How I Built My Own Home

Hi, I’m Elliot

I have been in the real estate industry since 2011. I have operated in purchasing, construction, finance, and sales. One day I woke up and realized “jeez I can almost start my own business in constructing new homes”. But deep down I new I did not have the assets to create my own business. So I started small I purchased some land and sold my home that I was living in and moved my family into an apartment.

I kept going out to the land trying to figure out how to build the home to maximize the views/sitelines. As I was evaluating the land I met my neighbors. They would almost always ask me the same question” who is building your home”? I would reply I am the owner and builder. My neighbors would usually respond or “have you built a home before”. And I would respond “No this is my first time, but I overseen about 1,000 homes under construction and helped managed all aspects of the processes to the point where I feel comfortable building a home”.

My neighbors would usually then respond how long will this take you 18 months or 2 years? I would reply two years! No way I will be done in 7 months, tops.

The neighborhood i bought the land is is small 36 homes tops sitting on 1 acre on average. I chose this spot because appraisals were high ranging around $700,000 – $1,00,000 home depending home home size. I knew I could build a mansion for $650,000 or less. My game plan was to live in the home for two years then sell the home and re-build the same home somewhere else.

Almost everyone in my neighborhood where planning on living in their home for decades if not hand it down to their children. My plan was to live in the home for 2 years and realize what I can do better and cheaper on the next home. Because I was going to master this floor plan for the rest of my life. Im even planning on building it for my children for their first home.

After talking to my neighbors i realized that all the builders who built homes in this neighborhood were not effective nor efficient. And that they basically the average builder in my neighborhood built a $400,000 and sold it to them for $850,000 not counting the cost of the land! Well over %50 profit margin.!

I operated at 15% on average for profit margin. The companies I worked for did this so we can sell volume. We would build homes in about 4-5 months. We kept everything tight like clock work!

I had a game plan I knew what I was walking into because of the appraisels I saw in the neighbhoood.

First thing I did on my land was pull a survey and added a builder site. I did this so I can figure out how big my home is going to be.

Then I looked at a ton of floor plans that would accommodate the location builder site and kept if not enhanced the other homes around it. I sent those floor plans to a architect engineer and beefed up the design and tweaked it a little. I had to add 6 inch studs around certain walls for the metal doors I was going to install. And I widened the family room by 6 feet.

After I was done with my floor plan I started to get bidding out my homes plumbing, framing, electrical, etc…

As I was working on my bids for my floor plan also started getting bids from custom home builders to see what they would charge me if I let them build it.

At the end of the day I could build my home my self for $450,000 plus land $150,000 coming out to $600,000. Not bad my budget was max $650,000 due to construction loan criteria I needed to follow to maximize rate.

I had spoke with 8 custom builders at the same time they averaged around $950,000 plus land $150,000 putting me about 1,100,000. But what I found shocking was they changed my ceiling height from 15 feet to 12 feet, basic ugly looking tile carpet in bedrooms cheap ugly granite countertops, cheap cabinets, shrunk my windows, 8ft doors to standard doors, cheap paint,etc… They didn’t even want to give me a driveway they told me it would be additional $30,000.

I had my personal bids done about the time the custom builders where done so fun I asked how much would they charge me for the same items i was putting in my home… on average said $130,000 for the upgrades with driveway.

So overall if I built my home that had all the bells and whistles I would be at $496,000 plus land $150,000 putting me at $646,000. If I went with a custom builder and had them build it took 12 months on average they said it would cost $1,080,000 for the home plus land $150,000 coming out to $1,230,000.

I knew from the beginning I was going to do this project on my own but these numbers gave me more drive. The other cost I had to figure was my time. I new I had to allocate at least 2 hours after work every day to check on the homesite for the next 7 months.

So I wanted to minimize my time and be as effective and efficient as possible. So I created a cookbook for my custom home. I created this so I do not miss anything and I can keep the process running smoothly and easy to the point where my 7 year old can do it. But really my main job was pulls me in different directions every day. I knew if I did not create a cookbook i would mess up. And messing up in new home construction would be costly.

After I put my cookbook together, i submited for permits. I received my permit to start in June. I finished the home 7 months later in December.

What I forgot to tell you was my neighbore next door to me was also building his home at the same time. I asked him in June when he started he said 16 months ago. And the builder was telling him it would take another 4 months.

I finished my home before he did. I kind of felt bad and proud at the same time. He finished his home February following year, meaning it took 25 months to build his home! I was shocked! I later learned he was waiting on other homes to finish for the funds for this home, not good!

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