A home is an enormous investment, and it’s only natural to cut costs where you can. Oftentimes, a property owner will play the role of a general contractor, or have a friend or relative play the role. Unfortunately, a lot of these naive “do-it-yourselfers” end up doing shoddy work, and adding tremendous costs to the project. When it comes to work as important as custom home building, hiring a true general contractor is the only way to go.
Here are four reasons why you should hire a true general contractor when it’s time to build your custom home:
1. Get the Job Done Faster:
If you aren’t working with a true General Contractor, there’s a good chance your project will take a very long time. Do-It-Yourselfers, family friends, and cut-rate fake contractors will often drag their feet or abandon a project once they meet an obstacle they don’t know how to solve.
If you consider time the most valuable resource of all (and you should), a true general contractor is worth his or her weight in gold. General contractors are your best bet for getting the job done in a timely manner because contractors have extensive experience building custom homes, a Rolodex of professional contacts for whatever situation might arise, and the measured estimates only the voice of experience can offer.
A good residential General Contractor can be held to realistic time frames, with communication and transparency along the way.
2. Building a Custom Home is Dangerous
Do you know what radon is? Does your custom home project require electrical wiring? Are you dealing with asbestos or other hazardous chemicals? These are questions you need to ask yourself, among many others. Home building often involves hazardous materials, heavy equipment, and intricate processes.
There are definitely aspects of custom home construction that you should not do yourself, or put into the hands of a fake contractor. Lead paint, electrical lines, plumbing lines, or power tools that require an expert hand should all be left to the experts.
Cheaping out might cause bodily harm. Don’t take chances.
3. Shoddy Work Must Be Redone, or Demolished!
The only thing more frustrating than undoing hard work is paying to have hard work undone. Some folks try to give DIY custom home building the “old college try,” and end up with a disaster. Depending on the severity of your botched construction or renovation, you may have to hire a professional to tear down the shoddy work that already cost you money. Reality check: property construction is too pricey and important to tackle haphazardly.
As it turns out, it takes much more than inspiration and elbow grease to build a beautiful custom home. Hire a real residential general contractor, or pay the price for your negligence.
4. You’ll Save Money.
There is no shortage of construction horror stories out there. The world is full of stories of the “handy” brother-in-law who mangles a roof, or a door-to-door scammer who wants the money up front, and maneuvers away from the project through contract trickery. When large sums of money and time are on the line, you absolutely need to vet your contractors, or you’ll be stuck with a humiliating saga of incompetence, and a devastated bank account.
Though it may be tempting to cut costs with semi-professionals and too-good-to-be-true contracts, hiring a true general contractor is the only way to build a custom home.
