Being an owner-builder of your own home can save you thousands (even tens of thousands) of dollars. You are the general contractor. You make all of the decisions. You hire the out the work or do it yourself. In the end, you get to step back and say that you built your own home. You didn’t give your ideas to someone and pay them to build your house – YOU built YOUR own home.

So what do you do? Can you really save that much money by being your own general contractor?

YES.

I did it. I loved it. And so did my bank account. I have some tips (in no particular order) that I want to share to help you get through it, too:

1. Do Your Research. This applies to literally every aspect of your build, but it is most important right in the beginning. We almost jumped into a standard construction loan with both feet right at the beginning. After doing more research, we found this amazing company called Pierson-Gibbs, Homes out of southern Michigan (they only build in Michigan, sorry out-of-staters). They provided the construction loan financing at a much lower cost, all of the materials, they built the entire shell, and provided guidance through every step.  I owe them a lot of love.

2. Read Reviews. The internet has to be your friend. Take into consideration what people are saying about the sub-contractors you are thinking of hiring.

3. Don’t Hire the Cheap Guy. I know, you wanted to be an owner-builder to save money, right? How dare I say that you shouldn’t hire the cheap guy? Well, it almost burned me. Not once, but twice. I’m not saying never do it, because sometimes they’re just starting their own business or trying to be competitive. Just be careful. We hired a company to install our wood burning fireplace in the living room. They had the lowest price. After it was installed for the rough-in stage it was nearly impossible to get the crew back out to finish. They failed three inspections. They were rude, and uncooperative. Then later we heard from multiple sources that they purposely avoid working with this particular company because of those reasons. The same thing happened when we hired the cheapest plumber. (Read online reviews!)

4. Never Pay in Full Up Front. Do not pay for anything in full until the work is done to your satisfaction. Sub-contractors generally ask for a percentage up front to purchase materials or ensure that they’re not wasting their time at your site. That is normal. Sign a contract with them and agree on a start date, but NEVER pay them the full amount to start.

5. Stay Organized. I carried around a binder with everything in it. My binder got ridiculous by the end of my project. I upgraded twice. So save yourself the hassle and just get a big one right off the bat. I had it organized into sections. All of my plans and sketches were right at the front so whenever someone needed a copy, I could grab it quickly and go over what I wanted them to do. I saved my receipts, waivers, copies of permits, contact information, to do lists, check lists…. everything.

6. Cooperation. Particularly when you are first starting your build it’s good to find contractors that have worked together before. Find a good excavation crew and ask them if they know of any concrete companies they like to work with to install the basement. Read about them, talk with them, and see if they would be a good fit for you and your project. We broke ground on our house on February 1st in Michigan. The ground was frozen, but we had a few unseasonably warm days. Since we had chosen an excavator and concrete guy who were good friends, the two of them coordinated their schedules to take advantage of the weather. The excavator came out and dug the hole one day, the next day the concrete crew was there installing the concrete forms and preparing to pour the foundation. No time wasted. Which brings me to my next point…

7. Time is Money. Plan your next three moves ahead of time. You don’t want your house sitting with no progress. Make phone calls early and get yourself on the schedule as soon as you can if you’re hiring out the work. If the framing is almost finished, call ahead and ask to get on the next week’s schedule for your rough in inspections. Then call the trades people you are hiring and get on their schedules for the following weeks to come in and do the plumbing, electrical and HVAC. While they’re working, get estimates for how much drywall is going to cost.

8. Measure Twice, Cut Once. This advice is as old as construction itself. Do it. Whether it’s trim, or measuring for doors, or a bathroom vanity. Make sure you know what you need.

9. Know Your Options. Make sure you know that you’re being presented all of the options. When it was time for us to install permanent electricity, the electrical company made it seem like the best way to do it was to have overhead lines connecting to our house. They kept telling us that overhead lines would be free of charge. We found out they also had to cut down a significant number of trees to clear a path for the overhead lines. When I expressed my displeasure in cutting down a chunk of my forest, they let me know that for $350, I could have underground lines and no trees would have to be cut down, they would just trench around them. Okay, sign me up for that instead!

