Anyone ever been their own GC for a new home build?

Yes. If you’re willing to visit the site daily/frequently and also oversee milestone events like concrete pours and you have flexibility with your job that you can visit during the day if there’s an issue, it’s not bad.

Do you know construction/are you mechanically inclined? Having someone with contacts in your pocket like you said you would have is a plus. Plus you can do some work yourself if you so choose.

I don’t buy into the myth of “contractors won’t work with you” or “contractors will charge you way more.” If that’s the case, you didn’t want them in the first place.

Think you will have 2 issues here, and its enough to not consider it.

1.) Good subs are hard to come by, the good ones are pretty well booked with GCs already and get steady work from them. Breaking away from that for your one build isn't very smart decision that could cost them future work. Shitty subs are all thats left that will work for an owner.

2.) Construction loan will be harder to come by.

Then you get to deal with all that comes with permitting.

I did it about 10 years ago. I don’t know about now, but back then, it wasn’t hard. The variables that will make or break you are location and the subs, and they’re tied together. I had the fortune of building in a small-town market where I could evaluate subs by word-of-mouth and reputation. I was able to line up the people I wanted and make the schedule work. Because the people I picked were reputable, I didn’t have to worry so much about the work quality as I might have had to do with someone I didn’t know. I did have one crappy contractor out of the bunch, a stucco guy, but it wasn’t too bad. The bank was great and we worked everything over text and email.

It’s definitely doable if you vet the subs and have a good lumber/supply company to work with. We did ours in 9 months. Based on the GC estimates we got, we saved about $40-60K by doing it ourselves.

That being said, because of the current climate, I think you have to resign yourself to the fact that there will be material delays and higher costs. The stressful part will be dovetailing the contractors in and making sure you don’t have huge gaps of time where no one is working or waiting on materials. Do your prep work now and have all decisions made and everything picked out. If you’re 100% you’re going through with the build, start shopping now for lighting and plumbing fixtures, tubs, toilets- stuff you’ll have to have. We got a lot of stuff online and we’re able to save money there. Once you start building, keep changes to an absolute minimum.

However you choose to do it, Make sure your windows are ordered as soon as humanly possible.

Otherwise, you'll spend weeks or months stalled while waiting for windows.

Good luck however you choose to proceed.

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My brother is a Subcontractor and said that we should forgo the use of a GC and handle that ourselves. He said he can recommend all of the other subs that we will need and will assist in inspections of their work.

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Talk to your BIL and agree on a flat fee for him to handle everything so you won't be the middle man.

I remodeled our master bath and kitchen a year ago, and hired all the subs myself. Even with my neighbor who is a contractor recommending the subs it was a real pain. Most wont show up on time or at all, one actually showed up a week late, and raised hell that I already gave the job to someone else. The first kitchen tile guy did good work until he went to lunch, and returned drunk. To keep the job moving I ended up doing a lot more work myself than I planned to do. This is what you deal with!

I finished my build November of 2020. Just before the Covid idiocracy got insane.

I will tell you I absolutely saved some money. I will also tell you that it was absolutely not worth the saved money. I became one hell of a bourbon drinker during my build. Having to fire subs and find replacements and stay on the timeline to get your next subs in was a nightmare.

It legitimately was a second full time job. I was able to take a lot of time off from my regular job and it was still a complete pain in the arse. I will NEVER do it again.

Also, It took me 10 months, but a good GC could get it done in nearly half that time.

I did exactly what you're doing here. I posted about it. Asked a bunch of questions. And I didn't listen to any of the responses like mine. I wish I would've, but truly I'd already made up my mind that I was doing it.

I was an "askhole." I should've listened. Wasn't worth it.