| I went through the process of planning building a home. The total cost would have been in the 250k range. The only time that a decision in the planning was made due to regulation was to defer putting living space above the garage. The division between garage and living space has higher requirements for flame retardants in the event that a car were to catch fire, so we put it off to keep costs down. Because we were building in a rural area, we had the option to stick with a gravel driveway, which I suppose zoning in most cities would prohibit. Otherwise, costs were entirely dominated by materials, labor, and the general contractor getting his cut. There is only so much you can do to eliminate costs of, say, a roof when you still have to have one. > BTW, in many countries, if a person can't afford to buy a house, they buy a land and build themselves. My current understanding that in US you need licenses to perform almost any construction work. This is only true for plumbing and electrical work, and even that varies by state. Typically, the only real requirement is that the work can pass an inspection. I have done a lot of work on the house I currently live in, up to and including building a masonry heater. |
I am considering building my house (being my own general contractor and doing as much work myself as possible), but I was discouraged by the extreme number of regulations that seem to forbid anything, with just obtaining permits taking years and costing ~25K. Perhaps I was looking at the wrong state.
The 250K range that you cite is about 5 years of my current income. I honestly think I can build the house myself faster than saving those money and paying a professional.