Browse Forums Owner Builder Forum 1 Jul 26, 2011 11:26 am Hi, I am new to this forum. We are considering building, and are investigating the idea of owner building. We have no experience, but a relative who can help do the slab as he is a concretor, so we could save there. We have been looking at kit homes, particularly those from Riverbuilt- a part of BELL River. The home we were looking at having built for $253,000 which does not include floor coverings or the slab but does include basically everything else, is $120,000 as a kit. My husband's eyes nearly popped out of his head when saw this, so he is convinced owner building is the way to go to get a quality home and save money. I am not so certain and want to investigate all the extra costs and work involved first! We can live in a shed on site during the build either way- it is already partly converted to a granny flat, we just need to make some additional changes and get it through council, but I feel confident this will be possible. My husband is very easygoing, great with his hands and has a good work ethic but lacks organisation. I am great with organisation but tend to get more stressed. Project managing is probably the best option for us if we owner build a kit- but as all of the PC items are included in the kit, will we still be saving money? What have others found is the "true" cost of building a kit- I know each supplier does have a different level of inclusions as this will affect answers. The other option could be to get the company to build to lock-up stage, and we finish. I have spent days trawvling this forum and others and there seems to be two very opposing schools of thought on kit homes-1. that you will overun the costs and the time, and 2. that you will save between 40% and 10%. I would love answers from anyone, with examples if possible! Thanks so much. True cost of owner building a kit home 2Jul 26, 2011 2:30 pm The other aspect to take into account is finance. Do you have the equity in the land / other property to finance the kit? A lot of standard lenders will not lend in a kit home as the supplier needs payt as soon as the kit is delivered - that is a "pile of sticks" to the Bank. So they will need either equity or alternatively you to pay for the kit yourself. OB brings all sorts of issues with finance - not sure whether this is something you had factored into your equations. Some things are worth waiting for. Re: True cost of owner building a kit home 3Jul 26, 2011 3:01 pm Hi Kyton, Yes I have factored this in, we are selling our current home and do have enough equity to finance the build ourselves, possibly with a small loan towards the end of the build. I have spoken to the bank and I am aware of the issues surrounding financing owner builds- basically they don't do it! The bank will however give us a small loan if we need it in order to finish the home- but as I have not yet done enough research to discover the true cost of building a kit- I am unsure if we can cover the full amount ourselves as we do not yet know what the full amount might be! Thus my question Thanks for your point though, the financial side of it is not to be underestimated. True cost of owner building a kit home 4Jul 26, 2011 6:47 pm There is a post somewhere here on the forum from not long ago about a kit home stating that once they started looking further into it the kit cost to finish still ended up being quite a lot higher - something like hundreds of thousands. Will try and find it. Some things are worth waiting for. Re: True cost of owner building a kit home 6Jul 26, 2011 7:17 pm Over the years I have done a fair bit of owner building. I have built one from lockup ( however this did have basic electricals and plumbing.) Build a one bedroom in the loft of an american style barn, installed swimming pool and built various large sheds. Our current project is a 30m x 15m riding arena. Whether or not you will save depends on a number of factors, how handy you are, how many tradie friends you have and the big one is how much spare time you have. Working full time, it took me several years to complete the house that was built to lockup. The one bedroom in the loft took us years to finiah, and to be honest their is a heap of things that still need doing, since we moved in OH lost interest and wont do the finishing things. We were going to owner build, first looking at a product called thermocell, then kit homes. To be honest they were not that cheap when you added up what it was going to cost to buy the kit then pay all the tradies to do their bit. We found that while you can pickup some bargains at auctions, you pay thorugh the nose for other things as you simply dont have the buying power, tradies absolutely rip you off, and you would pay way more than a builder would. We struggled to get tradies to come and do the jobs. Then their are alot of tools you need when building, even lifting frames etc up needs heavy equipment. Friends built a harkaway kit home 50 sq kit home several years ago now and it cost them 400k and they ended up with a weatherboard house. We are building with a volume builder, high spec, full