Sales Pitch
If we can enable you to save 15-20% on a $100,000+ home, how much would you save? Of course, in today’s world you will probably want to build a $150,000, $200,000 or higher priced home. Would you save even more?
How much would you save? Actually, you would probably save much more than $30-40,000 after paying taxes and interest on a 30 year mortgage. When rates are higher, you could save perhaps $60,000 by reducing the cost of a $100,000 home by 15-20%.
Now if you had another $30,000 or $60,000 or more, would you have a good start on a retirement program? Or perhaps something to assist your kids through college? Or maybe part of what you need to start a business?
So how much would this cost? Is there a guarantee? Do you negotiate? Is there another reason to consider this project with Chimorel?
How much would this cost? Depending on the program you choose, the cost might be $795, $2500, $7500 or $35,000.
Is there a guarantee? Yes, there is a guarantee on the $7500 program. We will return part or all of the $7500, if you don’t save a minimum of 15% (including our fee) from standard construction costs when you follow our guidelines. We define standard construction costs and our guidelines under Make It Happen.
Do you negotiate on your fees? Yes, we will negotiate the fee upward toward $10-35,000+ if you choose not to follow all of our guidelines. We will eventually have a package to buy at $795, if you want to DIY entirely, but this has not been completed yet. We also have a $3500 package in development.
Is there another reason to consider this Chimorel project? Building your own home is truly a once in a life time adventure. Please be sure, however, that you consider all of the elements in our Warning before you decide to undertake this adventure, at this point as a Chimorel volunteer who has made a significant volunteer effort.
Warning
You will act as your own General Contractor. This can be a nightmare. You have to learn a lot. There will be many headaches and plenty of catastrophe’s to avoid. One of the first headaches will happen when you apply for a permit and are told you can’t be your own general contractor for your remodeling or construction project. What do you do?
There are three major areas that will affect the savings you can achieve, when you decide to be the general for your remodeling or construction project: management, labor and materials. As you make decisions in each of these areas, you can achieve substantial savings, but mistakes can be a real pain and very expensive.
Can you give me an example of potential savings? How about a couple of potential Nightmare examples? If you would like to read more about the problems you might face, check out My Home story.
What do you do? The real issue here is not that you can’t be your own general contractor, but that the City has a real responsibility to protect you from entering into a project that could be dangerous to you, your family and your neighbors. Do not even think about starting a construction project without pulling all the permits required.
You must be patient. Don’t ask if you can, just get the form and apply for a building permit. The name on the form will vary depending on the jurisdiction, but what you want is the form that covers an entire project. Have each contractor apply for the specific permits required. You will be held to a higher standard and must be sure you exceed code. This is a good thing. It makes sure you and your family are safe.
One of the options we can help you with is to work with a General Contractor who can guide you as needed and pull permits, for a modest / substantial fee depending on what you ask him / her to do.
Can you give me an example? When Warren acted as his own General Contractor, one of the initial projects was to dig the basement. Warren decided this was not one of the things he would tackle on his own. There is a “nightmare” story about putting in the water (and gas lines) you might want to read about, that gave him reason to make this decision.
The first bid was for a little over $7000. When digging for the details, Warren discovered that the excavator planned to dig the serer line trench (laying the sewer line was not included in the $7000 cost), backfill the hole (so he could keep his tractor from falling into the trench), then dig the basement hole. The existing sewer line was located in the center of the basement. The neighbor’s property did not allow room to position the tractor on the sides. The water/gas line story includes the neighbors.
With a 12’ stick of Schedule 40 pipe (less than $20 including fittings), we relocated the sewer line to one side of the basement, found another excavator who pulled the permit, dug the hole, kept the drivers’ honest and laid the sewer pipe for $1500. Yes, there is a story about the dump truck drivers who hauled the dirt away in the My Home story.
Once the hole was dug, we had footers poured and called the mason. The mason said he had just landed a contract for 14 homes and couldn’t get to us for about three weeks. Waiting for three weeks during a rainy season could be the beginning of another nightmare. Warren had another mason in the hole in two days. A time is of the essence clause in the original mason’s contract terminated him. With a firm bid in hand we saved about $300 over the original bid.
Limit
Warren is currently the only person at Chimorel who has built/remodeled an entire home acting as his own general contractor. He has assisted a number of others on limited projects at this point. Currently, he will work with up to ten active volunteers each year to work through the details of planning and completing their construction projects. Trying to do more than ten per year at this point is unrealistic and would not be to your advantage.
The planning time is typically six months to three years, so if you really are serious and willing to take the time you need to plan it right, we will be able to work out a schedule for you to get the support you need to become your own general contractor.
Once you have completed your construction project, acting as your own general contractor, you might want to support someone else. If the problems weren’t too great or you had the creativity to tackle more complicated problems, someone else might benefit from your newly developed expertise and you could be paid to support others. Feel free to learn more under Make It Happen.
