Being your own builder...

[wags]

Has anyone ever taken on the responsibilty of building their own house? Not the actual building, but doing all the subcontracting yourself. I know it is a lot to deal with, but I would imagine it would save a lot of money.

My other question would be if anyone has used a service to help with the planning and subcontracting? I know when we went to the New Home and Remodeling show in Houston last month, there were at least three booths that provided this type of service.

[Firefyter]

Done it twice, also did alot of the work myself but contracted out alot, slab. brick, etc, saved alot. I was able to get the bank to let me be the builder so i didnt have to go through one. If you have any experience in the buiding trades it is not that complicated, it is just basically organizing your trades. PM me if you have any other questions.

[BIG IRON]

It is simple, as long as nothing goes wrong. I was a homebuilder for 12 years and built my own home years ago. It is a very rewarding experience if all goes well. The most important thing is to be very clear with all of your subcontractors regarding their scope of work. Make sure you do not have any holes in your budget and do not pay for work in advance. Some contractors will take advantage of people that DIY because they are a one shot deal. You should be able to get leads from your suppliers on what contractors to use because the salespeople should know them.

Make sure you have money in the budget to cover anythiing that you might want to do yourself ie. trim, tile ect. in case you get in a pinch on time.

Also, contract everything possible on a turnkey basis. It will cost a bit more, but will save you some time and trouble.

Let me know if you need any help, I would be glad to help.

P.S. The cool thing about doing some of the stuff yourself is that you can use some of the budget to buy tools.

[cooker2]

I have done it twice in east texas and it was great. Built the houses pretty cheap, about 68-70 dollars a sq ft, did all the clean up myself to help save money, lived in them a while and turned them. made good money on them. I had lots of contacts that helped us save money. In the market now and having one built in DFW area by a "quanity builder not a Quality builder" and it makes me sick to my stomach what they are trying to charge us for certain things..everything is an upgrade!! Wish I had my contacts here.

[bow1000]

I built my house in o7 did all the painting,laid all of the brick and stone,laid all the hard wood floors and trimed it out with the help of my father in law and some friends. And contracted the rest out saved alot of money. Worked long hours but had a geet feeling of pride when done. It took me about 5 1/2months to finsh.

[Stolle]

If you plan on getting a loan to build you can no longer be your own GC in the state of TX. We wanted to do this for the place we are building down in Port O Connor.

[tank]

Goto www.trcc.state.tx.us for info, the newest tax/fee/commission/red tape our state has come up with. The municipality will not sell a permit if your license is not in good standing with the state. They now have an inspection needed if you are outside the jurisdiction of a city. I do not remember when that goes into affect. My dad says they are going to tax the air we breathe one of these days. Unless you got a lot of extra time on your hands I wouldn't go at it alone. Also, get a good contract for your subs. Make sure they have general liabilty insurance at a minimum. Get your own builders risk. Honestly your only saving about 15 to 18% for all the risk and work you are going to put out. Have Fun

[Mike]

The Texas License came about from a lot of shoddy building from what I can understand. There was a matter of unqualified home builders (read as owner builders) that were leapfrogging from home to home after 24 months and avoiding capital gains taxation on the profits.

It is a bunch of red tape and crap to deal with and personally, I do not think I am interested in the additional workload much less stress of coordinating all the subs on a home build. You are last on the list for most everything from subs to materials as they are going to take care of their regular builders that keep them busy.

I have a customer that anticipated a 6 month build and it turned into 13 months when the housing boom picked up here in East Texas. He nearly lost the whole deal as they had a time frame of 6 months, then 9 months, then 12 months and it finally got done. The only reason it did not go South was he was personal friends with the banker. He just could not get anyone to work on his place when the established guys were building 3-4 at a time.

[cosmiccowboy]

If you plan on getting a loan to build you can no longer be your own GC in the state of TX. We wanted to do this for the place we are building down in Port O Connor.

I have done it on every home I have ever lived in. Depending on your bank that you use for your interim financing there is simply a "wink/wink" letter in the file that you have a "real" contractor.

[cwill]

We just built ours through owner builder network and it went fairly smooth. There were a few hiccups along the way, but we are more than happy with the house we have for the money we spent. The worst thing about the process is fighting with the appraisal district afterwards because they try to tax you on alot more than what you've got in the house. I guess thats a good think though. Shoot me a PM with your number and I'd be glad to tell you the ins and outs of doing it yourself.

[Huntindad]

CWILL,

If you get concrete done... the appraisal district knows about it. Ask your neighbor about that. He's been dealing with the appraisal district for years. Your neighbor Glen is a friend that I've known for quite a while.

[wags]

cwill...pm sent.