brick 65sq for around 440k, so their is no way I was going through the trauma of getting tradies etc for really not much savings. The easier sheds etc that dont require tradies we do ourselves, and get in contractors to do various bits like footings, but building houses its alot of hard work, and really I dont think much savings to be gained. If you have alot of tradie friends its probably a different story. Building NBG Buckingham 46 on Property in rural Victoria my Building Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=46837 Re: True cost of owner building a kit home 7Jul 26, 2011 7:59 pm Thanks for both of those replies, much appreciated. I am not convinced on the idea of a kit home, I would prefer to have it built, unless of course I can prove beyond a doubt that we will save a LOT by doing a kit. Project managing appeals to me more than actually getting in there and doing it all- though some aspects such as painting would be fine. The kit we are looking at includes almost everything, doors, windows, insulation, light fittings, kitchen, oven, sink, taps, cooktop, IXLs in the bathroom,wall tiles, toilet, bath basically EVERYTHINg except for the flooring and the slab, and Air con/heating/blinds. So the cost would be in the building aspect rather than purchasing any more items. We do know a concretor who would help us out with the slab, but I couldn't really say we have other tradie friends that I would know for certain would give up their time for us! One family member who is a carpenter with lots of building experience, but lives two hours away...so couldn't exactly be counted on to help out heaps. So I am very interested in hearing other people's stories or ideas! Re: True cost of owner building a kit home 8Aug 25, 2011 5:20 pm I really like the Bell River Homes / Riverbuilt homes and I'm currently running similar numbers of Bell River built house versus kit house + owner project managed build. Using rough numbers my initial conclusion is that you can come out in front by going the kit house route but the you'll have to make a personal call on if the saving is enough to justify the effort, time and risk. On the kit prices, keep in mind that the Riverbuilt "L3" kit versions of the Bell River house do not include bricks, slab (obviously... but still worth noting), floor coverings, plumbing components (pipes, connections etc), electrical components (wire, connections etc), paint, water tank, garage door opener and possibly more that I haven't noticed. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, it's more about transport economies, and differing laws between councils and states. The Bell River price list for built homes includes all of those items - except floor coverings. For owner building consider the usual things like: - Trades are infamous for being diabolically difficult to contact, predict, effectively communicate with and quality control. How are your management skills and anger/stress thresholds? - Run up a spreadsheet of all the costs you'll need to meet for the build and be honest. Is "$20k" for the slab realistic - how much is site prep, piering, pre-plumbing, form work, concrete pump hire etc. Have you included safety fence hire, building permits, silt controls, port-a-loo hire, insurances, council inspections, service connections / relocations? - Are you renting while you build, and/or paying to store your things? Owner building will typically take longer and will cost you here. - Do you know enough about each trade to understand the finish you want, to give tradies clear instructions and quality control their work? If not, you'll probably do well to engage an inspector, trusted tradie or an experienced project manager (part time) to do this or advise you. How much will that set you back? - The cost of mistakes and accidents. I have seen some recommendations to budget for 10% of the kit price to cover this. - Impact to your day job. How's your boss or customer going to react to the third phone call you've had that morning about exactly where did you want that extra power point in the laundry, how the plasterers can't start the living room because the sparkies are still working on the other side of the wall space, and how the screws for attaching X to Y are the wrong guage. - Pricing materials is easy enough, but don't underestimate the cost of labour in Australia. There's more complete lists than that around the traps, they're just the big points I keep in mind. For me, I'd love to owner build because I like the practical and holistic angle of getting involved in my own house. But I have to say it is probably beyond my experience, thresholds and available time. Also, I think once you add the missing components to the kit price and compare that to the built house price, the difference doesn't look as bad. Unfortunately I have to agree that in general the prices of steel framed houses (kit and project built) simply can't compete with timber framed. To this end Bell River have timber framed Value Plus design variations that might suit you. But if you want a steel framed house you'll need to admit that they cost more per m2 and the