Owner Builder for new home build in San Jose

[Sanjay Sinha]

Planning to build a spec home in the San Jose area. We have already put in the earnest money on a lot with a very old house. The question I have is how easy it is to be the owner builder on this construction project and hire the sub-contractors directly instead of hiring a GC. We're planning to build a 3,500 sq ft house. With a construction price of $300 per sq ft. So construction price can be in excess of a million. If we're able to cut out the GC and save 150K to 200K, that is substantial savings.

However me and my wife don't have direct construction experience. I did study Mechanical Engineering many years ago and have some sense of how things come together and my wife has done quite a few interior design projects but no direct interactions with subs, only GCs. But she is willing to put in the time to manage the subs. Are we foolish to take this on? Ideally we would like some one with experience to do some project management as well as direct us. Where can we get such people? Where can we find such kind of construction project managers? Would some retired GCs be willing to do this?

[Josh Cuthbertson]

Think about it this way, when your subs won't show up on time which inevitably will cause project delays, can you afford to lose a few months, not weeks, months, on your construction to save $150k? It'll be totally doable, just really painful. Some things people don't consider when GC'ing their own project...

1. Can you schedule subs in the correct sequential order?

2. When subs don't show, can you find the backups quickly and then in turn schedule all other trades around the change?

3. Are you willing to handle the massive amount of contracts / paperwork that come from hiring 10 different trades?

4. Are you going to verify all of their licenses? Insurance?

This is all totally subjective, but saving $150k for you to put $150k of time in, are you losing time / money elsewhere in your life? Just some things to ponder.

The other thing to consider is the San Jose building department. Are you familiar with the department? Their inspectors? I don't know much about their inspectors, but I'll tell you what I'm familiar with. The San Jose building department is the single most difficult department to work with....in the Country. I've dealt with building departments in 10 different states, my structural engineer in all 50. They are the most strict, unwavering, and unforgiving we've ever seen. Every time a project comes up for us in San Jose, our entire engineering team says no, flat out. Doesn't even matter what it is. Just keep that in mind.