Any advice on building a house??

M

Mitchell_McDeere

< 25 Posts
I am meeting with a builder soon to discuss building a house in East Dallas. Has anyone gone through the house building process? Any helpful advice? Any things you wish someone had told you before starting??

Thanks
 
Expect delays... materials shortages, worker shortages... Add at least 3 months to whatever schedule they give you. Part of the delay process is seasonal though... like around Christmas when all of the workers go back to Mexico for a month and then 1/2 of them don't come back (aren't able to). Anyway, it's no big deal if you know its going to happend and can plan for it.
As for materials shortages... mine was with sheet rock. They were shipping tons of it to Kosovo at the time.
 
Make sure you are getting what you pay for. Just don't write a check, then show up on move-in day. Check out the house as it progresses.
 
Thanks for the responses

How does negotiation on price of the house work? I just have this feeling that if they quote you X and you come back with an offer of X minus $20,000, that if they agree to your price, they will just cut $20,000 worth of effort (i.e., cut corners, etc.).
 
While you can negotiate the price of the house itself, negotiation happens mainly in the "upgrades" area. You can get them to throw in stuff for no extra charge as part of the negotiation.
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If you build a house and ARE NOT out at the site several times a week you are a fool. Usually any mistakes are NOT caught by the builder early enough to do much about them except apologize. Mistakes will of course be made. Mistakes cost the builder money and then they start looking for ways to recoup the losses. Think cutting corners.

Your best bet is to go out early and often. Have all or nearly all of your decisions regarding upgrades (or downgrades) made when you are negotiating the final cost. Then be very diligent in following the construction closely.

If you are a construction crew are you going to pay more attention to detail on a home where the owner never shows up, or one where th owner is there every other day looking for flaws to point out to the boss?

ALSO- if make sure all you stereo entertainment stuff is prewired right after framing. If you have half a brain you can do this yourself and use better quality cable for much less than the contractor will charge for an inferior product. If you have a brain, a 1/2 in drill bit and can measure a distance reasonably accurately.

The only other suggestion I have is unless you think you will NEVER want to add on, then think ahead about adding on right now. Putting in capacity for additional electrical, or additional plumbing capacity(namely sewer) by using larger pipe is something that will add very little cost to your project now. It saved a buddy of mine probably $6,000 on his over grage addition 6 years later.

just my two cents.
 
Go construction management versus a fixed price bid. That way, you work with the builder instead of against him. In construction management, the builder gets a fixed fee (normally a percentage of the cost of materials.) Only downside here is, if he estimates $20,000 for framing lumber, and there are huge fires across the US and lumber prices skyrocket, you will end up paying the additional amount. If you go fixed price, you are in direct opposition to him from day one.

Build a big workshop in your garage, complete with urinal.

I agree about the wiring thing. More is much better than less.

After you have your plans, take them home for a week. Imagine waking up in your room -- who gets up first? Do you get dressed, or eat first? If you turn on lights, will it wake people up? If you're taking a massive growler in the community bathroom, will it be directly opposite your dining room table with sound reflective hardwood floors? You have to think through things.

If you have kids (or are going to have kids), try to find a place where you can have a secret hiding place -- a small door, nook or cranny for them to get into.

Wine cellar.

As someone else pointed out, add three months to whatever they say.

If you've budgeted $300K for the house, try to build it for $250K.

Good luck.
 
Yes, I have some advice. Go down to a lawyer's office, and you and your wife sign a paper saying you will not get a divorce until after you have lived in the completed house for 6 months or more. I am just guessing you are married.
 
he's talking about the fact that your marriage has never seen the kind of challenge that building a house will be. You will be in constant disagreement.
 
the people who build your house, the subcontractors, should be reputable. be careful about working yourself (wirinng stereo equip) - it can end up voiding warranties.
 
Go to the Texas Residential Real Estate Comm website and read the new warranties to understand how you were screwed during the last session.

Then find a reputable engineer to come out and inspect the construction process. Have them pay particular attention to the foundation plan and execution, the framining, and flashing around all the home's penetrations. It's well worth the couple of thousand bucks you might spend to protect your house.
 
Very timely thread. Mrs. Guapo and I are about to go through this process ourselves. My gut hurts just thinking about it.

I have another question to throw out - do we need to get a realtor to represent us in our dealings with the builder? A family member who's in the business is strongly advocating this for reasons I don't quite understand. I can see that we'd want our own realtor if we were buying from an existing homeowner but why do we need a realtor if we're buying directly from a builder? The builder doesn't have a realtor, do they? And who pays for our realtor - does it come out of the commission from the sale of our current home (assuming we use the same realtor)? What if we didn't have a current home to sell - who would pay for the buyer's realtor?

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