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How to Begin building your Home Owner/Contractor Steps to Building YOUR Home
Linda Baxter
http://www.home-built4u.com
As owner/contractor, to begin building your own home is a multi-step process. Therefore, we will break it down into 3 phases in this article.
3.Construction: The actual construction phase.
The commitment and belief phase is when you are deciding upon 3 things:
- choose your house plan and order the plans to be developed by an engineer
* check with the city for their stipulations and fees
* decide what land you will build on, and secure the land
* the basic overall project plan is put on paper.
You may work out a time-line on paper, with a sketchy idea of when you want to start and finish your housebuild. As you study and learn the general process, this sketch or outline of the building process will take shape.
It will include each sub contractor you will need with an approximate length of time he will take. Some subs will work simultaneously so keep that in mind. There is a list that we used on my website under http://www.home-built4u.com/home-construction-loan-finance.html that will give you a partial list of things required in putting together your subs and their estimates bids.
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Making the list, contacting the subs, and getting their bids can take a month or it can take half a year or longer. It is when true commitment will take place within you
I contacted subs during this time frame to satisfy myself that we could find subs who would be willing to work with us. If you are married and both of you will be working together as the GC, then you will have to be sure you are both on the same page, or life will be very difficult.
Just getting the house plans drawn up may take 6 to 8 weeks as you finally decide on what you both want in the plans..
Allow plenty of time for each phase so you won't stress out when you don't adhere to the time-line. We had to wait for the plans to be drawn up. Then the city was behind on approving the plans. The next thing was hunting season arrived, and many construction workers love to hunt and they close up shop for 2 to four weeks. Of scours the unexpected will always creep in like illness of subs, and yourself, etc ...........
Phase 2 or Development Phase, is after you have at least put a down payment on the land, to be paid off with the construction loan.
You have distributed your plans to the various subs and got your bids from at least 2 subs in each general category of the building process. This can take 2 or 3 months, or it may take less.
Then you go to the bank with your bids and your houseplans. If you show up with this much information, you are stacking the cards in your favor. Bankers are not used to General Contractors being this prepared, in many cases. However, they need to have confidence in your knowledge and ability to finish this building project, before they will loan you the money. The last thing they want is to have to repossess your home and then to have to try to sell it in an unfinished condition. If they are going to loan you the money, they want to know you can, and will finish the project.
In this phase, you also get your plans to the city and wait for them to be approved. Depending upon the time of year, this can take some time. We had to wait more than 4 weeks because our town is small, and the inspector was on vacation and no, no one else could do the job.
You also have to contact the electric company during this phase, to see what is expected of the General Contractor for a temporary hookup so your framers will have electricity to build with. The utility companies are sometimes backlogged and take time, so don't put this one off.
The third phase is the construction time when you actually begin digging and building your home.
Remember you personally don't have to pick up a hammer, just oversee the process. The bank allows you 9-12 months to build, so take the maximum they allow. You'll only be charged for the actual time you use their money. If you finish in 6 months, that's all the interest you'll pay. Remember - The penalties you pay for going beyond the time allowed eats up your equity very quickly.
If you have done your homework and have two or more bids for each job, you will have a choice in case your favored sub is busy when you need him, and you don't want to wait.
During this third phase, you have a lot of choices to make. You'll be selecting and buying doors and windows, fixtures for your bathrooms and kitchen, appliances, choosing paint colors, tile, carpet, counter tops, lighting fixtures and fans and much more. It's a fun time and really takes co-ordination of timing so no one is waiting on you,
This is a very brief outline of what it takes to build your home, and is by no means complete, but it gives you a brief run-down of the basics entailed in building your own home.
Article submitted Saturday, September 20, 2008
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