building it by hiring out subs and building it with your two hand, sub owe you nothing so they going come in high price and your not saving anything, it be cheaper just to buy one built or hire a house company to build it

i built mine with my two hand, no stress at all because i owe nobody and could take my time. my 1200 sq ft house with land, septic, concrete drive way and shop was $40.8 a sq ft. took me 18 month, paid out of payroll, no loans, no dead lines

Correct ... and --- most people underestimate the time and money it takes to do it. Regardless of the route.

18 months is quick IMO ..... and --- if you finished it you are way above most. You are correct about being your own sub .... it often does not save you anything (I say almost never) ........... unless you are in the trades and can both leverage others and use your skills.

 

[Pen & Wrench]

I oversaw a build for Habitat for Humanity, and we only worked on Saturdays, and I usually had a crew of a dozen fairly capable people with a few of them well seasoned carpenters. I always had at least 2 people that knew a lot more about carpentry than I did. You just can't imagine the magnitude of the work involved until you live through it. I always wanted to build my own home, but that Habitat for Humanity build cured me. I said I would not do it. Now that I'm retired, I am planning a garage/shop on a lot across the alley from our home, with an apartment to satisfy the city code. I may end up doing quite a bit of work on it, as I can now find the time, but I really don't want to do all of it myself, it's just a huge amount of work. You can learn just about anything, but do you want to learn on your long term home? I suggest to hire out things that take knowledge and experience and maybe a crew to do well, and somewhat quickly, and maybe you could pick some of the less detailed tasks to do yourself? Priming and painting is a no brainer, easy for us "regular" folks to do. Maybe sheeting and shingling the roof, and maybe lots of other tasks, but as others have said, you might want to get some help involved just to get it done. You can do anything, but it seems like it makes sense to enlist some professional help to get the best possible product, and to save you from more work than you can realistically get done. You sound like the type of person that finishes what you set out to do, but that's my 2 cents worth.

 

[CDPLUCKER]

I just moved into the house i built myself.

it was a great journey, learned alot, but was alot of work ! the only way i was able to live a normal life durning the construction was to really go slow, schedule suffered alot ! i dug the foundation in 2013 .. just moved in in 2021 !!! several breaks in there as life happened,

I did a hybrid of subbing and doing it myself. I subbed the following : did everything else myself !!
1) foundation dig
2) foundation walls
3) slab pouring, ( i did the formwork and rebar )
4) framing
4a) brickwork
4b) roofing
5) drain plumbing
6)geothermal HVAC ( i did the ground loops )
7) insulation
8) drywall
9) soffits and eaves ( vinyl )
10) countertops
11) garage doors
12 shower glass doors

i had no trouble finding subs, i had no trouble with the subs , never wrote a singe contract, just word of mouth. interviewed quite a few idiots, I found if I personally liked the guy, and we had similar views on craftsmanship, they worked out great.

think I saved quite a bit of money, its hard to tell without a fixed price quote.. the house appraised for $510,000 i have about $310,00 in it and i ended up borrowing $180,000 and it has lots of extras that don't appraise . geothermal, really good insulation, oak trim, etc.

my advice is to take it slow, enjoy the journey , do research, if you just want to save money, buy and remodel !!

 

[MushCreek]

Wow- gorgeous house! That's what's nice about DIY; you can spend the time and money on the things that you want.

As for subs- I worked with a local contractor who specializes in ICF. I hired his crew to do the critical filling of the forms. He was good about referring me to subs, and his good name went a long way towards getting them onboard. I used him for excavation and concrete, and he hooked me up with a great drywall crew. Right now, construction is so busy around here I don't know how you'd attract a sub that was any good.

 

[dcg9381]

I built a "barndo" / shop - well, basically had a shell and foundation erected and did the rest. I've done 3 house "builds" - none by myself, but with the same "GC" getting him less and less involved. I can tell you that I would never build a home 100% "myself" (meaning GC one) - not unless I had about 2 years of free time available.

Q/A:

> 1. How much did it cost you to build?

This is a very difficult question because it's so geography independent and it's also timeline dependent (anything in the last 3 years has gone up like nuts around here).

