All Forum Posts by: Quinn Sjoblom

Hi Ryan, good to hear an example from someone located near me. When you say 120 per foot minimum, are you referring to what it costs for a homeowner to hire a GC and have a house built? The cost breakdown that my uncle gave me was his expenses as a GC to build a house using his own crew. I'm pretty sure the only things they sub out are electrical and plumbing. So if i was build a house by subbing out everything to contractors, it would absolutely come out higher than the example he gave. 

As for doing this on nights and weekends myself, I absolutely agree it's just too much. I'm sure it would take me 2 years minimum if i literally did all of it. The obvious issue is the high interest of construction loans like you said. Even if i was willing to pay all that interest, I don't think construction loans can even be given when the timeline is longer than a year. I would need to find a balance of what to sub out and what to do myself. My experience with construction is mostly interior, so preferably I would sub out everything to the point of root being on, then do everything else myself. Problem with that is, the first half of the build goes quick, then slows down for the second half when interest payments are getting higher. 

the whole thing is a tough situation. I'm trying to figure out the best way to leverage my own labor to get the overall cost down, but the more I learn, the harder it sounds to do that. With the constraints of a construction loan, timeline, etc., it all just gets very difficult.

I've thought about the option of buying a house and building an edition, but there's just not much available in my area that would work out. They are mostly larger, higher end houses. 

let's consider the scenario I mentioned, subbing out first half and finishing interior myself, including drywall. I found a couple lots under 50k, but only electric available no water or sewer. So let's say I start with a 50k lot, hire a gc to build the 1700ft house to the point of roof being on, then I finish. I can work about 25hr a week on my own time without killing myself. Cabinet shop is my current job so I can build cabinets in my spare time for about 3k in material while gc works on house, I can also run my own trim at work for about 40 cents a foot. Is it even remotely possible to get all that done for 240k total including lot, septic, well, etc? And what about the timeline? Can it happen within a year if I already have cabinets done and waiting by the time exterior construction is done? If the timeline is too tight, is it possible to convert the construction loan to a mortgage with any part of the house unfinished? For example let's say garage hasn't been drywalled yet. Does the house need to be 100% finished to go to mortgage? If I had the option to finish some things later out of pocket, it would help with timeline as well as construction loan amount. Let me know what your thoughts are. I really want to consider all options. 

I'm in Bigfork montana

I was assuming building the duplex myself, doing most of the labor, would cost less than buying one already built. Is this not the case? The layout I need is also gonna be hard to find. My mother only needs about 600sf and I need about 1100sf. Most premade duplexes are gonna be more like 1100sf both sides. Extra room is fine and gives more options later for renting, but I feel like that would definitely be out of my budget. 

My uncle is a GC and gave me a breakdown of what it cost for his crew to build a very basic 1700sf house. It was about 125k, and 35k of that was labor. This included appliances, permits, utility hookups, basically everything. My duplex of equal size will obviously cost more since I'll have 2 kitchens, but i can do cabinets really cheap since that's what I do for work. Also we already have both sets of washer/dryer, 1 fridge, 1 water heater. Unfortunately my uncle is out of state so he wouldn't be able to be my GC, but I do know a couple around here that I work with so i will look into hiring one of them as the gc and see if he can sub out work to me. That would work out pretty well, but it sounds like the construction loan would need to include my labor, which would be given to the gc and paid to me. I could put it back into paying off the mortgage, but still would need to be qualified for higher loan. 

as for my income, I make about 43k a year, but this is not including my mothers income. Combined we have about 60k a year and this is not inckuding any side work i do which is maybe another 5k. She would be paying a third of the mortgage. If she passes away before the mortgage is paid, her life insurance can be used to make up for the loss in income, also her side can be rented out.

im definitely open to the idea of just buying a duplex, but will it really come out cheaper? I also don't like the idea of unkown renovation costs. If i build this myself from the ground up, everything will be new and not falling apart. 

I'm completely new to this. I assumed I would be better off financially by building it myself, but If you guys think otherwise, I'll start looking into buying instead. 

Hi, I'm looking for advice on the best direction I should go in with my current situation. I'm 33 years old, and recently married. Right now I'm paying 800 dollars in rent. For the last 10 years, I have also been helping my mother pay her rent as well, which has now climbed to 825 dollars. She receives 1400 a month for disability and is 67 years old. I make about 40k a year at my job that I have had for 15 years.  At this point, I have put nothing into retirement. There has to be a better situation for us other than paying rent for the next 20 years just to end up with nothing and no retirement. 

Recently we received a bit of a break and have the opportunity to do something to change our situation. An older man that my mom was helping out recently passed away. He was 80 years old with copd and also pretty wealthy. Before he died, he put my mom in his will and left her 50 thousand dollars. She used 10k of it to pay off my car and take care of some dental for both of us. 

At this point we are thinking about options. One idea is to use the 40k as down payment to buy a peice of land and build a duplex on it. My family of 3 in one side, mom in the other side. For the next 20 to 25 years, myself and my mom would share the mortgage payment, which would be far less than the combined 1625 we are paying in rent currently and rent is just gonna keep rising. Once my mother passes away, I can rent out her side of the duplex. Not only cheaper cost of our housing, but also a retirement plan for me and my family. By the time I'm 55, I could have a paid off duplex and use the rent to pay my property tax and bills. 

here's where it gets a bit tricky, to get the peice of land and duplex at a mortgage amount I'm willing to pay, I would want to build most of the house myself to save money. I have 15 years experience working in construction and I'm 100% confident I can build a house from the ground up with my own 2 hands. Most likely I would sub out just a couple areas like excavating and electrical. The obvious issue is, banks dont want to give construction loans to owner builders that are building their own house. They prefer that the owner hires a general contractor and the general contractor hires subcontractors. I have the experience needed, but no contractors license. 

is there any way I can make this work and convince the bank to give me a loan to build my own house? I would be very thorough with a complete budget and timeline, but I don't want to waste my time if they are going to say no anyway. I haven't talked to any banks yet, but I have been doing some research and it's already extremely difficult for an owner builder to get a construction loan even when subbing out the work. I'm sure it's even harder if I'm literally doing the work myself.

should I just forget the idea of getting financing to build my own house and save money? Or is it possible? If it just can't be done, whats my next best option? it's not necessarily out of my credit range to get a large enough mortgage  to do it the traditional way using a general and subs, I just hate the idea of spending all that extra when I know I can do it myself. On top of that, the overall interest paid goes up exponentially with budget and loan term. I would really prefer a budget that I can pay off in 20 years. When i look at the total interest paid on a  250k 30yr mortgage, it just sickens me. Literally end up paying the bank double what they loan you. Something more like 170k in 20yrs is much easier to swallow and it's enough money for a lot and duplex if I can do the labor myself. I'm talking about a relatively small, offset duplex. 1100ft on my side, 600ft on my mom's side. Easily buildable for 100k if doing most of it myself. 

I would very much appreciate any advice. I feel like we need to do something now before the 40k we have dwindles away into nothing along with any chance of a bright future. Every month we go paying rent is just throwing more money away.