Anyone been their OWN General Contractor and built a house?

GoBlue34 · Jan 17, 2011

I'm not lifting a finger (meaning I'm not doing any physical labor) but figure I can save between 15-30% hiring and lining up everyone myself.

I don't know everything, far from it but I've had 2 houses built (not by me). I figure I could save close to $80,000 building my next house doing it myself, so why shouldn't I do it?

Headache and work yes but worth it in the long run. I'm also going to try and sell my house by myself too (that I have done).

So call me crazy but who has done either?

YourAllAmerican · Jan 17, 2011

My dad owned a small home-building company, so I spent more hours than I liked in my teenage years working on them. Let me say this: Spending eight hours putting tarpaper on a roof during an August in Texas ins't any 16-year-old's idea of fun.

HacheMan · Jan 17, 2011

It's crazy that so many people building a new house don't realize the thousands they can save by eliminating a contractor, pulling the permit themselves and subbing out all of the work.

Yes I've done it.

It's a little more work by but once you get rolling it's not as bad as you initialy think as things fall into place.

There is NO REASON to pay a contractor thousands & thousands for his guys to do the exact same work as you hiring them on the side to do the exact same work......

C-LO · Jan 17, 2011

hache man said:
it's crazy that so many people building a new house don't realize the thousands they can save by eliminating a contractor, pulling the permit themselves and subbing out all of the work.

Yes i've done it.

It's a little more work by but once you get rolling it's not as bad as you initialy think as things fall into place.

There is no reason to pay a contractor thousands & thousands for his guys to do the exact same work as you hiring them on the side to do the exact same work......

agree 1000%!!

Buster · Jan 17, 2011

almost finished completely remodeling a townhouse...took a little time but found everyone on my own and when completely done will have saved about 15k...that is just the construction work,not including all appliances toilets tubs etc...would love to do it all again except i don't want to be living there next time...very fun and watched a lot of home and garden tv and that show sell this house...every idea came from those 2 sources..