Replies

1. 
   AdamB | Feb 17, 2004 12:44am | #1

   There have a number of folks that have stopped by in the last 2 -3 weeks asking about this.  The best advice I can give is to do a search on "spec house from hell".

   It will elict a massive amount of advice....
2. 
   Piffin | Feb 17, 2004 03:06am | #2

   Look at the left of your screen.

   Scroll 'till you see the Business heading

   Click on the blue for business

   now all the listings are in the business section.

   Start clicking and reading

   That'll keep you busy for a couple weeks. By then you'll know what your questions are...

    

    

   Welcome to the
   Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
    where ...
   Excellence is its own reward!

3. 
   Scrapr | Feb 17, 2004 04:23am | #3

   Ahhhh, can you smell it? Fresh grass in the air, daiseys popping up everywhere, cherry blossoms are out. The sounds of spring. And the brand new GC's are all around.

   Sorry dfk39. not a knock on you. Just everyone who made a New Years resolution to start thier own business is coming around.  Good luck.

4. 
   RobKress | Feb 17, 2004 07:03am | #4

   D,

   I am currently building my own house right now.  It is the first house I have ever built.  I have a physics degree and worked for 10 years as an engineer.  I have been working for the past 2 years with a local carpenter as his first (apprentice) helper guy.  I have worked with my hands all my life and was taught, starting at a very young age, about all the trades by my father and uncle. 

   This is my advice... being right smack dab in the middle of it!

   Make sure that you can sustain at least a 30% cost overrun in your build cost for your first project.  This is not a lot of money when it comes to building a house but can end up being a lot if you can't get it out at resale.

   In my case, I went into this project with the idea that if I didn't know something, I would be able to figure it out or hire the right people to advise me.  That has worked out very well and in fact, there is a lot that I don't know (and a lot that I do) but I have been able get through that.  Another thing that I planned on was not knowing exactly how much it would cost to build my house.  And that has turned out to be significant.  In my case, if I come out $30,000 over what I thought it would cost, I'll be happy (or should I say lucky).  I won't use the word budget because that really doesn't apply..... how can you make a budget when you have no idea how much things cost.  Of course I had some idea but my idea was just low for what we wanted to build. 

   Here's the silver lining...... Like I said, I planned on not knowing how much it would cost so I paid particular attention to how much it could sell for.  Now on that, I'm kind of an expert in my neighborhood.  How am I an expert?  I did more than 2 years of research on home prices in my area and looked at (visited) just about every home for sale in northern Ohio.  What does this mean in relation to my 30, 40 or $50,000 over run?  I'm still living phat even if I hit the $50,000 over mark.  In fact, for the kind of house we are building and in the neighborhood we are building, at $50,000 over, we could still sell our house at more than 30% profit.  And that includes taking out money to pay me for my labor on the job ($50,000 or so.... I'm doing a lot).

   Listen, I don't know it all.  In fact, I know very little and even less about building houses.  I don't want to be a builder.  I don't even want to be a carpenter.  Heck, I'm really just a very stupid, relatively young man with a lot of energy, yet old enough to have enough money in the bank to try something as stupid as this.  From this perspective (today was the last day of framing..... which took much longer than I had planned), I'm not sure I would do this again.  This is way more than I expected.  Am I sinking?  In a way, yes.  It is almost overwhelming for one person to build a house for the first time.  But, I'm sure it will get done and I'm sure it will be as good as I think it will be (I won't let it be any other way).  Even with the cost overruns.  And at the end, if it turns out to be too much (of what ever), my wife and I will sell it and make a lot of money.  But that was not the original intent.  We actually do need a house and really like this one that we are building.  So we would like to stay. 

   Here's the point of my very long and boring story.  Pay attention to all of the warnings that everyone has already started to say to you.  I did not (and I can still hear my builder friend saying to me "you should really not try to build such a complicated house for your first one.  It's going to take you a long time just to frame it.  And it's a complicated house.").  You don't know even half of what it takes to build a house unless you have already done more than one on your own.  You will get things wrong or not know a lot of things.  When you build your second house in the next town over, the rules change and you go back to not knowing even half of what it takes to build a house.  Plan on spending much more money than you initially think.  Make sure that your resale price is protected against these cost overruns.  If you are going to be going into this profession, make sure you have enough money to build more than one so that when you loose money on your first, you can make it up on your third (or so).   Make sure it's worth it.  I now am having health problems.  The doctors don't know what is wrong with me yet.  I am for sure hoping that this is not how I will have spent the best part of my wife, daughter, family, health, life, fun, et al...

   Good luck,

   Rob Kress

   P.S. My builder friend makes a very comfortable living for himself and family.  He enjoys his work tremendously.  He gets very stressed out when his houses don't sell right away.  Even more stressed out when people aren't looking.  He builds 15 to 20 homes a year.

5. 
   dIrishInMe | Feb 17, 2004 03:15pm | #5

   There is a home building project estimator service in my area that will do a complete takeoff for two or three hundred dollars or so.  Feeding them detailed info about what I was going to build, I have found them to hit the mark within 1 or 2 %.  I think the key to this situation is that the guy is local.
    

   Matt
6. 
   BossHog | Feb 17, 2004 03:20pm | #6

   Here's the Spec House from Hell thread you were referred to.

   I do not pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of. [Clarence Darrow]