Most people who are toying with the idea of building or renovating their home as an owner builder, start by considering this question:
Exactly how much do I save building or renovating my own home as an owner builder?
And yep, it's a rather critical because you need to decide if it's worth the time, the physical, mental and emotional effort that is required to be an owner builder.
So if you're in a quandary about whether you should build your own home or hand it over to a registered builder to do the work for you, getting a rough idea of costs upfront will help.
The major saving doing an owner build will come from not having to pay the builder's margin. This can be anywhere from 20% to 30% of the build cost. It's what's most attractive to the majority of owner builders.
It means you essentially act as the builder, managing the entire project including budgeting, planning, hiring trades and suppliers, scheduling and quality checks etc. Sounds like a lot but it's possible!
Then it's possible to achieve even greater savings by doing some of the physical labour yourself. This is referred to as ‘sweat equity' but you'll need to have at least some ability to complete the work to the required standard. No business with dodgy work (especially painting), it only takes away from the quality work done in other areas.
Like some owner builders, you may also be lucky enough to have friends in higher places like an electrician or plumber who'd be happy to do cash work on the weekends. That presents another opportunity to save $$'s.
In addition to the dollar savings, owner builders also like the fact that they have total control of their build. Unfortunately, right now, there are many builders going broke which on one hand is devastating but on the other hand, it's almost a perfect time to do an owner build project. It's tough out there as a registered builder and many builders are finding working for owner builders an attractive opportunity.
And further to the above, there's so much more info on this site, so take a good look around, click here and head to Q&As with owner builders, industry experts as well as plenty of other good information.
And if you still feel like you need to do more research to help make an objective decision, check out my resource – Is Owner Building for You. It includes 15 lessons that by the end, will definitely help you decide if owner building is a yes or a no! Make sure you watch the video and read the FAQs to truly understand what's included.