Research Your Materials. When it was time to install our septic system (because we live in the boonies) the excavator asked if we were okay with him installing some new materials that were just approved for use in our county instead of the standard white stones. It sounded fine, until we read about what it actually was and how poorly it had held up over time for other people. Needless to say, we requested the tried-and-true septic stones instead.

11. Shop Used. The cashier at Habitat for Humanity knew me by name. I basically lived there while I was building my house. I bought a ton of things we needed at a tenth of the price we would have paid at one of the big box stores. I found multiple light fixtures for a few dollars that I could repaint and make look new. They have plenty of new items too.

12. Take Advantage of Sales. Use coupons, pay attention to sales, price compare, and shop the clearance racks. I bought the pendent lights above my kitchen island for 75% off. They were off the shelves for a few months and then a new crop of the same product came back into stock at full price. I can’t tell you why stores do that, but I had no problem taking advantage of it.

13. Don’t Be Afraid of Winter. As I said before, we broke ground in Michigan the first day of February. There are a few advantages to building in the off-season. For one, there isn’t such a high demand for all of the sub-contractors. They can usually get you on the schedule and get your work done without being so backed up with other jobs. Stores are usually clearing out some of the previous season’s merchandise. This leaves the clearance shelves stocked with lots of things you can put in your house.

14. Ask for Discounts. If a contractor comes in and offers to do the job for $3000, ask what you have to do to get the price down to $2700. We did this a couple of times and were amazed at the willingness some of them were to negotiate. The worst they are going to do is say no.

15. Use Your Imagination. We installed all of the electrical ourselves. I walked through the house at least 10 times pretending to turn on lights. I stood in the kitchen and imagined that I was preparing for a dinner party. Where did I need outlets? When in doubt, just add another one. I am so very thankful that I put an outlet on the wall where the TV would hang above the fireplace. There are no obnoxious cords hanging down!

16. Visit Open Houses and The Parade of Homes. Open houses are a great way to get a realistic idea of home layouts. Take a tape measure with you and measure the rooms. Are they big enough? Would it be okay if it was a little smaller? Do you like the kids rooms on the same end of the house as the master suite? How about the placement of the kitchen sink? The Parade of Homes is a good way to look at the newest building materials. Before we built our house, vinyl flooring had a bad stigma. Walking through some of the newest homes, we realized that vinyl plank flooring is basically the way to go if you have kids and pets. Sometimes you couldn’t even tell if it was real wood or not. I remember bending down a few times to scratch at a seem to determine what material it was.

17. Spend Your Money Where it Matters. When we first started designing our home, we let our hearts run wild. Why not? We had to settle down a little bit to keep within our budget, though. So instead of having the added detail of cedar shake shingles on the gables of our house, we opted to install the same shingles throughout and put that extra money into square footage. In our climate, going with better insulation was at the top of our list, too.

18. Get Familiar With Building Codes and Inspectors. I downloaded a copy of the current electrical code book and read as much as I could understand. (It gets pretty intense haha.) I also called the inspector who was assigned to my home and asked him specific questions about what he liked to see. I was absolutely certain to be present at the time of inspections, too. I followed the inspectors around and wrote down everything they said. Any suggestions they had, I made a note of it and did it so the next time they came back it was done just the way they wanted. Making friends with them makes your life easier. If you don’t know the code requirements about the number of receptacles allowed on a single breaker, call them. It’s a lot easier to ask a quick question than to have to redo a bunch of work.

19. Do Your Own Clean Up. Most framing crews would like to have a big dumpster to throw scraps and trash into. The dumpster costs money, and you  miss out on a ton of materials that you can use. Instead of renting a dumpster, I set up residential trash service at the site. The standard trash collection bin was plenty big enough to accommodate trash from lunch and whatever little odds and ends from unwrapping materials came up. The scraps of lumber, I sorted and put into a pile to use for myself. I installed blocks of wood at the tops of windows that I could screw curtain rods into, more blocks of wood around the kitchen where we would install the cabinets, etc.

20. Think Through Your Decisions. If you’re making decisions on the fly, you haven’t prepared enough. Mistakes are going to be more likely if you don’t know what you want ahead of time, and it’s going to end up costing you more money and time in the long run.

Being an owner-builder was a wonderful experience. If you know what you’re getting into, and you’re prepared to handle it, you can do it too!