This is spot on. I'm in the construction industry.No sub will do this right now. Still too many problems with supply chains and prices, and too much work available elsewhere.
This is spot on. I'm in the construction industry.No sub will do this right now. Still too many problems with supply chains and prices, and too much work available elsewhere.
No sub will do this right now. Still too many problems with supply chains and prices, and too much work available elsewhere.
I don't think the OP has a time constraint. I agree though, only a fool would make that commitment.This is spot on. I'm in the construction industry.
Mostly true here though if you know what stuff should cost you can shop around a bit to get cost in line with a Jv price. If you don’t know these things you are correct. Big pain is really you are the punch list guy too. Nobody is coming back unless it is something big.30% savings bahhhaahhahaa, how do people even come up with this. Most contractors are going to charge 15-20% for their fee. In return their subs and suppliers are going to charge the GC less than what they will charge you. If you build it yourself you will save a little, but not enough that it will be worth the loss of time and quality control.
30% savings bahhhaahhahaa, how do people even come up with this. Most contractors are going to charge 15-20% for their fee. In return their subs and suppliers are going to charge the GC less than what they will charge you. If you build it yourself you will save a little, but not enough that it will be worth the loss of time and quality control.
If you think there aren’t at least 5-10% OH&P built in for most builders on the cost of the build itself, in addition to the market average of 18%, you’ve obviously not been on the budget side for a GC. My team alone did 80mil last year in roughly 17 states, I can tell you we averaged 27-29% on most jobs when all was said and done.
Good builders have a network, providing them a lower price, whereas a budget presented is current market value . That may not apply in a one off, but I guarantee you there is a cushion built in with a good estimating crew which leads to additional incurred costs to the client and generally ends up in the pockets of the builder if they have good management and subs.
Thank you for repeating what I said almost verbatim.Seeing as I own my residential design build company I see the budget side every day of my life, I can tell you that you are full of shit. From what you say, I'd guess you either a large commercial contractor or a company that builds cookie cutter neighborhoods hands you your paycheck. Cookie cutter neighborhood builders do make in the 30% per home range after all of the years and expense of development. On renovations I put 40% markup because of the complexity and time they eat up, but on custom new home builds there is no way to compete with other builders at 30%.
I repeat, you are not making 27-30% on custom new homes, which is the subject of this thread.Thank you for repeating what I said almost verbatim.
Quite honestly, of the half dozen GC's I've contacted so far (recommended by a few people I know in construction), I've not been impressed with the communication ability of any of them. I would think if you have a potential customer, you'd at least touch base to let them know progress on quote, or even "hey, this is taking a bit longer to quote than I expected, etc etc"
As it stands right now, one GC I'm OK with, one I'm pretty disappointed in (didn't really ask me very many questions which surprised me), and one I stopped trying to set up a meeting with after initial phone conversation. All I asked was a call back to let me know when he wanted to meet. Crickets. Actually asked twice.
I've got a couple others I may look at as well. Right now, I've got 100% crickets on estimated cost to build, and been talking to GC's for over a month (plans in their hands).
It doesn't bode well before a build is even started if you can't get decent communication.
Put subs under a time and quality contract AND make them post a bond. Subs won't have crap to sue...just go to your county courthouse and see how many liens are filed against the subs- that will tell you something about them
Mostly true here though if you know what stuff should cost you can shop around a bit to get cost in line with a Jv price. If you don’t know these things you are correct. Big pain is really you are the punch list guy too. Nobody is coming back unless it is something big.
A bunch of bids is the only way.How is he going to figure out “what stuff should cost”?
Sent from my iPhone using the svtperformance.com mobile app
Wow, love the info in here. Mirroring a lot of my thought processes too. I have an uncle who worked in commercial construction for 45 years that lives one house down that I'm going to ask if he'd be willing to go down to the job site and just sit in a chair and watch on a daily basis. Or even just a couple of spot checks during the day. A buddy of mine is also willing to do some spot checks, he GC his own build a number of years ago and is getting ready to do it again.My wife self contracted our house on cape cod and did a gut job on the interior totally by herself and it came out awesome. But she is extremely picky and drove the workers crazy but she paid top dollar to do it all high end so bullshit excuses at any point were met with Hitleresque responses. She’s 100% Aryan. She don’t **** around.
Her conclusions. She wouldn’t do it any other way. She was in total control of every aspect of everything that went on.
When contractors started to blame another contractor like plumber vs electrician shit she’d force them to show up and have a meeting face to face to figure shit out.
You can’t skimp on shitty materials. If you can’t afford to do it top notch wait until you can because the low end shit is pure shit now a days.
Don’t pay anyone for anything except materials and have everything delivered on site. If a contractor won’t agree to this. **** em.
As they start to do the work pay in small increments. Don’t pay anything at all in full until the work is 100% perfection. If they want large sums of cash before they do any work. **** em. Move on. They’ll probably **** you in the ass.
She would have gotten ****ed on the hardwood floors on certain boards that got scratched up. She made them fix it. They didn’t want to so with the money she owed them she could have hired another contractor to come in and fix it. The original contractor knew this and threatened legal action because she still owed them 50%.
She welcomed a court date. She’s wicked smart. Has never lost to any contractor for anything.
Document everything. Dates worked performed etc in case you end up in court. She had a guy take her to court for a different job. She shows up to court with dates times. Everything. 5 minutes in. She won easily because these contractors don’t usually have solid records of anything. They get dates wrong and the judges come to the conclusion they are lying. Srs.
You have to be home or someone that knows what the **** they are doing has to be on site when the work is going on and everything has to be checked every day work is done to catch potential issues early. If you don’t know what you are looking at don’t self contract.
She works from home 4 days a week and her job is flexible. She doesn’t have to go into the office at all so for this project she was home 99% of the time.
Have a friend who knows about project management would be a plus also.
I’m sure I left shit out because I was not on the cape for any of this.
Good luck.
That’s the way bro. The cape is a very elderly population and we’ve been there since 2007 so we met and know a lot of retired “experts” in many fields. One of our good friends is our go to when we don’t know the answer.Wow, love the info in here. Mirroring a lot of my thought processes too. I have an uncle who worked in commercial construction for 45 years that lives one house down that I'm going to ask if he'd be willing to go down to the job site and just sit in a chair and watch on a daily basis. Or even just a couple of spot checks during the day. A buddy of mine is also willing to do some spot checks, he GC his own build a number of years ago and is getting ready to do it again.