June 25, 2004
Do It Yourself Brain Surgery
Having endured a number of complete home renovation jobs I am the first to say that a good general contractor is worth every penny he’s paid. The GC will establish the construction schedule, select reliable subcontractors and ensure that the work you are paying for is done properly and on time. But not every general contractor is good; some, in fact, are little more than crooks with a skillsaw and a soon-to-be-repossessed pickup truck. And not everyone can afford the extra ten to twenty percent a GC charges. Adventurous homeowners with a yen for flirting with disaster are often tempted to save that money and serve as their own general contractor. That group would include me during one of my renovation jobs when the contractor showed as little interest in my project as he might to a distant dairy farm.
So I was delighted to first read about and then meet Eric Tautel, the Old Greenwich resident and owner of a UBuildIt franchise, a company that offers to serve as advisor to the owner-builder. As I understand it, UBuildIt will, for a fee, hold the hand of the would be owner builder through the entire building process, from selecting an architect or plans, construction estimates (where you discover that those granite countertops in the kids’ bathrooms are going to cost you their college education), site preparation, permits, construction scheduling and on-site consultation as required. The company has a roster of recommended subs and building suppliers but, as with the rest of the project, the home owner is free to select whomever he or she wants. There is no mark-up on either the subcontractors’ fees or building supplies, so you should save an additional bundle here.
Can you serve as your own contractor? Sure, and UbuildIt would seem like a good way to minimize the trauma. Should you? That, like so much of life, depends. It’s a full time job, not something to attend to in the evening after detraining from New York. If you aren’t there to attend to details no one else is going to volunteer. But if you’re attracted to the challenge and have the time (say, you’re a female executive who has stopped working to care for your kids and are bored out of your mind) I think you’ll find that a construction project can be one of the most frustrating but ultimately the most satisfying experiences of your life. You can call Eric Tautel at 698-0030 or go to the company’s website, Ubuildit.com, for more information.
Sumer Is Icumin In
Thirty-one houses went to contract last week while forty-seven had their prices reduced. That’s a ratio that suggests that buyers are beginning to think more about vacation plans than where they want to live next year. I suspect that at least some of them were burned out by the spring bidding wars and have retreated to mull things over for awhile. If your house hasn’t sold I wouldn’t despair; there are still buyers out there who need homes and the burn-out victims will be back. If you’re a buyer, you might consider taking your vacation in July and returning to house hunt in August when the town has emptied. There will be less competition and less of a rush to commit, instantly, to a house you’ve just seen twenty minutes before.
Now at a Reduced Price
One price reduction I found notable was that for 9 Sabine Farm Road, dropping from an original asking price of $24,000,000 to a mere $14,500,000. In fact, the property is spectacular, a grand house set very impressively on nine acres. Because I have no idea what $24,000,000 feels like I thought the original price was as apt as any other number; if you can afford a house like this, do you really care how many millions it takes to acquire it? Apparently the two or three buyers at that end of the price range felt differently, and the sellers have done the intelligent thing. When you’re ready to concede on price, do so in substantial chunks. It gets the market’s attention and saves you from slowly twisting in the wind.
12 Guinea Road
William Steele (William Bainbridge Steel to his mother) has just listed this interesting house. When they were considering buying it, the current owners overlooked an exterior of “bilious taupe with an orange roof” and saw instead its potential as an ideal country residence. They brought in New York designer Juan Montoya and converted the house to a light, airy home with, among other assets, a master bedroom suite incorporating a bathroom done in highly polished wood. The designer is quoted in an Architectural Digest article on the place as having worked for “a yachtlike space”. I’d say he got it exactly right. Three acres, a pond and a heated pool, asking $2,350,000.
Having endured a number of complete home renovation jobs I am the first to say that a good general contractor is worth every penny he’s paid. The GC will establish the construction schedule, select reliable subcontractors and ensure that the work you are paying for is done properly and on time. But not every general contractor is good; some, in fact, are little more than crooks with a skillsaw and a soon-to-be-repossessed pickup truck. And not everyone can afford the extra ten to twenty percent a GC charges. Adventurous homeowners with a yen for flirting with disaster are often tempted to save that money and serve as their own general contractor. That group would include me during one of my renovation jobs when the contractor showed as little interest in my project as he might to a distant dairy farm.
So I was delighted to first read about and then meet Eric Tautel, the Old Greenwich resident and owner of a UBuildIt franchise, a company that offers to serve as advisor to the owner-builder. As I understand it, UBuildIt will, for a fee, hold the hand of the would be owner builder through the entire building process, from selecting an architect or plans, construction estimates (where you discover that those granite countertops in the kids’ bathrooms are going to cost you their college education), site preparation, permits, construction scheduling and on-site consultation as required. The company has a roster of recommended subs and building suppliers but, as with the rest of the project, the home owner is free to select whomever he or she wants. There is no mark-up on either the subcontractors’ fees or building supplies, so you should save an additional bundle here.
Can you serve as your own contractor? Sure, and UbuildIt would seem like a good way to minimize the trauma. Should you? That, like so much of life, depends. It’s a full time job, not something to attend to in the evening after detraining from New York. If you aren’t there to attend to details no one else is going to volunteer. But if you’re attracted to the challenge and have the time (say, you’re a female executive who has stopped working to care for your kids and are bored out of your mind) I think you’ll find that a construction project can be one of the most frustrating but ultimately the most satisfying experiences of your life. You can call Eric Tautel at 698-0030 or go to the company’s website, Ubuildit.com, for more information.
Sumer Is Icumin In
Thirty-one houses went to contract last week while forty-seven had their prices reduced. That’s a ratio that suggests that buyers are beginning to think more about vacation plans than where they want to live next year. I suspect that at least some of them were burned out by the spring bidding wars and have retreated to mull things over for awhile. If your house hasn’t sold I wouldn’t despair; there are still buyers out there who need homes and the burn-out victims will be back. If you’re a buyer, you might consider taking your vacation in July and returning to house hunt in August when the town has emptied. There will be less competition and less of a rush to commit, instantly, to a house you’ve just seen twenty minutes before.
Now at a Reduced Price
One price reduction I found notable was that for 9 Sabine Farm Road, dropping from an original asking price of $24,000,000 to a mere $14,500,000. In fact, the property is spectacular, a grand house set very impressively on nine acres. Because I have no idea what $24,000,000 feels like I thought the original price was as apt as any other number; if you can afford a house like this, do you really care how many millions it takes to acquire it? Apparently the two or three buyers at that end of the price range felt differently, and the sellers have done the intelligent thing. When you’re ready to concede on price, do so in substantial chunks. It gets the market’s attention and saves you from slowly twisting in the wind.
12 Guinea Road
William Steele (William Bainbridge Steel to his mother) has just listed this interesting house. When they were considering buying it, the current owners overlooked an exterior of “bilious taupe with an orange roof” and saw instead its potential as an ideal country residence. They brought in New York designer Juan Montoya and converted the house to a light, airy home with, among other assets, a master bedroom suite incorporating a bathroom done in highly polished wood. The designer is quoted in an Architectural Digest article on the place as having worked for “a yachtlike space”. I’d say he got it exactly right. Three acres, a pond and a heated pool, asking $2,350,000.
posted by Chris Fountain at 10:17 AM
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