Any Loan Officers / builders for Q's?

[jryoung]

Damn Buzz, that's more like a graveyard than a house.

Seriously though, it looks great.

 

[Elkoholic]

Charles - make sure you have your GC figure in all the bunks for the HT bear hunt crew! Good luck!

 

[Pagosa]

Time on Target has some good advice about going with a bank that will keep your loan in house. Get that in writing.

I recently built a house, and saved a crapload by painting, flooring, tiling, and building a fireplace myself.

My wife is a super-organized task master, and one thing we learned through the process is to not think in terms of price per sq foot. There are so many variables when it comes to a build that using $/sq ft is not a particularly useful metric.

Talk to tons of banks. Find a loan officer who can meet your needs who has the mentality of a teacher. I can't stress that enough.

I agree. The kitchen, bath, flooring, and interior finishing greatly affect the cost. For the foundation, framing, wiring, insulation, plumbing, and drywall price per/ft can be used; and are fairly standard unless labor rates are locally high. The sky is the limit on the other items, and being in debt a couple 100k is never good. Good luck with your decision, pay cash, stay within your budget, and you will own house instead of the bank.

 

[shoots-straight]

I'm a GC. I've got a life time of work ahead of me, fixing do-it-yourself GCers structures. During the last boom everyone threw out a shingle as a GC, and many got into the do-it-yourself craze, and save GC, and now those structures are falling apart or performing miserably.

You don't know, what you don't know, is my motto with do-it-yourselfers. I could go into it but it would take a week of writing to get it on here.

Everyone can do taxes, but do you? I'd bet if youtube had a video on brain surgery there would be some that would try it to save a buck.

If you saved 10K on a house, that's IF, your more than likely (or the next guy down the road) going to cough up a bunch more is retro's.

Before one sells to a perspective buyer there should be full disclosure on who built what, and their experience in the trades.

Flame away, 37 years building gives me a solid insight.

 

[Hem]

My motto is, nobody can do it better than myself.I am pretty particular about accuracy when it comes to building.Everything effects everything,so there is no cutting corners.Its either right ,or it is not. Granted you have to accept that there will be issues. The Gallatin Valley has many talented tradesmen,but many don't pay attention to the little things that can make a difference, My latest project I hired a great bunch of subs but I kept an eye on them.As for banks, well I am at the point of being weary with the process. The policies of my bank were rigid but the flip side is they have always been a stronghold in the banking world, so in some respects that was reassuring.Building homes is not rocket science,but building a quality home takes a little more attention.Finding a compatible/affordable builder is worth some research.

 

[hank4elk]

I'm with you straight!
I have seen so many GC's and bad homes that I am so glad to be out of it.
$100-150 sq st was what I did real "Custom" homes for when I was building,$65-100 for just a decent house. Mostly back in 70's-early 90's.
I wouldn't hire most of these jokers to tear down a shed from what I see now. And those are not owner/builder stuff.
Funny,I don't think any carpenters I know that are making twice what they were in 90's.
I could pick up fix it for me jobs all the time,if I wanted.

 

[1_pointer]

I don't know how things normally go, but IMO, our house project was pretty smooth. We did buy the lot with cash, so maybe that was why the build went smoothly.

I also think having an honest GC/builder helps, which boils down to just your gut feeling. You eventually have to trust someone. The guy that built our house just seemed honest from the start,and everything he promised, he delivered...and actually more. We didn't make any changes during the build, although he did change a few things that worked in our favor 95% of the time (adding a deck in the front of the house that we didn't expect, etc.)

Prior to the build I did a couple changes to the plans with a room above the garage for storage and adding on to the back stall of the garage to essentially make a 4 car garage. I wanted an area for reloading, meat processing, etc. and that made the most sense.

