At risk of unemployment? Why not build a home for yourself?

The work is done more efficiently by people who have built and continue to build many homes for other people. However, suppose that you will be unemployed in future. Then you may be unable to afford to continue to make monthly mortgage payments. You could lose your deposit. It's as though the work you did to earn the deposit money was never done. For you, the store of value that you created evaporates. Meanwhile, if you are unemployed then you are gaining nothing from your time. So why worry about efficiency? Why do you need someone else who has the training and experience required to build a home for you very efficiently if there's no work for you to do? Why not provide yourself with work by selling your home while you still own it, and using the money to rent some accommodations while building your own home?

I've built quite a few, it's not as easy as you might think and there's a hell of a lot of ways to screw up.

If you haven't made friends with/greased the palms of the building inspectors you can count on a lot of grief from them if you don't dot every i and cross every t..

Same reason we don't let gardeners perform heart surgery.

Don

which is not free either

you still have to buy the building materials. NOT cheap! Lumber, windows, insulation, plumbing and electrical supplies, siding, roofing, ect. ad-nauseum. Heck, even if build a home half the size as the one you owned before, and do all of the work yourself, it'd still be more expensive.

Plus in today's economy I find it highly unlikely that you'd make anywhere near what your current home is worth if you sell it.

Former architect, now unlicensed.

I've thought about it many times in my life.

after katrina this loophole was closed in louisiana, i'm not aware of any parishes remaining where you don't have to conform to code

we found five in mississippi, you wouldn't want to live in them (such issues as dry county, people raising chickens for tyson on the property next door, and so on)

some things, think too long, and you never get the opportunity, that door has closed

maybe there are some counties in the west where unlicensed architects could still operate, i dunno

:)

That said, I do understand the positive aspects of our building codes.

The building inspector

He will be knocking on the door wanting to know where all your permits are and the city will want to see your deed to the land you are building on.

I wish we could just do that.

Prices where I live were sky high. I was getting shoved out of the area where I was raised by northern retirees.
Bought a lot, went to an architect and got started. Two and a half years later my family moved in.
It is indeed possible.
I am a retail worker by trade with no prior experience in the building trades.

Building inspectors can be tough but I was given advice along the way and they were fair.
It was explained by one of them that building codes are minimum acceptable codes and should be exceeded when possible.
We did just that.

Moved in just before the 2004 hurricane season here in FL and weathered the storms just fine.
House is still standing and we are still here.

Many funny stories that I won't bother people here with but in the end it was a wonderful experience building a house
with my wife and 10 y/o daughter.

We spent about 25% of the cost of houses in my neighborhood.
Another piece of advice from a building inspector was "never tell your neighbors how little you spent."

You have done something to be truly proud of.

:toast:

There were times I thought I'd never finish. But once the credit cards started piling up I had no choice but to continue.

... by buying a building, having it moved to my land, gutted and the interior rebuilt. Once that was done the wife and I did all the painting, trim, flooring, stuff we could do.

I could have done some of the other work but I prefer to leave plumbing and electrical to people with the proper skills and training.

Now that it's done, I have a smaller, very energy-efficient house in the boondocks with a very low burn rate (monthly costs).

We're both working now but who knows for how long. I'm ready for what is coming.

Been there, done that. It was a miserable, miserable experience, although I imagine I can be counted among an elite group of old women who can lay a real hardwood floor.

:shrug:

Why no poll?

is not terrible advice. It is hard (been there, built that) but don't reinvent the wheel if you
don't have to.

Find a cheaper house. It has already been reported that the MLS is listing homes at a price considerably above what
they may sell for, and there are those sitting empty. If you can get a better deal, do it.

You may or may not save by building your own home because the profit on them is narrower that it used to be. The overhead, including getting hurt or getting defrauded, should not be minimized. But neither of those should stop you if you have sufficent money and want to stay with it.

Hardly anyone out there is adept at carpentry, electrical, plumbing, and masonry work to be able to build a house from scratch. Modern housing is just way too complex. It could be done by most people in 1811, but not 2011.

why don't i raise my own cow and make my own groceries while i'm at it?

"at risk" for being unemployed, your happy ass should be putting in overtime on projects that save money or else on networking/seeking NEW employment or contracts or ways to earn money

haven't you ever known anyone who built their own home? first off, it's a little slice of hell on earth, second off, it costs money -- way more money than you think at first, EVEN if you're skilled

we have a lot of skills and did a lot of work on our home (altho we didn't build it from the ground up), however, when it was mostly destroyed in a storm, and we needed a place to live, we found it worked better and faster to use the insurance money to have someone else re-do the work...they had teams of people, instead of just me and hubby piddling around in our spare time on the weekends

most people who need housing need it now, not after two or three years of puttering around in their spare time

around here, renting costs the same as owning, so the renter doesn't save anything, they just get stuck renting for whatever reason, usu. poor credit, i guess

If you have questions, I suggest that you direct them to FLSurfer by replying to post #8 in this thread, which is entitled "That's what I did."

However, it seems that you have statements rather than questions. Did it occur to you that you could be an android? Maybe all your memories of your childhood are a fabrication that was implanted at the factory, and maybe for your entire existence you have been as tall as you are now.

It's not just hammering some boards together. It has to be structurally sound and all that. Plus I'm certain there are many legal/code issues that need to be dealt with. That being said, I don't know what would prevent an innovative company/service that provides some sort of Ikea-like homes to build, along with various support packages that deals with the legal aspects. Then the person would just have to invest his/her time and effort to create something. It probably wouldn't be too pretty and it would still cost a bit to do. I'd actually be surprised if such a thing doesn't exist already.

Why doesn't everyone just do that?

Oh yeah it requires money they don't have and requires specific technical knowledge that almost no one has (Plumber, Electrician, Carpenter, architect, all at once).

Some of us are building as we get the money to buy materials, though getting the initial money to buy the land is a problem.

Why sell your home unless you owe on it?

It you do sell it and want to build your own, there are many books and many people who have done this, are doing this. "Back to the land" movement back in the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, 00's, and now.

Unless you have the experience and/or training, you will probably have to have others help in the planning stages, and to get through all the inspections (including Electrician), but it can be done. If you have the time, and the property, and a money for the materials, and the energy, you can do a lot of the work yourself.