Do you have dreams of building your own home? About 65% of people that own homes have a mortgage. What if you knew how to build your own home yourself and not have to take out a mortgage?
Learning how to build your own home yourself may sound like extreme DIY, but many Americans are deciding that is exactly what they will do. Instructions for how to build your own home yourself can be just the ticket to financial freedom.
Learning How to Build Your Own Home Yourself, Is it Really That Far Fetched?
Building a home on your own all by yourself was the order of business not that long ago. Think of the pioneers headed out west, or early settlers that needed shelter. Up until the late 1930s learning how to build your own home yourself was information that was passed down through the generations.
Industrialization and the world wars changed how homes were built. Before that period, everyone pretty much took responsibility for building their own home. At one point in time, you could buy home plans from Sears and Roebuck the catalog giant and the entire home kit to go along with it.
Generations before us in the United States were self-reliant. They did not need a bank to partner with them in homeownership. Why can’t you do the same thing? With a few simple skills, a little patience, and innovation you can learn how to build your own home yourself. The level of satisfaction knowing that you built a beautiful space for you and your family and did it debt-free is hard to beat the feeling.
How to Build Your Own Home Yourself On a Budget
The real beauty of learning how to build your own home yourself is that it is an easier way to stay on budget. What a lot of DIY home builders do is adopt a pay as you go plan. In other words, they buy materials as they can afford them, and do the work as their budget allows.
Is learning how to build your own home yourself the most expeditious way to build a home, probably not. It will take longer than having a general contractor manage the construction, especially if you are adopting a pay as you go approach, but in the end the savings can be tremendous and you will have bragging rights.
Learning ow to build your own home yourself allows you to have much more control over your budget. You can make decisions about when and how you spend money on materials. Here are some tips for setting up a budget for building your home:
- Plan wisely. It can be easy to forget about the little costs when you are doing your budgeting. For example, ordering roofing supplies, but forgetting to consider the forklift rentals you will need to manage the supplies.
- Get the basics out of the way first. Paying for the necessary materials that are relevant to the structure of the home has to take priority. In other words, get your HVAC service materials before you consider interior flooring materials.
- Don’t set unobtainable timelines. If you are going to learn how to build your own home yourself and pay as you go, you have to plan for financial hiccups along the way that may set the project back a bit.
If time is an important factor, then you may have to get some help on the project. For example, hiring residential roofers to manage the roofing can probably save you about three weeks of doing it yourself. There is no shame in paying professionals to move the project along! Just because you are designing your own home doesn’t mean you are doing every step of the project.
On the other hand, hiring professionals to manage the new construction roofing can free you up to focus on other areas unencumbered by worrying about getting the roof done. Ultimately those decisions come down to how much help you can muster from friends and family, your personal timeline, and your budget.
In the end, how you do things, is entirely up to you. Hiring professionals to do things that you really feel uncomfortable doing is fine, but you want the majority of the work to be done by yourself to get the best value out of the project. Go ahead and hire the roofers for the roof, but do the gutter installation yourself to save money and make sure your hand has touched every part of the project for bragging rights.
To Loan or Not To Loan
If the goal is to come out of this debt-free, then of course, taking any sort of loan is not going to move you closer to your goal, but on the other hand how practical is it really to learn how to build your own home yourself and do it without taking a loan or running up credit cards.
First let’s address the elephant in the room, it is not easy building a house brick by brick dollar by dollar, but it is doable. Is it easier to take the loan and buy all the project materials at once, probably, but if you are doing this on your own, that could mean materials that are sitting for months at a time.
The bigger question is how do you squeeze out the money from your current budget to pay for the materials you will need once you learn how to build your own home yourself. Again, it can be done, and it has been done millions of times.
The word that no one likes to hear when it comes to budgeting for anything special is “sacrifice”. You will need to make sacrifices in your lifestyle today to find the money to build your home. A really tight budget that you strictly adhere to can keep you on track.
Consider this one $5 coffee five days a week on your way to work adds up to about $100 a month. Giving up coffee on the way to work can add up to $1200 a year. Cutting out meals out, overpriced haircuts, a foodie fetish that brings you to the trendiest most expensive restaurants can all help you to put that money back into your house budget.