The house finished at 2410 SF on the main level as well as 2410 in the finished basement 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms. Garage is 1100 SF. Just figuring the square footage of the main level to the total price, we came in at $124/SF. Nothing fancy in the house, but nothing chickenchit either (granite in the kitchen, all the bathrooms and laundry room, tile in all 3 bathrooms, hardwood in the office/living room, tile in the kitchen, custom cabinets, etc. etc. etc.) Fenced back yard, deck in the front and back, central air, fenced yard, landscaping, yada yada...turn key, completely finished.

I think it turned out pretty good and according to the final appraisal, the house is "worth" 70-80K more than we paid to have it built.

What we did with the loans was carried the construction loan through a local bank...the builder would submit draws on the construction loan as the build progressed with the bank making sure the subs were paid and the work was getting done. Once the construction was complete, we used them for the final home loan.

I have to say, the bank, the GC/Builder and the whole project ran flawlessly...and I'm 100% satisfied with the result. I think we did get lucky running into an honest contractor, for what we paid, we got a lot of house.

basement, which is basically a bar and trophy room with 2 bedrooms and a bathroom attached...9 foot 6 inch ceilings:

Main level:

Garage (heated) reloading area:

Finish work in the garage:

Looks like the garage got some attention since December. Can you still find everything?

 

[----]

I don't know how things normally go, but IMO, our house project was pretty smooth. We did buy the lot with cash, so maybe that was why the build went smoothly.

I also think having an honest GC/builder helps, which boils down to just your gut feeling. You eventually have to trust someone. The guy that built our house just seemed honest from the start,and everything he promised, he delivered...and actually more. We didn't make any changes during the build, although he did change a few things that worked in our favor 95% of the time (adding a deck in the front of the house that we didn't expect, etc.)

Prior to the build I did a couple changes to the plans with a room above the garage for storage and adding on to the back stall of the garage to essentially make a 4 car garage. I wanted an area for reloading, meat processing, etc. and that made the most sense.

The house finished at 2410 SF on the main level as well as 2410 in the finished basement 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms. Garage is 1100 SF. Just figuring the square footage of the main level to the total price, we came in at $124/SF. Nothing fancy in the house, but nothing chickenchit either (granite in the kitchen, all the bathrooms and laundry room, tile in all 3 bathrooms, hardwood in the office/living room, tile in the kitchen, custom cabinets, etc. etc. etc.) Fenced back yard, deck in the front and back, central air, fenced yard, landscaping, yada yada...turn key, completely finished.

I think it turned out pretty good and according to the final appraisal, the house is "worth" 70-80K more than we paid to have it built.

What we did with the loans was carried the construction loan through a local bank...the builder would submit draws on the construction loan as the build progressed with the bank making sure the subs were paid and the work was getting done. Once the construction was complete, we used them for the final home loan.

I have to say, the bank, the GC/Builder and the whole project ran flawlessly...and I'm 100% satisfied with the result. I think we did get lucky running into an honest contractor, for what we paid, we got a lot of house.

My house isn't that much smaller.... than your garage. Good looking pad, Buzz.

 

[BigHornRam]

Sytes,

Check out one of my more affordable cabin kits. It's called the Unabomber model. Hopefully you don't need a loan to buy this one.



I have a portable Woodmizer sawmill and use it to provide materials for some of my projects. Here are some logs ready to mill up this weekend to fill a lumber order for an upcoming horse shed project in in Victor.

 

[Pagosa]

Bighorn - That's a awesome looking cabin. I'd rather live there in those mountains than in the biggest house in any urban/suburban/ranchette area. Good job on milling your own lumber.

I agree building is not rocket science for a standard gable roof houses, or simpler roof systems, and the IBC or trade manuals provide years of experience that some carpenters still don't have. A self-build for an average house can be around $70 per ft in Montana not including the land; if you don't spend a lot on the kit/bath. That is basically the materials and some sub-contractor add-on and the self-builder doing the excavation, foundation, framing, roofing, exterior and interior finishing. You could do it cheaper if you could do your own wiring, plumbing, insulation, drywall, and flooring.