Where are you building?

I'm in central Texas and I have several neighbors who used UBuildIt. All seem quite happy with it.

One neighbor started his house about 2 months after I started mine. (After considering going the owner-builder route, DH and I decided we "didn't have the time" to GC our own home so we hired a builder. Big mistake!) Nine months later, our neighbor was putting the finishing touches on his 4600 sq ft custom home. Our 3500 sq ft home was still sitting less than half complete and we were trying to decide whether or not we should go ahead and fire our builder or just continue to bend over and let him stick it to us.

After firing him, we then wasted 6 months dickering with our bank over whether it would allow us to take over as GC's or would force us to hire another builder. The bank only finally caved in when I pointed out that under the terms of our one-time close agreement with them, as of a certain date, all we were required to do was start making mortgage payments on the portion of the loan that we had taken down. There was absolutely no requirement that we finish the home. Thereafter, we were free to finish building it, or not, as we saw fit. And they could either let us GC it and take down the rest of the loan money or they could be stuck holding the paper on a half-finished house that, if we should ever decide to walk away from, they would NEVER be able to sell. Ten months after the bank approved me taking over as GC, we finished the house and moved in. A good portion of the ten months was spent fixing issues that our sorry builder had created by not doing things right in the first place! And of course by that point, our original builder had sucked up so much of our available build money that we could no longer afford to hire UBuildIt or OwnerBuilderNetwork to give us guidance. I was stuck figuring it out alone as I went along.

So, if I were going to build again, I would GC from the start and I would hire either UBuildIt or OwnerBuilderNetwork as consultants. There is no way that I would ever hire another builder and give him control over that much money that ultimately, I am responsible for.

Another neighbor just down the street from me is currently building his home with UBuildIt. I was talking to him last week and he says that while it has been a lot of work, a lot of responsibility, and has eaten up all of his "free" time for months, but - in the long run - he is still glad he went that route. Pretty sure he is a first time home-builder but I'll have to ask him to verify.

And in my immediate neighborhood of about 120 homes, there are at least three others that I know of that were owner-builder built. One used UBuildIt, and one used OwnerBuilderNetwork but I'm not sure of the third. I have not heard any of these folks say anything bad about their experience.

Meanwhile, it's sad to say but "builder bashing" is a pretty common topic of conversation at our neighborhood parties. Every home in the neighborhood is custom or semi-custom and it seems like almost everyone has a horror story to tell.

Sorry builders. I KNOW there are wonderful builders out there. My uncle builds custom homes in NC and I know for a fact that his clients love him. Unfortunately in my part of the country, there seems to only two or three builders that everyone consistently says good things about. The rest.... Well, maybe it is because general contractors are totally unregulated in Texas but most of us agree that few of the builders in our area would stay in business 20 minutes in any part of the country where they had to actually show they KNEW how to build before getting a license to GC residential construction.

Texas really is the wild wild west when it comes to the building industry. Maybe that is why companies like UBuildIt and OwnerBuilderNetwork thrive here.

im building in rio rancho new mexico. im very unsure of how i want to do it

I think it all depends on your local office. Each office is independently owned. We are using UBuildIt. There have been good things and things I have hated. Would I do it again? Not sure. And several things I did not like about it were specific to our local office.

I would find people who have used your local UBuildIt. And be sure to talk to several people. In our case, it took a lot of our time. I work part time and am off in the summers so was very flexible in meeting subs, planning.

We are first time homebuilders but had DIY'ed an almost total home reno in our current home.

Good luck!

like okpokestan said, Ubuildit is all about your local franchise.

We started out as a Ubuildit, but seem to be transitioning to custom for a variety of reasons. The local Ubuildit person is also a custom builder and can offer a range of options for who does what.

Several of our friends did Ubuildit here and were very happy with the experience. It will take all of your spare time for the duration of the project.

One of the advantages you get is that they have a lot more leverage with the subs than you would as a single home GC. Subs need to do good work or they get kicked off the island and Ubuildit tends to be pretty steady work.

You need to find other people who have used the local person to judge the experience.