Possible ? Cheap-o house, act as contractor.

 I've been looking for a house to buy on and off for a couple months and
it's really starting to bug me.  In this city in the midwest, in a safe
area with decent schools, a 1400 sq ft all brick 3 BR 2 bath house with
a 2-car attached garage is about $115,000.  There's several in that
range.  This seems ludicrously high.

What am I missing ? Is it possible to actually build a house yourself,
as in act as your own contractor, and save money ?

Land is cheap here, relatively.  Couldn't I put in like about a 60 x 30
concrete foundation, build the perimeter walls out of split block, run
joists across the crawl space, put a roof on, and have a shell ?  I
could fill the split block with sand for insulation.  Sand is cheap.  I
could just do drylock over the split block on the inside, I don't care
what the walls look like.  Build some interior walls, run the
mechanicals, and voila.

Am I nuts ?  Don't suggest prefab, I want something built out of
masonry.

 
The same house in my neighborhood will cost about $700K. Which price is
ludicrous?


Dimitri

 
<snip>

Sure, but depending on where you live you will have to pull a building
permit and get inspections done for electric and plumbing and whatever.

I was my own contractor on an additon a number of years ago and saved quite
a bit.

Google groups "house addition (long)  deck house contractor" and toss in my
name and you will find a story about from Sept 1997.

 Thank you all.  700k for that size is is ludicrous except that where
that's the case (San Fran ? Manhattan ?) the house will appreciate;
here in the Midwest if you're in a good area houses appreaciate what,
4-5% a year, in a bad area it's 0-1%, which puts a hole in the theory
that renting is a bad thing, renting means never having to buy a new
roof or HVAC.

Here is the article DT wrote in '97:

"I just finished up an addition to my home for which I acted as  the
general contractor.  I thought I would share my story with the  net
community since the question of being one's own general contractor
comes up occasionally.

 A number of years ago my wife and I decided to add on to our Deck
house  contemporary home.  Deck houses are contemporary homes which are
 manufactured by Deck House Inc (www.deckhouse.com).  The parts are
all made in their factory in Acton Mass, and trucked to the site.

 A Deck House architect designed our addition which is a 24x26 kitchen/
 family room with a two car garage under it. They put together the
entire package of building materials for one price.  Many of the
materials are Deck house specific. They make their own mahogany framed
windows and doors, the ceilings are tounge and groove cedar.

 They also recommended  a general contractor (GC).  The GC gave us a
contract with a price.  The price seemed high, and when I asked for a
breakdown, he refused,  saying that when 'you buy a car, you don't get
a separate price for  the engine, the transmission... etc".  Warning
bells went off in my  head.  My lawyer reviewed the contract, and made
a few changes.  I  mailed the changed contract back. (It needed 3
stamps!) The GC called  me back a few days later and said he had
changed a change.  I told him  to just mail me the page he had changed.
Hey, why spend money for 3 stamps  if one would do I figured.  So he
sent me the one page.  Federal Express.  I quickly realized that this
guy had no concept of cost control, so I  began to investigate what it
would cost me to get the addition put up.

 Called a foundation guy.  Got an estimate.  He referred an excavator.
Got an estimate.  Excavator referred a carpenter.  He and I talked,
and I liked his attitude.  Got an estimate. The price I had received
from the GC did not include electric, plumbing, or interior finish,  so
the estimates I had were for the same work the GC would have done.  I
added up the estimates. Got a number.  Multiplied by 3. And the total
was $30,000 less than the GC.  Called the GC and told him to take his
Federal Expressed contract and shove it.  Hung up.

 ( Do I hear the cheering of thousands of people who have been screwed
  by General Contractors?)  I should mention that this    guy had done
an addition around the corner which was twice as large    and he had
charged about 1/2 of what he quoted us.  We found out that    he had
lost money on it and we guess he was trying to make it up with us)

 Called the excavator and we were off and running.  Foundation guy came
 and put in the foundation.  Excavator came and backfilled.  Deck house
 delivered the package.  I hired a crane to unload it.  Took about 3
hours.  I then took 2 weeks off of work and worked with the carpenter
to put up  the unfinished shell.  It took 10 working days to get a
weather tight  shell. A point to note: The only major argument the
carpenter and  I had was that I wanted to pay him for the time we ate
lunch, and  he refused to accept it.

 Excavation cost was about 3/4 of the estimate.  Foundation cost was  a
little under the estimate.  I had figured 4 weeks to a weather tight
shell (at $1000 carpenter cost per week) and it took two weeks.  I was
starting to be a happy guy.  Also, everyone had shown up when they said
they  would.

 The carpenter and I had gotten along very well, so I kept him on to
do the siding (vertical red cedar).  I hired an electrician to upgrade
my service from 100 to 200 amps. I pulled a DIY wiring permit and
wired the addition.  In Massachusetts you cannot legally do your own
plumbing, so I hired a plumber to plumb the running water and drain.
He was so reasonable in his price that  I also had him install the hot
water heat.  Got my wiring inspected (passed!) and I installed the
insulation.  My carpenter referred a plasterer and up went the finished
 walls.

 Don't forget that I was working a full time job during all this except
for  the two weeks I worked to put up the shell.  I would meet with the
workers  in the morning and I would drive home from work during lunch.
At the  time I worked about 10 minutes from home.

 I was under budget so we put in a hardwood floor. The guy who put in
it  was an idiot and talked me out of aging the wood in the house
first. So  it expanded and caused some buckling. But I had gotten
pretty far before  I hit this first problem, and it was resolved when
he fixed it.  The  carpenter installed the cabinets and he referred a
counter-top guy.  We did a combination of Corian(tm) and Formica.  I
wish we had gone  all Corian.

 I then started a routine of working on finishing up the 100's of loose
ends  by tackling a project each Saturday for a few hours.  This went
on for  a number of years.  They were small things, and did not prevent
us  from moving into the space.  I contracted out some of the larger
jobs,  such as re-walling the old kitchen and installing new hardwood
flooring  in the old kitchen space.

 But, I recently had my final inspections and passed.  Yay!

 So, I ended up with a finished addition for ~20k less than the price
the GC quoted me for an unfinished addition. (Taking into account the
price of the materials)

 And, I learned an incredible amount on the way.  I can now measure and
 cut wood correctly so the pieces actually fit together.  What a
concept!

 Would I do it again?  Well, if I could go back in time and know what
I know now, I would do it again.  But will I do another addition?
Probably  not. "

 
Not always. It's just supply and demand, same as in your area.


Dimitri