It’s finally time to get serious about shopping! If you like shopping, you will love this next step in the process. If you don’t like shopping, strap on your big kid boots and try to make it through the next few weeks.
Personally, I fall somewhere in the middle. I don’t like shopping all that much, but I LOVE finding deals that are so great that I run home and tell Farmer about it.
Shopping for people is actually way more fun than shopping for building materials. When you are shopping for a sub-contractor/worker/person it is way more in depth than shopping for supplies. Not only are you shopping for good prices, you are also shopping for personality, reliability, responsibility, and trust. It is more complicated, but it’s also more fun.
If you really don’t like someone, don’t hire them. If they don’t tell you the whole truth, don’t hire them. If they seem shady or “off” at all, don’t hire them.
On the other hand, if you find someone who makes suggestions, helps you out, answers questions, and always calls you back, you hire them! It is so satisfying when you find someone you feel completely comfortable with and then you get to say “yes, I want you to work on my house.” If you take the time to shop well, you will find sub-contractors that make your life easier, and put your mind at ease. If you shop even harder, you will find people like that who will also give you the best deal. And that is what we really want right? The best quality and the best price.
^^^How to make building your own house a little less stressful
Farmer and I decided to approach the building process a little different than most people. A lot of thought went into this decision, and there were many factors that led us to it, but ultimately we decided to break up our building process into 2 parts. We will call them the “first half” and the “second half”. The first half consists of everything we needed to do to get our house “dried in” as they call it around here. Basically we needed to get the framing all done and the roof on, so that if bad weather hit, there would be no serious problems. The second half is everything after that.
The main reasons we are separating the process into two parts are:
- I felt more comfortable breaking this enormous project in half so that I could focus my attention on one at a time and not be completely overwhelmed.
- Money. That is always a factor right? We wanted to see how far the money got us and have a chance to pause and re-group if we needed to.
- Because we started in September, we were in a bit of a hurry to get things dried in before the weather got bad. The focus was to get the first half done and then re-evaluate our timeline.
So at this point we needed to figure out all of the sub-contractors we would be hiring for the first half of the house. You need to start shopping now for all of them so you have plenty of time to compare prices and arrange things. And by “now”, I mean 2-4 months before breaking ground. If you do it much earlier than that, some contractors will just tell you to call back when you get closer to go time. If you do it later than that, you will be rushed and won’t have anytime to shop for the best price. You will end up forced to hire whoever can do it on your timeline, which most likely will not be the best price.
The first thing I did was to make a list of contractors I would need. When I first made my list, I didn’t understand the process of building. I was worried I was forgetting things, and I didn’t know what some of the contractors were supposed to do. It was very scary to try and write down all the people I needed to hire when I didn’t even know what some of them did or how the process fit together. That is one of the reasons I created this website. I was frustrated that I couldn’t find a resource that walked me through everything I was supposed to be doing.
To be fair, I did have one resource that I relied on heavily because of how detailed and helpful it was. That resource is “The Owner Builder Book” by Mark A Smith. I highly recommend buying or renting this book. I took it with me everywhere and referred to it at least weekly. You can find it on Amazon very reasonably priced, or head down to your local library and check it out.
So, with the help of that book, and many wonderful and friendly people, I created my list of all the sub-contractors I would need to hire for the first half of the house.
^^^Everyone you need to hire to “dry in” your house
- Surveyor
- Excavator
- Footings contractor
- Foundation contractor
- Concrete flatwork finisher
- Framer
- Roofer
- Plumber
- HVAC contractor
- Electrician
This list does not include the materials, only the people you will be hiring to do the work. You can find information about shopping for materials in Step 8.
Once I had a list that I felt comfortable with, it was time to start shopping. I had a lot of things I wanted/needed to learn about each contracting job. For each one, my main purpose was to decide whether it was something we should be doing ourselves or hiring someone to do. If I determined that it was the best decision to hire someone, then my main purpose became to find the best person for the job along with the best price. Create as large of a list of contractors as you can. The more people you can call, the more information you will get, and the better price you will find. Search the internet, ask friends, stop at construction sites and ask who is working on it. Anything you can do to add more names to your list of contractors to call.
