Author Topic: Anyone an owner/builder of their home?  (Read 3604 times)

kc2006

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Anyone an owner/builder of their home?
« on: February 22, 2014, 08:43:40 AM »
We've been looking into moving in the next 3-5 years and the prices of homes out in the country where I live now get ridiculous when you start getting a few acres under it.  For comparison, if you live in town you can get a 2,000 sq foot newer home on a tiny city lot for 110-130k, same size home thats 60 years old and not updated on 3-5 acres here brings 275ish (out of my budget).  I've had the idea of building a home in my head for awhile and thought I'd hire out some of the bigger stuff and do all the finishing myself.  I recently found some good websites where people are doing everything themselves and it's getting me excited about this idea.  I've always been handy, I've done framing work before, concrete work, electrical/plumbing, I've installed my own furnace and a/c in my current house, so I've dabbled in everything home related.

I wanted to see if anyone here has taken on building all or most of their own home?  It seems like a very mustachian route to getting a nice home for half of the cost.  Alot of the places I'm reading about are saying a 60% savings if you do everything, or 40% savings by having some key work done for you.  My original plan was to have the basement done for me and do everything myself, but I have some good friends with companies and found out I'd be looking at under $2000 in labor to frame the house, that sounds well worth it to me to be able to get the structure up in a matter of days vs months on my own.  I'm still in the early stages of planning, we haven't even found land yet, but I have hopes of finding land this year, and starting the build in late 2015. 

Greg

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Re: Anyone an owner/builder of their home?
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2014, 10:19:35 AM »
Sounds like you have a pretty good grasp of the possibilities.  I'm a designer and builder so I designed and built our home.  There are a few things I subbed out; electrical rough-in (a time thing), insulation (don't like working with it) drywall (what would've taken me months was done in weeks) and paint just to "get 'er done" and meet a bank deadline.  I did the foundation, floor heat, framing, roofing, siding, electrical and plumbing trim-out and finish carpentry.

The hardest part of all of these was letting go of some of the fussiness you might normally feel about a given task.  Control.  Usually it's money well spent but if you try to maintain control over little unimportant things you will make yourself and your subs unhappy.  If you have any builder friends they may be able to recommend good subs for you. Trust you gut and don't use people you just don't like for whatever reason.

Some thoughts on living in the country... consider the need to drive or bike everywhere.  In the city might be nicer and mean more walking.  We have goats and chickens and stuff so there are other reasons to be in the country.

kc2006

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Re: Anyone an owner/builder of their home?
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2014, 02:16:49 PM »
Greg, it sounds like we're going opposite on the tasks chosen haha.  I want to sub the foundation, framing, and roof out.  My reasons on those are the time it would take me to do the foundation/framing and the roof because I hate heights.  I pretty much want the shell done for me and I'll finish it off.  I already have a good friend that will be doing the roof, I have a couple people for the foundation but they're still pricey so I'm looking into ICF and superior walls now, and like I said earlier I have a guy that's good and very cheap for framing.  It helps being self employed in a service industry because I know a lot of local owners of construction companies.  I've also started flipping houses nearly full time so I'm getting hooked up with more tradesmen.

I hear you on the country living, for here the concern of biking isn't as great as other places.  Even in town, everything is very far apart, it's not a densely populated area (Youngstown Ohio area), and the city is scary so I wouldn't want to bike it.  We live 3 miles out from the more built up towns, and are looking for land right around here so we'll stay in that range.  I know it's not mustachian but we won't be giving up the cars anytime soon, it's just not feasible at all,  the good thing is that fuel is a write off for my business.

Greg

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Re: Anyone an owner/builder of their home?
« Reply #3 on: February 22, 2014, 02:28:21 PM »
If you can get it framed (and sheathed I hope) for 2K go for it!  Less stress about dry-in that way.  I wanted a metal roof so I did it myself, it was one area where I wanted a certain kind of detailing.  Another way to look at it is sweat the stuff that shows, stuff hidden in the walls will fade from memory.  Within reason of course, you want things done correctly like air sealing etc.

Rural

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Re: Anyone an owner/builder of their home?
« Reply #4 on: February 22, 2014, 07:43:03 PM »
My husband designed and we built ours with considerable general labor and electrical work from my father. Subbed out the concrete pour, spray foam insulation, and drywall, but everything else was us.

In looking rural, consider road access and whether you want municipal/county water and sewage or whether you're comfortable with a well and septic. Also look at power (it can get expensive to run long distances) and the availability of phone, cabe, and internet if those things are important to you. You can't take them for granted; they may or may not be available at any price, and that's hard for many lifelong city dwellers to foresee. Check cellular signal, too, if you care about that.

Also, if you're going with septic, get a soil map done before you buy. It'll cost you several hundred dollars, but an unbuildable plot that you can't put septic on costs more.

Milspecstache

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Re: Anyone an owner/builder of their home?
« Reply #5 on: February 22, 2014, 10:17:24 PM »
I owner/builder built mine.  Only hired labor the day of the concrete pour (for the slab), muscle to lift heavy stuff into place and work alongside me, an electrician to advice/teach me, and hired out the finishing of the drywall for the downstairs.

It has been a crazy amount of work but it was something I always wanted to do.  Still not finished completely but we got our Certificate of Occupancy 1.5 yr ago.

No problem with planning to hire out a lot of things but you will surprised by some of the estimates you will get.  Many contractors really believe they are worth $1000/hr (was an AC estimate when I subtracted material costs from his price).

Exflyboy

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Re: Anyone an owner/builder of their home?
« Reply #6 on: February 23, 2014, 02:59:12 PM »
Doubled the size of ours (now up to 1400 sq ft) and then remodelled the old part

Did everything except the concrete and the kitchen cabinets.

Frank

paddedhat

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Re: Anyone an owner/builder of their home?
« Reply #7 on: February 23, 2014, 03:57:06 PM »
I originally started in the new construction business by building a kit home, about 25 years ago. That was back when there were outfits that sold the kit and held the construction loan. BTW, the kits were low quality and short of just about anything that mattered, and the company made a fortune on overpricing and financing. Their demise gave me warm fuzzies.

Now, I would think your two biggest obstacles are going to be cash and codes. If you have your cash pile bulked up to the point that you can write checks as you go, congratulations, you have done well. If you need a bank to do a construction loan, good luck. I can't make a blanket statement, but I know from talking to my go to money folks, the days of financing owner-builders are largely over. As for the code mess, it's a very local thing. I can build a place in one township and have three months of hell with a code inspector that is a total prick, and sees imaginary violations. In another location, the inspector is totally clueless and walks around with a clipboard,  and a slightly dazed look in her eye.

If you have what it takes, skills, time and money wise, go for it.  Regarding your percentage of savings. I typically do all the mechanical trades on my homes, and the tile work and decks. I walk away with roughly 30% of the sale on a typical transaction.


good luck