The little costs of everyday life can really add up. The average American mindlessly spends about $25 a day on things like snacks, coffee, and other incidentals. That is hundreds of dollars a month that simply disappears from your bank account.
Start honestly tracking all of your expenses, and you will be simply amazed how quickly you can afford solar panels, roof materials, bricks, and more to build your home. It is all about prioritizing your income to make the most of it.
Have a Plan
Back in days of yore, piling up stones found on the land and throwing up a thatched roof was sufficient, today we like things a little posher. You have to have a plan. You can buy home building plans, or you can try your hand at drawing one up yourself. It is not that hard to draw up a home structure. There are tutorials online that can help you out.
In some cases, learning how to build your own home yourself starts with taking a few classes at your local community college. Developing a basic knowledge of building techniques, electrical, and plumbing can help you to build your home and get amazing results.
There are online tutorials for everything and anything that has to do with home building. From fire sprinkler design to running electricals and plumbing, you can find a tutorial online to help you manage the project.
Here is a sample plan of what your project timeline should look like:
- Decide on architectural style, location, and materials.
- Take necessary courses, do research, and build a skill set.
- Make a detailed list of each part of the project.
Unfortunately, building your own home by yourself is not as simple as knowing how to swing a hammer. You have to have a detailed plan in place. For example, once you have chosen your home style and layout, you need to decide which part of your property you will build on. You need to consider waste removal options, electrical options, and plumbing options.
Are you building completely off the grid? Will you totally rely on solar or will you need generator installation skills to install a generator? What is more feasible? More affordable? You will have to make decisions about every step of the project.
Each detail of the project needs to be laid out. Will you have a garage? Which company will you hire for your garage door installation? Every design element will need consideration. You will need to evaluate material options and which options are best for your budget and the vision you have of your home.
The old adage measure twice cut once can be a great piece of advice for your home building except you can substitute plan twice execute once. Plan than revisit your plan often. The entirety of how to build your own home yourself will be a learning process. You will learn a lot about capabilities, materials, and techniques as you go.
Stick With the Project
Rome was not built in a day, and by far, neither will your home. Some DIY home builders take a few years to get to the point where they are considering custom blinds for the interior of the home, others can get the job done in 6 months.
The point is no matter how long it takes do not take a break midstream. It can be frustrating as many people have learned, but if you stay the course, and do the time commitment the rewards are tremendous. Make a commitment to the amount of time you can dedicate.
If you have a full-time job it can be hard getting there every day, but you should be able to get there every weekend and holiday. Do yourself a favor and don’t work on multiple building projects for the house at the same time.
Start the project, finish that project, then move on to the next one. Too many irons in the fire burning up at once is never a good idea. For example, if you have scheduled the framing for the roof, don’t get sidetracked by the flooring joists just yet. Finish installing the roof trusses, and get the roof in place, then worry about the floor joists.
Finishing each part of the project before you start the next part will ensure that you can see progress and not feel overwhelmed. A lot of DIY builders have learned the hard way that getting overwhelmed is a great way to put an end to the dream of learning how to build your own home yourself. They wind up walking away from the project and either hiring a contractor or just leaving the project as is.
Tap Friends and Family for Help
Yes, you want to build your own home yourself, but don’t be foolish enough not to let your brother in law the electrician come overrun the wiring and enjoy a great BBQ at the building site. There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking advantage of close friends and family members’ skill sets.
Most of the time close family and friends do not mind helping out with this type of project. If you feel bad about asking for free labor consider bartering your services for theirs. You can offer to help them with their projects or provide another service that you are an expert in.
Getting some “professional” help from friends and family does not take away from the fact that you have built your own home by yourself. If the help is there take it, it will help you to build memories into the house while you build the house.
No one says that learning to build your own home yourself is easy, but it is well worth the effort. You can do it debt-free if you have the time to invest, and you can be a part of a growing trend in the United States. You do not have to partner with a bank to have your own home.
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