^^^What you need to know about hiring people to work on your house
When I started making phone calls, I quickly learned a lot about contractors. Unfortunately, I talked to a lot more people that I DIDN’T want to hire than people I DID want to hire. I was blown away by how many companies didn’t answer their phones, never returned messages, or flat out didn’t do what they said they would do. It was pretty common for me to start with a list of 10 people to call and be lucky to get ahold of 3 of them. Of the 3 that answered, 1 would say they couldn’t work on my house, 1 would say they would call me back, and 1 would actually be helpful. Sometimes I literally couldn’t find anyone. Usually though, if I kept looking, and trying new people, I could find enough people/companies to compare prices and be happy with who I was able to hire.
Occasionally I would find a real gem. Those were great days! It was a weight off my shoulders when I would finally find that person who truly wanted my business and honestly wanted to help me. They are easy to spot and you will know when you have found one. They ask questions about your project, they make suggestions, and they discuss how to make things work out rather than just how to get the job done. When you find one of those people, you WRITE IT DOWN! Because you do not want to lose that person!
- Prepare to make your phone calls by gathering some supplies. First and foremost, you will want a piece of paper and a pencil to write everything down. You might think you will remember what people told you, but you won’t. You are dealing with far too much information, most of it new and foreign to you, to remember what everyone says. You will want all of your house information handy. Most everyone will need to know your address, details about your blueprints, information about your house site, and what your timeline is for the project. I also recommend having your computer handy so you can click through your PDF blueprints quickly. If you have young children like I do, plan to make your phone calls while they are napping or set up so they won’t be needing your help for a few minutes. It’s really hard to talk to someone about something you are unfamiliar with while your baby is crying ….. that happened more times than I can count.
2. Grab your list of companies to call. Write down what questions you need to remember to ask them. Your first phone calls with each person will be pretty general and there are a lot of questions you should be asking most contractors. Your main objective is to ask them for a “detailed quote with labor and materials separated out”. After telling them about your job and asking them if that is something they could give you a quote for, here are a few more questions to keep in mind:
^^^10 questions to ask before you hire someone to work on your house
- What do you need from me in order to give me an accurate bid?
- What is your timeline like?
- How far in advance do you schedule out?
- Do you have suggestions or changed that can be made to save money?
- How does your pricing work?
- Is your pricing fixed or adjustable?
- Are there other trades we need to coordinate with?
- How long will it take to do the job?
- What is the best way to get in contact with you?
- When should I expect to hear back from you?
3. Now you are ready to make your call. Take your time and try to ask as many questions as you can because it will give you a better feel for who you are working with. Write everything down starting with what company you are calling, who specifically you talked to, and the date and time of the phone call. You will talk to hundreds of people over the next few months, if you don’t write their names down every time you will wish you had. It’s also important to talk to the same person every time you call so you build a relationship with them and get consistent information. Talk to them about things you are having a hard time understanding. Ask them about their business, the process of the job, and their suggestions for your project. Make small talk when it’s appropriate and always always always thank them for their time. They are doing you a service by answering all of your questions and you want to be on everyone’s good side. If you are demanding, no company is going to want to work with you or give you a good deal.
4. After you have called as many people as you can and written everything down you should be ready to narrow it down to the top 2 or 3. Lay out all your options so you can see the information, and compare prices and notes. Sometimes at this point in the process, I knew exactly who I wanted to hire. Other times, I was totally discouraged because I didn’t feel comfortable with anyone. And a few times I even felt like I had several really great options. It’s your job to figure out who is the best fit for you. One important thing to remember is that the cheapest option is not always the best option. In my opinion, it is much more important to hire someone who you trust and who will do a quality job for you. If I had to choose between sleeping peacefully at night knowing my workers are doing their job, nothing is being stolen, and I am not being cheated out of any money…. or …. saving some money, I would choose peace of mind and better workers every time.
