Building Your House: Can You be Your Own General Contractor?

You have just bought a plot and contractors are now beginning to approach you in the hopes of getting that contract for building your dream home. Is it possible to skip hiring a general contractor altogether and build your own house by acting as a contractor yourself? It certainly is possible and people even do so all the time. However, go through the following few points to know if you too can be one of those people who act as their own contractors.

Let’s face it, if you had experience with general contracting in manhasset, you wouldn’t really be asking this question in the first place! However, even if you don’t have experience, you certainly need to have a reliable general contractor in Manhasset with the knowledge by your side and there’s no two-ways about it

Do You Have the Knowledge?

Let’s face it, if you had experience, you wouldn’t really be asking this question in the first place! However, even if you don’t have experience, you certainly need to have someone with the knowledge by your side and there’s no two-ways about it.

Architectural degrees, a civil engineering education, etc. can be extremely handy and unless you have one of those, you will need to hire someone who does have the necessary education to lay out the plans and designs for the house’s architecture, the plumbing, the electrical lines, etc. That’s what most general contractors do anyway, so it isn’t necessarily a problem.

Do You Have the Resources?

This is where most people get trumped and overwhelmed because they do not have the resources or the contacts to become their own contractor. Consider the following to understand the kind of resources we are talking about.

Suppliers

You will need to find suppliers to give you all the raw materials needed for the construction, and then you will have to haggle with them for a better price on everything!

Workers

Houses don’t put themselves together, so hiring both skilled and unskilled labor will be necessary, in addition to supervisors, foremen, engineers, machine operators, etc.

Machinery and Equipment

The machinery (diggers, mixers, lifts, cranes, forklifts, etc.) and most of the other equipment can simply be hired for the job, although buying the safety equipment for your workers is necessary. You don’t want anyone to get injured or worse during your maiden contracting venture, nor do you want to blow the budget on paying unnecessary prices, so go with Guardian Fall Protection lanyards, safety lines, harnesses and beamers because not only do they manufacture some of the top safety gear in the industry, but HarnessLand has a sale going on Guardian Fall Protection gear right now!

Time for the Permits and Licenses: Which Ones Do You Need?

This is a tough question to answer because state laws do vary quite a bit, depending on which of the fifty US states you are trying to build your house in.

The costs and requirements for those permits will also vary according to the states and the parameters of your project. Nonetheless, you can expect that, even if you are not a professional but just trying to build your own home, the government will require you to first apply and get approval for building, plumbing, electrical and mechanical permits, before starting anything.

This isn’t even the complete list and yet, it may seem overwhelming to most of us. Just in case you have not been deterred though, this could turn out to be your gateway project to becoming a professional general contractor. While the real estate business isn’t exactly booming everywhere in the US, being a contractor can be quite profitable nonetheless due to the low investment and heavy profit scenario.