The best available guide to saving money on a home construction project, the book shows you how to contract your new home, remodel, or addition at phenomenal savings. Contains a step-by-step description of the process, including how to find and hire good subcontractors, how to get a construction loan, and how to estimate costs and choose features for your project. Includes 85 planning steps and 100 new construction bargain strategies to save you thousands. Includes contracts, agreements, budget and schedule forms and worksheets. A Super-index provides 1,150 search terms for total utility.

This easy to understand, step-by-step guide is clear enough for even a novice to understand, Even if you hire a contractor to build you home, this book will greatly help you understand the process. From shopping for a piece of land to getting a loan to dealing with a contractor, the Smiths' advice covers everything about building a home. The authors advise on getting organized and tackling the hardest parts of the process step by step. Included are valuable lists, charts, ideas and questionnaires. Also, how to shop around for bargains and minimize costs room by room.

With a jolt you pull your car to the side of the road, and read the job sign that can't be over one day old: New Home of ABC Inc.; General Contractor, XYZ Construction Co. You think out loud, "I knew the property had been sold," and your eyes roam over the real estate sign with the angled "sold" sticker pro claiming to all that the agent has been successful. "Thought the job would have come out on the bid list by now," you mutter as you move back onto the road and head for your office. Later in the day you get the agent on the phone: "Jim, how did XYZ get the ABC job? I saw nothing on the builders' exchange about it." "John, XYZ has been negotiating with ABC for the past six weeks. They did one fine job of selling on old McDuff. Understand they just called on him out of the blue asking for a chance. They put the whole package together, plans and all." "Didn't that tightwad McDuff get another price, Jim?" "Sure did; two, as a matter of fact. He asked me to get two other contractors capable of doing design-build projects. He liked XYZ better. I don't know the prices, but I really feel those boys impressed McDuff by going to him. Were you planning to bid the job?" "Thinking about it," you answer, trying to sound very casual.

Many Americans dream about building their own home. With this book you can make those dreams a reality. As innovative and original as it was when first published in 1972, Ken Kern's "The Owner-Built Home" is an aspiring DIY homebuilder's bible. Finally, after years of demand, it is back in print for the next generation of owner-builders. The product of years of research and experimentation with innumerable design and construction techniques around the world, "The Owner-Built Home" is full of practical tips. It describes in refreshing, straight-forward language, everything involved in making a home. Fully illustrated with drawings, photographs, and plans, "The Owner-Built Home" is an indispensable tool for anyone planning to build a house.