Building your own home with the help of a contractor consultant can save you thousands of dollars and add instant equity
If building a new home is in your future, how would you like to save thousands of dollars in the process? You can when you become a builder owner and act as your own general contractor.
Your first reaction to that idea may be horror. You may know nothing about the construction process. In fact, you may not be mechanically inclined or know the difference between a hammer and a screwdriver. Acting as your own general contractor could be a disaster.
That might be true if you tried to do the job by yourself. However, you could hire your own personal building coach to guide you through every step of the process.
Roy Peterson, owner of Peterson Construction and Consulting in Eureka, MO, and a member of National Home Builders Consultants, says you can add years of expertise to your homebuilding project when you choose a contractor consultant to help.
What Do Contractor Consultants Do?
A contractor consultant acts as a building coach. Owner builder consulting is a way to draw on the knowledge of a general contractor without having to hire one to do the work. The contractor gets you started on the right foot, helps you figure out your financing, becomes a second opinion on plans and pricing, then guides you through every step of the building process.
The home building process is nothing if not multiple simultaneous and overlapping deadlines. Miss one, and it pushes all the other ones back and might end up throwing you over budget. A contractor consultant keeps you on track so punch lists get done in the right order and pass the necessary inspections. They provide unlimited phone support and a complete building plan. They’ll even help you find quality subcontractors and the best deals on building materials.
Unless you’ve built lots of custom homes or don’t have a day job, contractor consultants can be your expert eyes for onsite inspections and supervising the quality of the workmanship. A trained eye prevents little mistakes from turning into expensive, time consuming disasters.Owner builders choose this path because they want to minimize risks and save as much money as possible. A qualified contractor consultant typically saves much more than his fee costs, according to Roy. The final cost of building your home will be significantly lower than it would have been had you simply hired a general contractor, plus you’ll have the satisfaction and immense pride of knowing you did it yourself, he adds.
Benefits of Being a Builder Owner
How does being an owner builder differ from hiring a contractor consultant? First, it requires a lot of your time. You must be involved in every detail because you ultimately make all the decisions. You decide on the building materials and select the exact upgrades. Many of your decisions affect your home value and your home’s safety, so you’re the final responsible party about what was added.Conversely, by hiring an experienced contractor consultant, Roy says, your custom home is usually finished more quickly than when you do the job yourself. By following their step-by-step instructions, you avoid costly delays, unnecessary expenses and countless headaches.
Once your dream home is finished, you’ll have thousands of dollars more equity in the property than most new home owners because of all the do-it-yourself savings. That equity keeps your mortgage payments low or funds desirable upgrades or future home-improvement dreams. Building a new home is a daunting challenge for anyone and especially so for someone with little construction experience. Just the thought of acting as their own general contractor is enough to terrify most people. Yet now, by taking advantage of a contractor consultant, you can experience the pride of knowing you accomplished your goal.
Will using a contractor consultant eliminate all the problems owner builders run into? No one can promise that, but it does help keep problems to a minimum and get them corrected before serious damage is done.
If you’re planning on building a home in the future, check to see if there are qualified contractor consultants in your area. You can enjoy the pride of saying you did it yourself and the satisfaction of saving 10%, 20% or more than if you had a contractor build your home for you.
Originally posted 2010-03-22 12:05:39. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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