Building your own house

Factual Questions
1

Someday, (although still a ways off) I would like to build my own house. Of course by this I mean buying land, hiring and working with an architect on a design, and then hiring a contractor to actually build it.

Have any of you done this? First of all, how will the end cost compare to buying a pre-made house of comparable size? I can imagine it being anywhere from much more expensive, to actually cheaper. (no real estate agent involved, assuming you find the land yourself, right?)

What are some of the most important things to take into consideration? How long would one reasonably expect such an endeavor to take? I would ask more pointed questions, but for now I’m just trying to get a general sense of the scope of such a thing - so what should I know?

2

Of the few people that I know that have had a house built to their specs, I have heard of some extremely bitter disputes with the contractors. Pay them AFTER they do work, never before.
hh

3

Deal with a reputable contractor. You don’t need somebody who screws up your house or who bails on you. Find recently built houses that you like in your area and ask the owner who they used and if they are happy.

Don’t get too creative with the design. Most likely you are not as much of a visionary as you would like to think you are. Weird layouts and features can hurt the resale value.

4

Or, you could actually build it yourself, wielding saw and hammer. Lots of people do it, many with no previous experience. There is a great website at www.countryplans.com with plans for owner built homes, reference books on framing, roofing, plumbing etc. And the message board is top notch, the architect who designed the plans is online every day answering questions. They estimate construction costs of $50-$70 per square foot, depending on materials. As soon as I get the scratch together, that’s what I am going to do.

And, handsomeharry, what contractor is going to build you a custom house with nothing up front? At the very least, the cost would be as high or higher than buying a tract house, because the contractor is assuming all the risk. I seriously doubt you will find one to work for you on those terms.

5

Building with no experience?

Go slowly.

Building a house requires many skilled trades; Excavators, surveyors, utility contrators, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, drywallers, roofers, window installers,gutter installers, siding, security, telephone, internet, landscapers, painters and the list goes on.

Some of them can be done by anyone, like painting. (although I submit a professional painter will do a better job very time) Other skills, like a central air conditioner, is a highly specialized skill and can’t be done by someone not trained in it.

Further, many places require licensed, bonded contractors to build. There is also a myriad of buidling codes that have to be adhered to.

I know 2 people who built there own house; 1 of them did every single thing on it. Both of them were already professional tradesmen in their fields and had accrued a lot of experience in the other trades over the years.

But Average Joe building one? I have never seen a person who acted as their own general contractor do a good job. (Pastors seem to be convinced they can do it) I just finished a job (I was the HVAC & Elec contractor) and the owner/General had all the drywall put up, painted, decorated everything—without a rough inspection. The code official did her a favor by making her remove only a quarter of all the drywall.

There is also the issue of time. Many first timers say they’d never do it again. Even if you have the skills, be prepared for this taking a lot of time. If you work a full time job, this will be a crushing work load for some period of time. Some people do it. But expect to have this project dominate your life for a year.

I don’t want to discourage anyone. You can act as your own general contractor. But you will be amazed at the coordination, organization and knowledge it takes to understand how to bring all the trades together, work with the land, the code requirements, and city.

If you want to take a step further, and actually build it yourself, I would suggest you limit the work to the ones you can do. (If no experience I would sub the HVAC, Plumbing and Electrical for sure) I would also suggest finding a mentor—an experienced buider/tradesmen who can look over your shoulder. Even if you pay him a thousand or 2 for his time/expertise it will be a good investment.

6

No contractor will do 100% of his work scope without some payment.

It is typically done on a “draw” system where the contractor is paid progressively as the work is complete. Many owners who act as their own general get burned this way—by paying before work is completed and the sub disappears.

7

I don’t think it will be cheaper—and perhaps more expensive depending on the design you choose. Yoy can buy books with pre made plans in them. At Barnes & Noble there are many of them. It will be cheaper to buy a set of plans from one of those books than it is to hire an architect to design one from scratch.

You may save some on the real estate fees, but overall I think that is insigificant. A friend of mine just bought some plans and acted as his own general contractor. He did his own HVAC, Electrical and some other general trades, like landscaping. He said he saved around 15%.

8

That’s 45 bigguns on a $300,000 house. I’d certainly say that’s significant. And if you do it on your “spare” time, that’s an added year of salary for a lot of people. That’s also instant equity.