If you aren’t happy with any of the options, keep hunting down more until you are satisfied. So far, I have only had one trade where I felt it was literally impossible to find a good hire and that was an electrician. Mostly that was because everyone was too busy for my job, but that still doesn’t change the fact that I couldn’t find anyone I was happy with. After weeks of searching, I called Farmer and said “We are just going to have to figure it out ourselves because I can’t find anyone.” And he said okay, and that was the end of it. Well, not really the end, but I finally was able to quit stressing out about it and move forward with the decision we had made.
If you get to the end of your phone calls and there is one that sticks out far above the rest as superior, then congratulations! Your job should be a little easier for a few minutes. Be sure to write down your second choice too, in case your favorite one doesn’t work out.
If you end up with several excellent options then you have permission to shout with joy! This is when the shopping gets really fun. If you have more than 1 company or person you would love to hire, you will have a better set up to negotiate prices. The job of these companies is to earn your business. If you have several fighting for your business than you get to see who really wants it.
5. When you have it narrowed down to 2 or 3 candidates you should call them again. Let them know up front that you have called several companies and you were very pleased with their company because _________________ (fill in the blank). Make friends with them, be open with them, and ask them any other questions you may have. Some more specific questions to ask on the second or third call might be:
- In your experience, is this (the job) the way we should be doing it? Or would you change something?
- How many guys would you put on my job?
- Is there part of this job we can do ourselves to save on labor?
- Are there any other contractors you will be working closely with?
- Do you have anyone you recommend or like to work with particularly?
- What extras or unexpected situations could cause the price to go up?
6. By now you should have a really good idea of what this particular trade will cost you. You should also have a much better understanding of the job that person is going to do for you. And third, you should know which person you want to hire, with one or two alternatives. Now you need to make some decisions.
First, you need to decide whether you want to hire someone to do that job, or do it yourself. The reason you should wait this long to make that decision is because now you know exactly how much it will cost for you to hire someone to do it. You also know your options. Maybe you found an excellent company that will do it for very cheap. Or maybe you didn’t find anyone who would do your job for a price you felt was fair. If you know someone who would be willing to oversee your job, and provide instruction and suggestions, even someone with no experience can learn how to do just about any job required. Decide what you intend to do because that will effect your next steps.
Second, whether or not you intend to DIY this portion of your house, you are going to make your favorite company an offer. Before I made my first offer I was a nervous wreck. I was terrified until I realized that the worst thing that could happen was that they would say no. And guess what? I can only think of two companies that said no. Everyone else either said yes or at least brought down their price a little bit. So your next decision is how much money to offer.
This topic deserves it’s own post because of how many things there are to consider when making an offer. Until I get that written, here are some things to think about when deciding on an offer.
- Is this a trade you might consider doing yourself?
- What percentage of this job is materials vs labor?
- How many companies did you find for this trade that you would be happy to hire?
- Do the prices you were quoted fit into your budget? If not, how much would they need to come down to be where you want them to be?
- Do you know anyone who could walk you through this job so you could do it yourself?
- Do you have anything you could trade to this company or person instead of cash? (products, services, advertising, web design, etc)
- How big of a gap is there between the highest quote and the lowest?
- Was your favorite company the lowest quote? If not, consider asking if they will beat the competitors price.
After considering all of these, you can decide how much to offer the company. I prefer to do it in an email because it allows them to see and refer back to the number, it allows me to carefully choose my wording so I don’t offend anyone when offering less money, and I don’t have to write it all down twice, I just save the email for my records. Don’t be afraid to make a low offer. Some of the companies I made offers to didn’t even blink twice before they accepted it. Then it made me wish I had offered less. Go for it! And if you plan on doing the job yourself, only offer what would make it worth it for you to hire someone. It’s going to be a really low number, but maybe someone will say yes and then you will save yourself some work.
