Talk to lending officers in the community closest to where you want to build. That's what I did here in East TN. I got a list of builders from the loan officer at a local credit union. All build in the county, and all have their financial ducks in a row. I also got her opinion on who does a good job and who does just OK.

Another thing you can do is drive around looking for homes under construction in the area. Stop and ask to speak to the GC. I did that several times. I interviewed three or four contractors as a result.

I also wrote off some builders just from observing the crappy work going on. At one site, the workers appeared to be undocumented illegals from their appearances and nervous glances they kept throwing toward me and my vehicle. I wrote that builder off, too.

I wish you were in East TN - I would recommend the guy that built my house. He is the best builder ever (and the least expensive of the gazillion we interviewed!!!)

Good luck finding one.

You can build your house yourself - be your own general contractor. My wife and I just finished our house and moved in last July. We built a 4800 sf high end house for less than $68/sf.

You will need to buy the plans and start getting prices from subs.

Almost all of the good subs are scrambling for work so you'll get the best for little $$$.

How do you find the subs? Contact your local lumber company such as 84 lumber. Have a salesman give you a price on the lumber. They should do it for free.

Then ask them if they know anyone who could do the slab/foundation for you.

There are 16 divisions in general construction....you won't use all of them.

We bought plans and the company we bought the plans from actually offered a complete estimate for $125. We got it and then started getting prices for those individual items from subs in our local area.

Our house was built by the best subs in the area (I'm outside of Memphis) at some awesome prices.

I'm putting together a free guide to help others build their own house. Shoot me an e-mail if you're interested in it when I get done with it.

I even went so far as to document our progress on a blog but got tired as we neared completion so it doesn't cover the last few steps of construction.

You can find it at www.myhomebuildingmentor.com/blog

Here is a link that might be useful: My Home Building Mentor

Those are some great suggestions, thanks. I think I will go to our banker and see what he has to say. As far as being your own contractor, I'm sure you save alot of money but I'm afraid it would involve alot of headaches. We put up a doublewide to live in temporarily and had alot of trouble getting people to show up when they said they would and actually work. I would think people would work better for a contractor since they know they could work for him again, as opposed to someone who is only building one house. Did you have problems with the subs or knowing who to talk to for permits, etc.?

bretmundt.....I'm interested in your guide. My e-mail is niecieb76@yahoo.com. There seems to be a problem with your blog or I may be doing something wrong. I tried to look at each entry but it wouldn't go to that particular entry.

Terri -- We are building in Cookeville. I personally would not want to use someone to build a home like the one you are looking at who is used to doing remodels/additions. Looks like a cool plan, BTW!!

We did the GC thing on our house and it is certainly doable. We're in our mid 30's and have never built before, but my hubby committed himself to being educated. It takes alot of time and effort, but we have found it to be worth it. However, saying that, I can see that this is not the route for everyone.

I know of one particular builder here who has done some work on the lake so that is close to you. They may be willing to go that far (it's what, 30 min or so?). They build a GORGEOUS home, and they are the ones we were going to get to build ours if we opted to use a contractor. They have built for several people I know and come from a long line of high end building (one of the partner's parents own a very well known successful commercial building company here that you've probably heard of). They do lots of fabulous mouldings and trims, very attentive to detail and are very personable. I obviously can't speak for how they are to work with, but I've never heard a negative thing about them (and we used some of the same subs).

Anyway, I'm not on the payroll or anything...haha... but I can give you their number if you are interested. Just email me at theflynns at frontiernet dot net.

Also - they just gave me a quote from the print out off the computer. That way I didn't have to purchase plans before I knew what it was going to cost to build. Oh and their quote was very reasonable (one of the lower ones we got), but you can save a good 10% if you self-contract.

Here is a link that might be useful: house blog

Muddypond & Sprice--will you post or email me your builder's names? We bought land in Louisville, Blount County on the river and plan to build the year my husband retires from the Army unless he deploys and I start the house early. MizMcD @ gmail.com (p.s. I put my email in like that because spammers gather emails from blogs).

I will send you some names. We are waiting on bids, so don't have just one selected yet. But you would probably be better off looking at Blount County builders. The guys we are looking at would have one heck of a long drive to get to Louisville, and they may not be familiar with Blount County's way of doing things.

It may be a couple of days. My email is down at the moment.

That's okay then MuddyPond--sounds like we'll be too far. Would have been a happy coincidence if we were close enough for me to use your research. :D

bretmundt,

I would like to see your homebuilding guide. We are toying with the idea of being our own GC. I was excited to read your Home Builder Mentor page but the links didn't work for me, either.

earthtiller @ sbcglobal dot net

Thank you,
Necia