Should You Build Your Own Home?

The endeavor of building a house is exciting, stimulating and gratifying.  The process however can be daunting, laborious and frustrating.  Most owners do not attempt to act as their own builder for their realization that they lack the expertise necessary to complete the process.  While others stumble blindly into the unknown and find themselves half way through with a huge undertaking and wondering how they will ever finish the project.  The force that drives this blind ambition is the belief that at 10-15% of the total home cost, home builders charge exorbitantly high rates for the amount of work which they perform.  This belief largely stems from the lack of understanding of what a builder’s responsibilities and skills are.

A builders generalized responsibility is to facilitate and oversee the process of building the home.  This involves everything from obtaining engineering to installing the shrubbery.  The most important aspect when evaluating potential builders is their level of experience.  A well-seasoned builder will have experience with most situations that arise on the jobsite.  Antithetically, most owners will have little experience.  While building a house in 2008 I was to meet the owners on site to discuss paint colors.  As it happened, their front door was being installed that very afternoon.  As I drove onto the jobsite I noticed that the front door had just been installed and that the owners were looking at the door with bright eyes.  They expressed to me that they were so pleased with their door selection.  However my first look at the door revealed to me that the gap at the top of the door was larger on one side than the other.  The difference was small probably about 1/8” but it was significant enough that it could result in a door that swings on its own, lack of an airtight seal or even worse a sticky door.  The point is that having experience in home construction resulted in me seeing something totally different than the homeowner.  This is a very miniscule example but throughout the construction of a home, there are many more.

In addition to the quality control issues related to home building, the builder is also responsible for making sure that all work conforms to code.  Builders deal with code issues regularly and therefore know what to look for.  The subcontractors know this and therefore are less likely to try to cut corners when dealing with an experienced builder.  The homeowner most likely does not know the codes and therefore is subject to subcontractors that try to save themselves time and money by cutting corners.  Such cases can result in additional cost to the homeowner down the line.  Additionally, by catching code issues as they arise, the builder prevents potential red tags during inspections.  With each red tag resulting about a weeks worth of delay in the project, this results in shorter construction periods.

The builders network of subcontractors is another asset that the builder brings to the table.  Builders rely upon their subcontractors to provide labor while the subcontractors depend on the builder to provide work.  This dependence on the builder is why builders get a better price and usually a better product than most homeowners.  The subcontractors want to keep the builder happy so that he sends them more work in the future.  Whereas, subcontractors know that a homeowner is likely a one-time customer.  Many homeowners may view themselves as well informed regarding construction techniques.  Let me dispel this belief right now.  If you do not work regularly dealing with all aspects of home construction, you are not a savvy builder and the subcontractors can sense this.  What this means to the homeowner is that the subcontractors will charge more and rightfully so.  The builder makes sure that the plans are clear, the materials are on site and they do not call the subcontractors until it is time for them.  The homeowner might call the subcontractor before it is time, may not know all of the materials needed and might themselves have a hard time interpreting the details of a plan.  While I do not discount the importance of a good set of plans by a qualified architect, I must also say that architects are not builders and they too make mistakes.  My framer once told me of a house that he framed and then had to reframe due to an architects lack of realization that a large cathedral ceiling prevented the passage of duct work from the air conditioning unit to the other side of the house.  This is the kind of stuff that I look for when I first look at a customers plan.  That single re-frame increased the cost of the house around $1.00/ft.  If such a simple mistake could be made by a seasoned architect then why would a homeowner suspect that they could build a house more efficiently than a seasoned builder.  The answer is money.

Homeowners are blinded by the belief that they can save money by acting as their own builder when in fact, many times it costs them more than if they had hired a builder.  The builder prevents many costly mistakes and prevents the owner from using materials that result in warranty issues.  If this was not the case then the cost of a home could easily rise by 10-25%.  While there are a few services that attempt to level the playing field for the owner/builder, it is my belief that these services do not work in the end.  By providing subcontractors and expertise to the owners, these services can have a small equalizing effect.  However they cannot be on-site to monitor the quality of construction, meet with inspectors or have complete control over costs.  In closing I am reminded of a retired builder from Abilene, Texas that once told me that if he ever built another house that he would hire another builder to do it.  This man had over 30 years experience in the industry with 5 years of retirement and would rather pay someone to build his house than to do it himself, so why should far less experienced individuals choose to do anything other than the same.    

published 2 years ago

Jamie

175 points