The Owner-Builder Book

In the ten years since the first edition of The Owner-Builder Book, thousands of readers have saved millions of dollars building, remodeling, or adding on to their homes. The average respondent to our owner-builder survey reports savings of over $100,000 on their project. Using the DSDE formula (a dime saved is a dollar earned), the $100,000 saved is equivalent to $1 million in wages. That is, for the average person, it would take $1 million in wages to set aside $100,000; but an owner-builder can add that much to his or her wealth in one build. No wonder O-Bs plan an average of five years earlier retirement from their jobs. Most owner-builders have no construction industry experience, they simply apply good management principles to managing their own projects without general contractors acting as middlemen. They do not take on an undue amount of DIY work on their homes - an average of only four self-worked trades each. Most of the savings come from managing and sourcing labor and materials directly. Owner-builders are simply resourceful, refreshingly honest, and as these pages attest, mutually supportive of other owner-builders. In this book, ideas are not usually provided at face value. O-Bs argue the pros and cons freely. Some ideas clearly work better in certain circumstances. You will have to judge if a bargain strategy presented here will help you. With nearly five hundred strategies offered, some will change your project for the better. Sometimes the savings will be small a few hundred dollars. Some strategies will yield tens of thousands in savings. Usually, listening to other O-Bs will make your project smoother and better.