re: Residential Home Construction - Companies to do a material take-off

I have a degree in construction management and have 20 years of experience in commercial, industrial, and utility construction. I currently have a general contractor building my house. “Ain’t nobody got time for that”

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A lot of those tasks are the same people. Also, I’m subbing this myself so I don’t have to deal with a GC. That’s not a knock on your or your trade, but I deal with multi-billion dollar projects at work. I don’t need to pay someone to manage relationships with contractors or understanding what a code book says. I deal with CFRs all the time so codes aren’t that complicated for me to comprehend. I’d imagine this would be more complicated if I were in BR.

I say all of this as someone in a response role offshore so half my life I’m sitting at a computer to read up on stuff, and the other half at home with nothing to do. I’d imagine building a house would be a nightmare for most people having to deal with a project like that.

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You obviously want and need your house to be up to code, but that is probably on the lower end of things I would worry about if I had to list all the things to worry about

One of the things that people that try to build on their own think is that just because they found some subs and have some basic knowledge means they can get a home built right. It took us years to get the team we have now. There would be carpenters, painters, roofers, plumbers, electricians, etc that we would try out because they came recommended and we'd never call them again because they did just absolutely crap work. There's a high chance that every one of these subs a self build homeowner hires out is the guys that a GC never wants to see on his job again. There's a reason they are looking for work. Even more so of a red flag if he's willing to start whenever you want him to. No sub is going to give a regular homeowner priority over the guy that is giving him work every week.

You also don't get the management. I don't know about most GC's but we have full time project managers that are on every job every day overseeing them. If a tile guy lays a crooked tile us or our PJM is going to spot it and he's going to fix it because we have a good relationship. If a homeowner doesn't spot it until a week later and the tile guy has grouted and finished the job and all paid up, he's never coming back. Much less if it was a bigger issue like a leaking shower pan or something. Something similar could be said for pretty much every trade.

Self builds are also not saving the money they think they are. I am 100000% getting materials cheaper than what Joe Blow is going to get them for when he goes into the lumber yard. I am not charging a mark up on materials/I don't make money on materials. The subs are also not going to charge me a different rate than a person that is giving them work one time. So instead of a homeowner paying a GC to do the job properly, they are paying extra for materials and paying subs more offsetting the savings.

Just some of my 2 cents.

As I mentioned, I’m glad you guys have jobs and are providing a needed service. I don’t need the service. It’s just different in small communities. Everybody knows somebody that does all this work. I also think lending plays a huge role in all this. It’s easier to get a turn key project paid for via a single mortgage than it is to get a construction loan that eventually turns into a mortgage. And I don’t blame anyone for dodging all that headache. I did it in 2009 and it was a huge money saver for me. My BIL is about to build another one and he said there’s no way he can save money building it himself. That just seems insane to me, but he’s put pencil to paper so I’m sure yall are all right.