7. The next part is very important. You wait! This is another situation where it is SO important to give yourself plenty of time. If a company feels rushed, they won’t do you any favors. If they are given plenty of time to consider your offer, and they have all of the information in front of them, they are more likely to come up with something that works for both of you.
On one occasion, I made a company an offer for their services. A day or two later the guy called me back and said no they couldn’t accept my offer. I thanked him for his consideration and told him I would talk to my husband because we would need to brainstorm some other options. Then a few days after that, the same guy called me back and said they would accept my offer if I could be a little lenient on the timeline. In this case, it was certainly worth it to wait an extra week or two in order to save $1,200.
Be patient and always let the contractor be the one that has to think. If they say no to your offer, don’t immediately accept their higher price, keep shopping. Make an offer to your second and third choices. See who wants your business the most, and who is willing to lower their asking price.
8. Now you have called a whole bunch of people, asked a million questions, and made offers to at least one or two companies. You can now make your final decision on who you want to hire. Each trade will be different. Some you will want to do your own work, others you will find a really great deal, and others you will just have to go with the best option.
When you have finally decided who to hire, give them a phone call. Hopefully, at this point, you have already nailed down a lot of the specifics. But right now is the time to make sure every detail has been discussed and confirmed. You will need to be sure of:
- The final price (WRITE IT DOWN PLEASE) and what exactly it includes: tax, delivery, supplies, tools, etc.
- When their services will be needed. In most cases you won’t need an exact date until it gets a little closer, just an estimate.
- Any unknown or hidden fees or expenses that COULD be added during the process
- What else you need to do before they show up
- Details of their arrival like … Who needs to be there when they arrive? Do they come for a preliminary visit? How many workers will be showing up?
- Exactly how the payment should happen. (credit card over the phone, check to the delivery guy, bill after the work is completed)
- What you must have completed before they can start their job.
Please, please, please write all of these things down. You should even type it up into contract form so you have proof that both parties agree. Part of being the general contractor is dealing with issues when they arrive. I am not saying that you will have tons of issues, but if you do, it will go a lot better for you if you have things documented. The last thing you want is for someone to say you didn’t pay them when you already did. They can cause all kinds of problems for you, including you not being able to move into your house, if you don’t have any proof.
9. The last thing to do is a courtesy. I suggest emailing all the other companies that gave you a quote and thanking them for their service. It required them to do some work for you that they will never be paid for. If you ever need to hire them for anything else, you haven’t burnt any bridges. And after all, you are grateful for their services!
It is also a good idea to let your second choice know that they are you alternate. Letting them know that, keeps them available in case something happens to your first option.
You will find that not all of these subcontractors NEED to be hired before you start building your home. I wrote them down in order so once you have the first few hired, you are ready to begin if you would like. The next few steps on this website overlap each other a lot. You will be working on a lot of different things at once including hiring subcontractors, looking for material suppliers, possibly getting your utilities in and taken care of, and other preparations for the big day.
One thing I would like you to consider is the amount of time you have available right now. If you have the time to spend several hours a day, every day, working on house things, then you can afford to speed up this process. You can prepare to break ground as soon as you have the first few contractors hired. Then you can continue to hire the next contractors as you build. But you will be rushed, and you will be overwhelmed with things that need to be done right then.
My recommendation, as always, is to take everything as slowly as you can. I think it is a good idea to hire all of these first contractors, or at least have a good idea of who you will hire, before you start your home. This way, you won’t be rushed or stressed about having the time to get things done. If you get these contractors finalized for the first half of the house before you break ground, then you will have the time to devote your whole self to the building process once it starts. All that will be required of you will be to follow up with them about the timeline. I will include the list here again so you can be reminded and don’t have to scroll back up.
- Surveyor
- Excavator
- Footings contractor
- Foundation contractor
- Concrete flatwork finisher
- Framer
- Roofer
- Plumber
- HVAC contractor
- Electrician
Realistically you can get all of these hired in a month or two if you spent some time on it every day. It took me a little over two months because I only worked on it 2-3 days a week.
