Building Your Own House

[cidley69]

Has anyone on here acted as the general contractor to build there own house?

What did the cost per sq ft end up being?

Did it go smoothly, or would you not recommend it?

How long did it take from start to finish?

How much downpayment did you need on the land, and how did you finance building costs?

Any thoughts on this in general?

[spike98]

I dont know much about the paticulars but i have a buddy that does this. He builds one then lives in it while he builds another.

He says its a LOT of work but you can make some huge savings if you take your time and plan right.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by cidley69
Has anyone on here acted as the general contractor to build there own house?

What did the cost per sq ft end up being?

Did it go smoothly, or would you not recommend it?

How long did it take from start to finish?

How much downpayment did you need on the land, and how did you finance building costs?

Any thoughts on this in general?

I can only speak through 2nd hand information, as a co-worker in Edmonton did this. I don't know the costs, but I do know he said he would never, ever, ever do it again, even with the huge savings. It took him a year and a half, he did all the construction and only used contractors when necessary, but he was also working on it "while he was at work" (as in his job allowed him to go home several hours early a lot).

What he did was buy a parcel of land straight out, put a mobile home on it, and lived in that while building.

[collectskulls]

Did one few years ago needed to own the land out right
As far as cost I called in favors and such so cant help you there.

[lint]

+ 1 you can't mortgage land. You'll need to buy the lot out right

[JordanLotoski]

Originally posted by lint
+ 1 you can't mortgage land. You'll need to buy the lot out right

You can mortgage raw land....50% down

[HiTempguy1]

Originally posted by cidley69
Has anyone on here acted as the general contractor to build there own house?

What did the cost per sq ft end up being?

Did it go smoothly, or would you not recommend it?

How long did it take from start to finish?

How much downpayment did you need on the land, and how did you finance building costs?

Any thoughts on this in general?

You can get a builders mortgage that includes the purchase of the land, nbd.

My father started out doing this before starting his own home building company. Realistically, if you don't f*&k up, you'll save $50k on a house (compared to what you'd get for the same price at a home builder). He can build a house in 4 months if everything works out, and he even does stuff like framing or foam block himself to save costs

It is a lot of work though, as a shift worker, my father basically had two weeks off every four weeks so he was able to manage everything nicely, you have to stay on top of the trades if you want stuff to get done in a timely manner. And of course, you have to watch for their screwups

[Sugarphreak]

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[cidley69]

Sugarphreak, have you looked into this regarding the financing?

Also what modular home manufacturers would you consider for this?

[C_Dave45]

It's not as easy as people make it out to be. A few hurdles: (unless you have a good $500,000 at your disposal, but for the average person that thinks he can just build himself a house and save money...)

1: finding a lot within the city. All new area are sold to reputable builders by the developer.
2: single Inner city lots are $$$ (usually looking at an "infill")
3: unless you're an actual licensed builder, good luck getting a bank to mortgage any part of the land or getting a "builders loan"
(friend of mine just built on acreage. He owned the land outright and even then the said "NO" anytime they saw his name on any part of the building contract. He had to find a builder that would "quietly" let him do parts of the house)

Clearing all of that, you can build a decent house for $150/sq ft

[Sugarphreak]

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[cidley69]

would there be prohibitive shipping and/or duty charges to us a US company for this?

[Sugarphreak]

...

[sputnik]

Thee guys are out of Manitoba and build some really cool stuff if you are into the modern look.

http://challengerliving.com/the-latest/

http://www.treehugger.com/modular-de...er-living.html

[tnuc]

you can mortgage the land, also there are builders mortgages.

[max_boost]

So you can build a house elsewhere for cheap and just move it to Calgary? Those Manitoba guys build some cool stuff, I'll save that link sput.

[Sugarphreak]

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[frozenrice]

General contracting on your own home really depends on whether or not you know what you are doing and how much time you have and how much elbow grease of your own you are willing to put into it.

I've seen too many people try it on their own and realize during that it was way more work than they expected. Working for a builder, I see customers complain about having to run all over the place to pick colours. They're not even "building" the house and they complain that picking colours is too hard. Can't imagine if they had to coordinate the vendors from the surveyor all the way to the cleaners. This is where the builder comes in and guides them along the way. The way I look at home builders is that they are providing a service to those people that want to build, but don't know how or don't have the time or resources to do it themselves.

[cidley69]

I've worked in and around construction (roofed for 7 years, did framing/finish carpentry for 4-5 years, did plumber and electrical helper in highschool) for years and have always done my own home repairs/renos, own drywall boarding, suck at mudding/taping, sanding just sucks period...

I think I know enough to know good from bad work; and basically know what I'm doing, so not too worried about that aspect.

I'm more concerned with how much time applying elbow grease would be required?

Also not sure I can afford the financing end of it, as I've heard you need to put down 50% of the raw land cost. Does anyone know if this is always true, or is there any way around this?

[frozenrice]

Good skills to have, so you're further ahead than most people.