My neighbor built his home 100% himself meaning he GC'd it, assisted the framer, did the HVAC, plumbing, etc... Pretty much all of it except for foundation. I believe he had $430k in it "all-in" and his home appraised just over $800k. It's around 3200 sqft, built on a slope. The only way for an individual to do a build around here with a GC is either to have cash or do "hard money" loans. My neighbor did the latter - this is how he does them - then refi's them conventional once built. Traditional stick and brick, 100% masonry. I think the only thing he didn't do was foundation... He did hire contractors, but also worked beside them 100%.

The typical "margin" as a GC (around here) is 15-25% give or take, with the swing being in the surprises and real estate market when it goes to sell. I've seen GCs take jobs "risk free" for as low as 10% - meaning that they're guaranteed 10% on top of the cost to build, but these homes are in the $7M+ range.


> 2. How big is your house?

Last three I've built (GC assist) :
1) 2400 sqft with 500 sqft garage and 2nd detached 500 sqft garage.
2) 2000 sqft with 750 sqft garage.
3) 3000 sqft home w 750 sqft apartment over 900 sqft garage


> 3. Do you have a pic you mind sharing?

Lots, but I'll share via PM.

> What was the most challenging thing about it all?

Where I like to build, permits are easy..
Last go round (last 2 years) - materials availability, labor availability, we narrowly avoided major cost problems with lumber and copper.
The single most challenging part is getting ANY contractor to come back after they've been paid or "substantially paid" for a job. Contractors here have so much work they may actually avoid that last 10-20% of their bid to do another job. 6 month turn around? Yea, all day long... And when they do get back to it, they'll bill you for the rest of it. It took our cabinet contractor 1.25 years to finish custom cabinets.. They sat at 95% for over a year.

5. Would you do it again?

I don't think that an owner/builder can save much money over a GC. Well, not without actually doing the trade(s) work.
Why? Because home owners are one-trick ponies to most contractors. There is no next framing job, no next plumbing job, so an owner builder is a one-off job that is associated with an unknown level of "being a a pain in the ***". The chance that you're going to get a "decent" bid in a competitive market over a home builder that can string up multiple jobs, pretty low. That might change in a market that has a healthy supply of homes / demand being lower.

I'd build with a trusted GC that allows me to be my own contractor on the trade(s) that I choose all day long.

 

[That Guy Scott]

there a different from building it by hiring out subs and building it with your two hand, sub owe you nothing so they going come in high price and your not saving anything, it be cheaper just to buy one built or hire a house company to build it

i built mine with my two hand, no stress at all because i owe nobody and could take my time. my 1200 sq ft house with land, septic, concrete drive way and shop was $40.8 a sq ft. took me 18 month, paid out of payroll, no loans, no dead lines

Much respect for anyone who does everything themselves. In regards to the first part of this post, my experience was quite a bit different. Everyones specific situation is going to be different. My wife designed our house and I acted as the GC. We looked at multiple houses in the $700-1MM that needed a ton of updates and repairs. ”Builders” and spec houses were ridiculous and not very custom without adding crazy mark ups to the total cost. We ended up building almost 7000 sqft of house, garage, and shop. We had grading that required multiple D8 dozers to move a hill for a better view, fire sprinklers, etc, not to mention the need to finish it in a reasonable timeframe (10 months). We had to sub a lot out. The savings came from the fact that you're not paying a general contractors 15-20% markup. I bid out every sub that worked on my project, I saved a TON on property taxes by being my own contractor and my wife got exactly what she wanted (priceless). I did all the utilities, some of the finish grading, some of the finish carpentry, and all of the painting. Our total build cost came in under what some of the houses we were looking at in the area. We were hoping to come out even money after construction. When we moved in 3 years ago this March, we had equity already. I enjoyed it and would definitely build again.