9

Pardon my dumb…What I meant was pay on the progressive system. When foundation laid, pay for that. When walls go up, pay for that, etc…
That’s what I meant.
hh

10

Around here many of the houses are old. (My house was built in 1934.) Since they’re not making any more land near the beach some people are buying these old houses, tearing them down, and building new ones. And I’ve seen houses go up on otherwise less desirable land. For example, much of the land on the other side of the road from Drayton Harbor is low and prone to flooding. But there’s a new house going up, after they built up the lot to be higher than the road. A friend told me of a guy who bought a lot and cabin behind his house (with a view) for $90,000. He tore the cabin down and is spending about $165,000 on a new two-storey house that is nearing completion. I was told he turned down an offer on the unfinished house of $350,000. So in some places it’s cheap enough to buy a desirable lot and tear down the old structure and put up a new one. Construction is booming here. (Incidentally, a friend in Vancouver told me that they’re going to face – or are facing – a shortage of builders in relation to the construction for the 2010 Winter Olympics.)

I’ve been told that hiring a contractor to build a house to code will end up costing between $100 and $120 per square foot. I have no idea if that is accurate, but that would put a 1,500 square foot house at around $150,000 plus the cost of the lot (and services, if they don’t already exist). I asked an independent contractor how much it would cost to build a 600 sq. ft. garage with a poured foundation onto my house. He said it would be ‘expensive’ – around $15,000. Seems pretty cheap to me.

But this is up here in a summer holiday village. (Although more and more people are staying year-round.) In L.A.? I shudder to think of the cost.

11

I did exactly what you are suggesting. I didn’t have much experience with the building trades and had never worked with an Architect before. I did have a friend who was a Structural Engineer… but he didn’t help me at all past the design phase. The house I built turned out pretty much as I had expected… and after living it for 5 years I was able to sell it at a healthy (and tax free) profit. Here are some pointers:

  1. Be choosey when you pick out your lot. If you can find one in your price range in a good neighborhood with city services (water, sewer, gas etc.) that simplifies things a lot. The lot I bought was on the side of a hill which complicated things quite a bit… but it all turned out okay.

  2. If this is your first endeavor pay for the expertise of an Architect who has successfully designed homes in your area. Architects are much more expensive than “designers”, but they offer a lot of expertise that will come in handy not only during the design but the build phase. My architect was great and was involved with the project from start to finish. He could argue with the contractor when he tried to cut corners much better than I could.

  3. My project took about 18 months from start to finish. YMMV. I built a 4,000 sf house on the side of a hill. Construction was almost a year. Most houses can be built much faster but remember it may take a while to get your plans approved by the City. They are rarely in a hurry about these things…

  4. Interview a number of contractors and CHECK REFERENCES!!! Some contractor are really all about remodels which is not what you want. You need someone who has successfully built custom houses. Do they have their own crew or do the sub out everything? Are they bonded? I was lucky because my Architect knew one of the contractors I was looking at so there was a built in reference I could trust.

  5. Make sure you finances are such that you can handle a 20% over run. The contractor may bid based on certain assumptions that you don’t realize. If you need to upgrade once the building begins you will have to pay for any changes. I ended up upgrading some things and downgrading others… but I ended up paying for stuff out of my pocket I hadn’t really planned for. Have a slush fund available in case you decide you really do want that extra fireplace in the bedroom…

  6. Keep the City inspectors in the loop on any changes so they aren’t surprised when they show up for an inspection. You want to keep these guys on your side no matter what.

  7. Be patient! There will be weeks where nothing seems to be happening… then all of suddent there is a flurry of activity. If you are impatient you may cause your contractor to try and cut corners, which is never a good idea.

12

I don’t think it is that unusual. The house I grew up in was built that way and my mother and stepfather just bought the land to have their second house built now. My house was partially destroyed last May and we are having over half of it rebuilt and demolishing half so I know some about about.

I don’t know why it would need to be more expensive. All houses, including ones in subdivisions have to be constructed basically the same way and many of those are customized.

You:

  1. Buy the land. You have to be careful there. You don’t want land that floods part of the year, has some weird zoning, or has some other odd feature like being solid rock that is hard to dig through.
  2. Pick your house. There are many whole books of house plans for this very purpose. You should find something you like from a log cabin to a modern Victorian. You can hire an achitect for a couple of G’s to customize if you want but don’t go overboard.
  3. Hire a general contrator - this is the most important part. Many of them suck so be sure to get recommendations and ask for good recommendations then use them. Establish a payment schedule and make your tolerance and conditions for cost overruns known. There will likely be some.
  4. The contractor can pick fittings or materials for you but you probably want to do it yourself. This will a whole lot of time.

