When Not to Hire a General Contractor

A general contractor can charge 10% to 23% of the total cost to build in order to manage a new residential construction project. If $300.000 is needed in actual costs to build, this could mean an additional $30,000 to hire a general contractor.

Can you really afford this?

General contractors service one purpose, to save you time. While there are some who work extra hard to save their clients unnecessary costs, their main purpose is to save their clients time they do not have to oversea a construction project.

Therefore, if you do not have the time to manage your own projects, and if you have the money, then by all means hire a general contractor. Kelsch Construction can build a project anywhere in the rocky mountains of Utah.

But for the many of you needing to save precious funds for the actual building of your homes, and if you have the time to be your own contractor, then use our owner builder training to manage a construction project from concept to completion. This is when you should never hire a general contractor.

But please, do not be a biscuit head and make really bad decisions as an owner builder. Get prepared and organized. The Owner Builder Training by Kelsch Construction will help you. Click on Owner Builder link above in the menu of this page to learn more.

When it comes to a general contractor, many still hire one even with limited funds, but only because they see the construction process as overwhelming and confusing. This is understandable since General Contractors keep a lot of what they do hidden, especially their step-by-step process and the systems they have in place. This is what people are looking for.

If you could see a contractor’s process and their system, and if you had their network great sub-contractors, you would see that being a general contractor is relatively easy. Again, this is what you would see, it is not what you know.

Everything is easy after a number of years, but most do not see the years needed to streamline and systematize a process. This is the true value of mastery.

As we learn to do things better and more efficient over the years, it become easier for anyone to master something. But when we master something we tend to hide this from the world and keep how easy it is hidden.

For example, it takes roughly 41 different sub-contractors to build a home, from architectural design, framing, roofing, and general carpentry, 41 different skill sets are needed, plus a dozen different supply houses, lumber yards, and home improvement centers. Quickly the number of people, including the full crew of all sub-contractors, can increase to more than 150 people to build a home. Can you manage this?

If you have the right systems and the right organization, managing these people and the entire logistics and scheduling can save you thousands of dollars in not hiring a general contractor. What could you do with 20, 30 or more thousand dollars in your pocket?

For those who cannot afford a general contractor, many owner builders become biscuit heads and assume it is easy for them and so they make the mistake that they can manage construction their own way.

This brings us to a serious question, how do owner builders manage construction without making costly mistakes? Where do these people go to get some training and a ready-made system to save many thousands of dollars?

You are here. Check out the Owner Builder Training program at kelschconstruction.com. A master teacher and a master builder in one person, everything you need to know is here.

For more info, see my video on the five reasons why you should not hire a general contractor.