Though it can be the best way to assure you get what you want, building a home from the ground up can be intimidating.
There are many factors to consider in the process, including time, who to hire and costs. R. Dean Toth, a general contractor who owns Colorado Mountain Builders with his son, Kyle, advises new home builders to be realistic in their expectations and allow themselves to be guided by contractors.
“If you’re looking at property, let us see it first before you buy it because the property may not be conducive to what you want to build there,” Mr. Toth said.
He added that if you change your plans once building starts, the architects have to redraw, and it ends up costing more money and time.
Owner-builders accounted for just a fraction of the over one million housing starts in the United States last year. Still, despite the challenges, about 50,000 people a year have chosen this route in the United States over the last decade, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Four people who did it, or undertook an extensive overhaul, described their experiences and offered advice for navigating the process.