One warning: Choose your projected ground breaking day wisely. Once you break ground and have workers on your site, your job becomes much more involved. Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to prepare yourself and, if possible, try to choose a “less-busy” season of your lives.
Farmer and I chose fall because we wanted him to be able to work on it through his slower winter months. However, we had to start in early September to get it dried in before bad weather. September is quite possibly his busiest month because he is frantically trying to get everything harvested. Often times, it gets so urgent that everyone in the family is required to help out to get the crop up in time. In fact, one night we actually had the construction crew stay out all night baling hay with us. It turned out to be one of our favorite memories, but honestly everyone was working 10-16 hour days for the entire month of September. Add to that craziness fall soccer, music class, and Spanish class for the kiddos and we had a CRAZY month to say the least. It was totally worth it because it all worked out, but I still want you all to consider what will be happening in your lives the month you start your house.
Also very helpful at this point in your process is my Pre-building Timeline which is available to all subscribers on my checklists, schedules, and printables page. If you are not a subscriber already, just sign up below and you will have FREE unlimited access to the pre-building timeline and all other lists and schedules that I have created to help you save money and stay organized.
You can get a better overall look at how each of the steps overlap each other and what you will be doing before, during, and after hiring sub-contractors. I created this free timeline because one of the hardest parts for me has been knowing when exactly to start each step. It’s helpful to have an overview to see when to work on each thing. Print it off and keep it with your calendar, then you will know exactly when you need to do each thing.
If you have any more questions that you didn’t feel I covered in this post, please leave a comment or send me an email. It’s always great to hear from you guys!
~Farmer’s Wife
Head back to Step 6: Permit requests and assignments
or
Move on to Step 8: Shopping for materials
FREE checklists and schedules
Access to the resources I created that helped Farmer and I save over $75,000 building our own custom dream home.
Steve says
Thank you, the article has a great many items I’ve captured and hopefully will help in my build job.
I informed my wife we needed a tractor loader…………ah well that actually will come later.
I noticed you indicated that documentation is critical. I understand and I thought you might be providing information and or forms for the ‘final deliverable’ from each contractor.
I refer to that as a lien waiver. The document that each party agrees that all contractual obligations, labor and materials have been satisfied by the contractor and paid for by the builder/owner.
Did you use ‘lien waivers’?
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Tractor loaders are the best seriously! We use ours ALL THE TIME.
Yes, I believe documentation protects everyone involved and helps when there might be disagreements. I wrote up a contract for the people I hired to sign, and I also had them sign a paper at the end saying the job was completed and they were paid in full. I was not perfect at this, but I wish that I had been. A few problems that we had were because I didn’t get everything in writing. Even though sometimes it isn’t convenient or people might act offended, DO IT! Every time that I did it the right way and wrote everything down and had us both sign, things worked out the way they were supposed to.
Samples of the forms that I used will be included in the Elite Owner Builder Academy which I am putting together over the next few weeks.
Thanks for the comment Steve!
Carrie says
I also want to hire someone who is willing to work beside us. I want my 4 kids and husband and I to be involved as much as possible. (What a cool experience.) But how do you pay contractors? by the hour or by the job? ( when your helping them)
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
In almost every situation it is best to pay people by the job and not by the hour. The reason is that problems always come up and things take longer than you expected. It also doesn’t encourage very efficient working conditions when you are paying them for every hour they work.
However, it is almost impossible to pay someone by the job if you don’t know exactly what “the job” will be. For example, we hired our three framers to work full time and Farmer and I would help out as much as we could. Well we didn’t know how many hours we would be able to put in. So we had to do it by the hour because there was just no way to set a number to it.
The only reason this was a good idea in our case, was that these guys were so much cheaper then anyone else we could find. And also because we knew we would be able to put in enough hours to help with the overall cost. Lastly, it was very important to us to be a part of this build.
It ended up costing more than we had hoped, but still saved us several thousand because of their price and the labor that we were able to provide.
My advice is to do it by the job if at all possible. You have a set price to go off of and you won’t end up with any terrible surprises that jack the price up.