The Owner-Builder Book: How You Can Save More than $100,000 in the Construction of Your Custom Home, (Paperback)
by Mark A. Smith, Elaine M. Smith

The best available guide to saving money on a home construction project, The Owner-Builder 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. Super-index provides 1,150 search terms for total utility. Winner of the National Association of Home and Workshop Writers Silver Hammer Award for Books.

Tips & Traps When Building Your Home (Paperback)
by Robert Irwin

Leading real-estate author Robert Irwin provides home builders with valuable money-saving tips to building a home from the ground up in Tips Traps When Building Your Home . Featuring a self-test to determine whether the reader is more suited to hiring it all out or doing some of it alone, this user-friendly guide outlines the perilous traps that often come with building your own home. Irwin helps readers determine whether or not to hire out the entire process or whether to act as the primary contractor. Once that is decided, Irwin then helps builders determine: How building and contracting effects home-owners' insurance Whether or not to hire an architect If building plans need to be presented to the local zoning board Contractors' and builders' adherence to electrical codes, sewage codes, and occupancy codes.

Be Your Own House Contractor: Save 25% without Lifting a Hammer (Paperback)
by Carl Heldmann

While building a home is not a simple task, expert Carl Heldmann shows that it is not as complicated as one might believe. With his sound advice, readers can act as their own house contractor and save a quarter - or more - of the cost of building a home. And without picking up a hammer!

Heldmann explains each step of the home building process in non-technical, easily understood language, helping readers avoid the pitfalls that plague general contractors, even experienced ones. Readers will learn how to develop house plans, establish schedules, select good subcontractors, identify cost-saving options, negotiate contracts, estimate building costs, purchase materials and supplies, and much more.

Building Your Own Home For Dummies (Paperback)
by Kevin Daum, Janice Brewster, Peter Economy

Keep construction on track with helpful checklists Turn your dream of a custom home into reality! Thinking about building your own home? This easy-to-follow guide shows you how to plan and build a beautiful home on any budget. From acquiring land to finding the best architect to overseeing the construction, you get lots of savvy tips on managing your new investment wisely and staying sane during the process! Discover how to: Find the best homesite Navigate the plan approval process Obtain financing Hire the right contractor Cut design and construction costs Avoid common mistakes.

Buying New Construction 11 Critical Steps (CD-ROM)
by Jack C. Davis

Great for people looking to buy their dream home. Avoiding a nightmare only takes a quick look through this interactive CD-ROM workbook. With checklists and suggestions on saving big money, this is a life-saver program.

Developing with Manufactured Homes
by Steve Hullibarger

Elementary concepts in land selection, acquisition, the public approval process, development and construction are not covered in this book, except to the extent that the use of manufactured housing would dictate a significant variation in practice as compared to building homes on site.

The primary focus throughout the text is on fee simple development - merging the house with the land to create a singular title of real estate. Although the emphasis is on subdivisions, planned unit developments and urban infill lots as opposed to the development of land-lease communities, many of the subjects covered are applicable to all of the above modes of land use.

This book is an indispensable guide for any builder, developer or student interested in taking advantage of the opportunities in manufactured housing development.

The Modular Home
by Andrew Gianino

Home buyers and house architects agree: the most exciting things on the housing market today are modular homes. They can be built and reach move-in condition in just a few weeks, and they offer a host of customizing possibilities.

This book is packed with everything you need to know about buying and building a modular home--or a modular addition to your existing home.

Gianino dispels the misconceptions about the limitations of modular homes and shows potential buyers that a modular home can be as good as, if not better than, houses built with traditional stick-frame construction. Then he gets down to the nitty-gritty: choosing a dealer, working with a general contractor, selecting a floor plan, choosing the customized details, even planning the landscaping around the house. Throughout the book the emphasis is on top-quality materials and cost-effective measures to ensure that the buyer gets their dream home at a great price. What's more, this book is equally useful for anyone already in the modular business or looking to get in as a dealer, manufacturer, designer, or specialized general contractor.