That type of house building is the norm in many parts of the country. How do you think all those houses got there in the first place?

13

I agree.

Please note that this friend had a background in the trades (mechanical/HVAC/Piping) worked as a construction project manager for a living, and was able to buy the raw materials through his contacts.

On top of that, he didn’t hire out the HVAC/ Electrical etc., he actually did the work himself.

So, yea $45,000 is a lot of money, for a guy who had the ability to act as his own project manager, and had the technical skills to install a complete electrical system as well as an HVAC system.

I’m not pissing on the idea, I’m simply giving a reality check. There are 2 ways to go about this:

  1. Act as your own general contractor and hire the subs etc and manage them, or;
  2. Act as your own general contractor and do some portion of the work yourself.

Item 2 is harder, takes a lot more time, and if you don’t really have those skills can possibly be a disaster.

The ‘spare time’ thing needs a reality check as well. My friend sat out a year of softball (he’s an avid player) and almost all of his spare time for just over a year was spent in this house. The savings are real. But so is the work.

Those middlemen and contractors he cut out of the loop to save the $45,000 would have worked for the $45,000. As it turned out, so did he.

It’s sweat equity. It’s all good, just don’t forget the “sweat” part. :wink:

14

I built my own house and managed the trades for tasks I couldn’t justify doing (seriously, who wants to putty and sand drywall all day).

I don’t have the specific numbers on me right now but I came in some 30% lower than had I purchased or contracted.

If you just want to hire a contractor, there are usually plenty of building companies that will custom build a place for you. I would definately caution you if you go through a “guy who contracts stuff”.

If you have the time to manage it yourself, it’s a lot of fun and you learn a lot.

If you have questions, just post them.

15

When we built, we bought the land, paid it off, then built the (Log) house. We had to put in the driveway, electrical & phone service, well, and septic. It was vacant land, so we had to do everything from scratch. It was all within our budget, though. We used a GC and stuck to the plan. We didn’t change the plan and he didn’t change his price. It worked out nicely.

It helps to have a lot of cash on hand for the unforseen. Some guys only take cash/check.

Depending on where you build you’ll need various types of insurance, or ensure that your GC has whatever insurance he needs to have.

Check the zoning regs and make sure if anything falls outside them you have the necessary variances.

We built a small place. The foundation was done in November and we moved in the following May. The GC had another project so that slowed things up but it wasn’t a big deal. We paid off the land over the three previous years.

16

I work for the regulatory agency for building trades in my state, so I hear nothing but the horror stories. I agree with what’s been said in this thread, lots of good advice. I’ll add, make sure to get it all in writing, especially once you’re in process. Verbal agreements cause more problems than anything else I’ve seen. If there is a regulatory agency in your state, use only licensed subcontractors. Get three bids on the project, check references, and do your research before starting the project. I’ve seen people tied up for years with unusable property, due to disputes with their contractor. Happy homebuilders I never hear from, so my view is biased.

17

Just to emphasize (and re-emphasize) a few points

Plans - buying a stock plan that you like is a good way to go - designers cost more - architects cost quite a bit more - architects are often worth the money if you have a difficult building location or esoteric ideas.

Changes - if at all possible, do not make changes after the building process is under way - get a quote in writing if you do request a change from the original plans

The Lot - it is tempting to go with a less expensive lot but the good lots are good today and real good when you want to sell - take a look at the property after a heavy rain storm, ask the neighbors about the property, etc. - and check the title - keep looking if there is anything at all wrong with the title - some, including attorneys, may assure you that the legal problems are minor, nuisances, soon to resolved, etc. - walk away, those problems would not be there if they were minor.

As others have mentioned, you can put in quite a bit of sweat equity and some of it makes good sense (painting has been mentioned and is a prime example). Almost everyone can do sheetrock but get a quote anyway. Getting the pros to do it is relatively inexpensive considering the work involved and the quality is tough to beat. And they are fast.

Contractors - they usually know the subs and usually have better luck getting them to show up - they also know which subs are OK and those that are not - add some time if doing the contracting yourself - it is the “small things” that often affect the cost (did the contractor charge you the retail price for those shingles even though he got a contractor discount?) - check their previous work and if you can, ask the owners the magic question (Were there any surprises concerning money?)

The cost to build varies with location (are builders in demand), what you want (Sub Zero or Frigidaire?), and the lot (concrete is very expensive in these post-Katrina times in some areas). The cost for permits also varies.