Vic Smith wrote:
On Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:34:39 -0500, Boater
wrote:

Gene wrote:
On Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:03:49 -0500, "Reginald P. Smithers III, Esq."
wrote:

We are thinking about using this downturn in the housing market to build
a new home, and acting as our own General Contractor. Has anyone in the
group done this and do they have any words of advice?
Yes, with three houses and two workshops. Not only was I General
Contractor, I was also 50% of the labor.

Your only real savings, in this market, will be sweat equity. You can
buy cheaper than you can build.... you just have to find an equally
desperate mortgagee and mortgagor.... or you could do it the seat
equity route, if you have the cash, tools, and a desire to make it
happen.

No bank is going to let *you* (as their mortgagor) serve as General
Contractor unless you hold a contractor's license.

Advice? You're crazy to even attempt it...... uh, but wasn't I
thinking about adding on to the workshop.....

.... Oh, never mind......

It's an incredible burner of time. I had to do it because the general I
hired to build a custom home in Northern Virginia turned out to be way
overextended financially from previous projects, and could not line up
the subs I wanted, and was teetering.

I can imagine the waste of time. I had the misfortune to have my
house torched once - if it wasn't for a neighbor coming home at 2 AM
and raising the alarm we might have been killed.
Anyway, I hired a private adjuster, and you wouldn't believe the ****
I went through with him and his crews.
Had to show his "carpenter" how to cut stringers.
Came home from work one day and his "plaster guys" had done the
kitchen with 1/2" drywall, no shims, to replace the nearly full inch
of plaster and lath. There was almost a half inch gap between the
door and window casings and the drywall.
Had it all torn out by the next day I got home from work, but there
was always some BS waiting for me.
I'd leave work saying, "Let's see what they ****ed up today."
Anyway, I finally got everything done about 85% right, but I never
yelled so much and got in so many faces in such a short period of
time. Actually, I went easy on the crews, they were what they were,
but laid into the adjuster, who's really a GC, a lot.
What was good is the adjuster did keep us in the house because he was
real good at getting the essentials quickly restored.
That was important to me as I had the wife and 4 little kids to think
about, and work, so there was no way I even had time to be my own
general.
Win some, lose some.

--Vic


I didn't have the time, either, at the time, but I had to do it. The
construction manager (CM) I hired, though, helped save the day.

I fired the carpenter and crew the original general had hired the first
week on the job after I took over. I tried to be on the site at 6:30 am,
and to do that I had to stop at 7-11 for a big cup of coffee on the way
to the lot. I had already had a "discussion" with the carpenter the
first day when he said he had seen deer on the land and was going to
bring his rifle to shoot them. Told him no. He was to give me his
contract for doing the rough carpentry the first week.

Anyway, I'm rolling into 7-11 for mass quantities of coffee, and there
he is, buying two six packs of beer at 6:30 in the morning. I had heard
he was a "drinker" from the construction manager, who knew him, and
there was the evidence.

I waited outside the store for him, and told him I was not going to be
retaining he and his crew for carpentry. He was really ****ed. Paid him
for the week and cut him loose.

Most of the subs I hired, though, worked out pretty well, but they
really had to be closely supervised, a job the CM handled for me. The
drywall guys were a trip...two brothers and two cousins who called
themselves "Born Again Drywall." Really. They were great guys, hard
workers, highly skilled and meticulous. Listened to gospel music all day
long at high volumes.