only way to get that down is to decrease the house size, level of inclusions or cost of labour (by owner building). My Build Thread: Coral Homes Noosa 279 Re: True cost of owner building a kit home 9Aug 25, 2011 6:05 pm To the OP - sorry, my previous reply was a bit generic. I think your and your husband are good candidates for doing a successful owner build and coming out in front. You've got tradies in the family - and getting any discount on the slab is great - you can keep your living expenses down by living on site and that will also help with co-ordinating tradies. Between yourself and your husband it looks like you've got the right skill set and ability to manage the tradies effectively and make a good dent in the work where you choose to. I'd just repeat that the Riverbuilt kit prices do look a lot cheaper because they drop out some big dollar inclusions - i.e. labour, slab, bricks. This is probably a moot point as the slab is the one thing you can definitely save money on, but you've mentioned that the built price list for your home doesn't include the slab. For Bell River it looks like it's a case of which design/inclusions you go with - the Urban range Designer inclusions includes a slab described as "Waffle pod concrete slab to suit Class M soil". Is changing to one of those designs an option? Or perhaps they'll allow a inclusions change for the design you prefer? That's effectively the same thing as picking a new design, with Designer inclusions, then changing the new design to match the old one. They do allow design changes. Either way please keep us posted how you go. Good luck! My Build Thread: Coral Homes Noosa 279 Re: True cost of owner building a kit home 10Aug 25, 2012 1:27 pm over 27 year of looking at this i can honestly say not many save much. difficulty with items missing , cost overruns, mistakes, theft, shortages, overpayments, higher charges by trades and suppliers, and the guys end up paying more. cheapest in my opinion is a flexible builder with a good price. he lets you do what you want and you do save that way. i have done countless comparisons, always happy to do another, leighton at clark new homes Re: True cost of owner building a kit home 11Aug 26, 2012 10:29 pm The truth really comes down to the OB and how much research and time they can commit to the build. On our current build we will save quite a large figure over a "builder". Your savings will come in the amount of research you do do in relation to items you supply, and tradies you employ. Believe me their costs can vary greatly for the same quote, and savings can be huge. Not to mention quality. Research and costings is the key to any successful build. If that cannot be accurate then neither will be your build. As for the cheapest method. That really comes down to you and your ability. Builders are not the be all and end all. Massive savings can be made if you research and costings are correct. If you feel you have the ability, try it, BUT, be VERY VERY prepared for cost overruns due to unexpected items. Settlement 1/2/12 New Shed 23/3/12 Slab poured 27/3/12 Frame complete 4/5/12 Roof complete 1/6/12 LOCKUP 29/6/12 Our new build blog http://kareenhillsownerbuild.blogspot.com/ Re: True cost of owner building a kit home 12Sep 23, 2012 1:11 am Hi, I have been owner building for nearly three years now and I must admit I have saved thousands on the build so far but unlike a lot people on this forum I have been doing it all with some exceptions like earthmoving, concrete and the pumper to move the concrete around now the difference between my build and yours is my entire house is on stilts which cost me $37,400 compared to a traditional slab at around $60K earth works worked out cheaper as well as I am on a slight slope down hill all that was needed was tree removal tilling of soil to get rid of big rocks and compacting and drilling of the 114 footings concrete cost from memory about $18k give or take a bit, so you can save a lot if you decide to build your self but the down side is the time I have a equal time roster that I work so I have a lot of time and I haven't spent heaps of time on the build hence why its taken me so long with a bit of luck we should be very close to moving in this christmass as for finance just get a line of credit from the bank then when you are ready you can convert it to a loan later as you will have equity in your completed house, as for the size of my build its around 48sq or 441 square meters and the quality is really good because I am a lot more fussy than most mass home builders, and if you are interested in owner building maybe you should do a owner builders course they are available in most states and as delatite13 says research is the key to everything you can save heaps if research. I hope this helps. We already paid for somfy motors for the blinds. The quote above was purely for “pre-wiring” so the blinds company can install the motors and blinds. That’s why we… 5 16289 having built on acres several times i suggest that you also need to add the cost of a sewerage system and any associated fencing, water tanks with associated extra… 2 1095 |