Browse Forums Owner Builder Forum 1 Dec 04, 2019 8:47 am 10 years ago I owner built my current home (Maitland, NSW). I undertook this massive task after being invited into the home of a neighbour, who was nearing the end of his own owner build. After comparing rough building costs (his owner build vs MDJ project home I was preparing to build) I threw myself into my own owner build project. As owner builders know, it's not necessarily about the total build cost but the quality of the building, additional size, inclusions, etc and my first owner build was extremely successful in this regard. But here is the big advantage I had first time around. Said neighbour/friend gave me a complete spreadsheet of his entire build cost. And because we had similar sized blocks/ similar slopes / ultimately similar sized houses / and his info was less than 12 months old; I had a huge advantage when getting and accepting quotes at every step of the project. So long as my quotes were in line with his (or better) I knew roughly what my total end cost would be. This took away a big chunk of the scary unknown and I'm not sure how I would have coped otherwise. Now I'm considering undertaking another owner build. However this time I don't have the same advantage and whatever I learnt the first time around is long forgotten (or now irrelevant). This time I'm looking at a sloped block (front to back) and I'm looking at a higher quality/designer home. Via this forum I'm hoping to find an owner builder coach/enthusiast. Someone who has fairly recently undertaken a quality project and enjoyed it so much that they're happy to coach and share information. Please message me if you're interested in assisting. I admit after my first owner build all I wanted to do was relax lol but I did actually help another owner builder a couple of years later. Thanks in advance Mark PS - I posted this message last night in an incorrect thread, hence sorry for those reading it a second time. Re: Owner Builder Mentor / Coach 2Jan 30, 2020 8:09 am I probably cannot help as an on-going commitment but happy for you to PM me if any questions pop up. I am a builder (project manager) - I am also going to do an owner build shortly for myself, but to date have only built for others. Unfortunately in this case you are quite far away from me, so if you just need a second opinion via email, happy to help. Do you have time constraints? If not, you can cost control the project from the start by doing a concept design and then getting cover prices - the benefit with this is while you cannot fine tune to the dollar you can at least get a ball park to make decisions from (for example, you mention a sloping site - maybe in the concept design you figure out whether your site requires a big cut and batter or you are just suspending on steel columns - then get a cover price accordingly - just one example). This will take a bit of time as you work through the relevant aspects of the job, but at least you know you are treading down the right path. There is no point in applying for approvals if your estimates come out at say "$800k" if you only have a budget of "$400k". Re: Owner Builder Mentor / Coach 3Feb 09, 2020 1:44 pm eastmaitlandnewbies 10 years ago I owner built my current home (Maitland, NSW). I undertook this massive task after being invited into the home of a neighbour, who was nearing the end of his own owner build. After comparing rough building costs (his owner build vs MDJ project home I was preparing to build) I threw myself into my own owner build project. As owner builders know, it's not necessarily about the total build cost but the quality of the building, additional size, inclusions, etc and my first owner build was extremely successful in this regard. But here is the big advantage I had first time around. Said neighbour/friend gave me a complete spreadsheet of his entire build cost. And because we had similar sized blocks/ similar slopes / ultimately similar sized houses / and his info was less than 12 months old; I had a huge advantage when getting and accepting quotes at every step of the project. So long as my quotes were in line with his (or better) I knew roughly what my total end cost would be. This took away a big chunk of the scary unknown and I'm not sure how I would have coped otherwise. Now I'm considering undertaking another owner build. However this time I don't have the same advantage and whatever I learnt the first time around is long forgotten (or now irrelevant). This time I'm looking at a sloped block (front to back) and I'm looking at a higher quality/designer home. Via this forum I'm hoping to find an owner builder coach/enthusiast. Someone who has fairly recently undertaken a quality project and enjoyed it so much that they're happy to coach and share information. Please message me if you're interested in assisting. I admit after my first owner build all I wanted to do was relax lol but I did actually help another owner builder a couple of years later. Thanks in advance Mark PS - I posted this message last night in an incorrect thread, hence sorry for those reading it a second time. Hi, curious to know if you found a mentor? Would like to do similar! Hi folks, Victoria resident here. I've submitted my owner builder application to the VBA. I thought I'd share my experience so far. I submitted my application… 0 6179 Hi VK, I am now retired however I have stood beside over 300 owner builders in the past 18 years that have successfully built their own homes. First of all a building… 10 18960 |