 

[yeldogt]

Much respect for anyone who does everything themselves. In regards to the first part of this post, my experience was quite a bit different. Everyones specific situation is going to be different. My wife designed our house and I acted as the GC. We looked at multiple houses in the $700-1MM that needed a ton of updates and repairs. ”Builders” and spec houses were ridiculous and not very custom without adding crazy mark ups to the total cost. We ended up building almost 7000 sqft of house, garage, and shop. We had grading that required multiple D8 dozers to move a hill for a better view, fire sprinklers, etc, not to mention the need to finish it in a reasonable timeframe (10 months). We had to sub a lot out. The savings came from the fact that you're not paying a general contractors 15-20% markup. I bid out every sub that worked on my project, I saved a TON on property taxes by being my own contractor and my wife got exactly what she wanted (priceless). I did all the utilities, some of the finish grading, some of the finish carpentry, and all of the painting. Our total build cost came in under what some of the houses we were looking at in the area. We were hoping to come out even money after construction. When we moved in 3 years ago this March, we had equity already. I enjoyed it and would definitely build again.

How does one save on property taxes being ones own contractor?

 

[yeldogt]

Can't think of any of my projects that I just jumped into -- they all took quite a while from beginning of the thought process till the end. A couple -- including the current (one of the longest) .... after a while you just want it over. Typically the spouce want it over before you !

I mentioned this before -- when you buy a new house in a development ... it's not yours until you sign and move in. My current project has been floating around for 10 years .... now, I get that that is excessive. But -- **** happens and you have to fire someone. The township gives you issues. Who plans on a pandemic !! I have 8k in no use property taxes and about 7k for insurance -- every year. So just having it sit there is 150k for 10 years.

 

[That Guy Scott]

How does one save on property taxes being ones own contractor?

In my case, the County assesses the finished house and land based upon a 1 page worksheet filled out by the GC and whats on the approved plans. Example, Had I bought an $800k house, then renovated it (permits and more $$), the taxes would of been substantially higher than what I pay now.

 

[dcg9381]

How does one save on property taxes being ones own contractor?

Only way I can think of is file a permit for a 2000 sqft house, then build a 3000 sqft house.. Well, in a county where they use that initial permit to determine sqft.

Curious to the answer to this also...

 

[yeldogt]

In my case, the County assesses the finished house and land based upon a 1 page worksheet filled out by the GC and whats on the approved plans. Example, Had I bought an $800k house, then renovated it (permits and more $$), the taxes would of been substantially higher than what I pay now.

Having done battle on quite a few ... is all based on finished value. Interesting -- renovations don't always increase value. More places just use exterior SF .... harder to fight

 

[jar944]

In my case, the County assesses the finished house and land based upon a 1 page worksheet filled out by the GC and whats on the approved plans. Example, Had I bought an $800k house, then renovated it (permits and more $$), the taxes would of been substantially higher than what I pay now.

Interesting that makes a difference, short of shorting the sqft on record. Around here it's assessed at the end of construction. Doesn't matter if you built it for 100k, if they say its worth 800k you will pay tax on 800.

And oddly the assessment ignores any sale price if there is a transfer.

 

[paredown]

I oversaw a build for Habitat for Humanity, and we only worked on Saturdays, and I usually had a crew of a dozen fairly capable people with a few of them well seasoned carpenters. I always had at least 2 people that knew a lot more about carpentry than I did. You just can't imagine the magnitude of the work involved until you live through it. I always wanted to build my own home, but that Habitat for Humanity build cured me. ...

Nice to see another Habitat person here--I also did the same, supervised one build, and our crew has finished three since I got involved. We too have some guys with 40+ years of experience--they are the go-to guys when the rest of us are still scratching our heads.

But you do learn a lot--I remember an interview with President Carter a few years back--the interviewer expressed surprise when Carter pointed out the place in their modest house where he and Rosalyn had taken down a wall. His reply was priceless--'compared to the stuff on some of the Habitat builds, it was simple...' It really helped me--learning by doing, and learning from people with much, much better skills. But like you, I don't know if I have a new build from scratch in me...

 

[CDPLUCKER]

The idea that subs don't like to work with homeowners was not borne out by my experience. I asked almost all my subs about this topic, and all of them indicated that an owner builder or homeowner was much more likely to pay their bills on time. many of the local G.C.'s were slow paying subs . paying cash , promising to pay as soon as they are done, and progress payments really helped get good subs in my experience.