The Owner Builder School of Oregon has been assisting homeowners in the Oregon/Washington area to build new homes or remodel existing ones in a timely and cost effective manner for fifteen and a half years.
Owner Builder Homes, a division of the school has developed a unique slate of programs in the home building community tailored for the discriminating homeowner interested in obtaining the most home for the least money. These three programs include:

The Owner Builder Program

Cost Plus Fixed Fee Program

Project Consultation Program

THE OWNER BUILDER PROGRAM

This is program was developed to help the homeowner that really wanted to be his or her own contractor and save the money charged by a full service contractor for overhead and profit. This program is a real money saver, our fees normally come in at around 5-6% depending on the size of the home, as opposed to a full service contractor who normally charges 20-25%. The homeowner must assume the responsibilities of the general contractor including obtaining sub-contractors, scheduling and making inspections.

Why go with Owner Builder Homes at all if you are going to be the general contractor?

Two excellent reasons:

(1) it has been our experience that homeowners may have difficulty obtaining a construction loan from a lending institution.
(2) many people would like some assistance in the various problems that seem to never go away during any construction project.

To solve the above two problems, and more, our services include:

Financing
We will become the Contractor of Record for your home with the lending institution to assist you in obtaining a construction loan.

Design and Specification Review
We will review your plans and specifications with you to help you get the home you want, and can afford, in the most efficient and cost effective manner. Design work requiring drafting and major changes to the specifications will be your responsibility. We can provide these services at competitive rates.

Estimating Review
We will go over your estimate with you to insure the costs are reasonable and help you avoid mistakes and omissions. We will also place the estimate on our computer based estimating program. During construction this same sheet will allow you, and us, to track costs.

Sub-Contractor Review
We will provide you with a list of sub-contractors working with the owner builder that will assist you in finding qualified sub-contractors. You may, of course, select any licensed and bonded contractor you wish, in fact, we encourage that you do so. We will help you select the contractor to do the work based on cost experience, and quality of work. We will also check all contractors you have solicited with the Oregon/Washington Construction Contractors Board.

Project Scheduling Assistance
We will provide assistance to you in scheduling your project. We will help you set the initial schedule and will update the schedule on a monthly basis. We will place your schedule in our scheduling program which will allow us to make modifications quickly and easily.

Construction inspections
To insure you get what you paid for and assist you in the construction we will make on site construction inspections, an average of twice weekly.  A written report will be made of each inspection, a copy left at the site and a second mailed to your residence.  The report will site any deficiencies found and suggested corrections.

Periodic Payments
Each month during the construction phase you will have various invoices to pay for materials and sub-contractors.  All invoices and the request for disbursement of funds from the bank providing the construction loan, will be put through this office. However, this initial paperwork, invoices and requests for disbursement, will be done by the owner

Energy Profile
To provide you with information acceptable to both Oregon and Washington (not to mention Good Cents and Super Good Cents programs) that your home meets energy requirements we will develop an energy profile of your home based on the data you will provide us on our form. To assist you in making energy related decisions we will provide two energy profiles so you can compare them side-by-side.

The fee for this program will be $6.00 per square foot of living space if we are the Contractor of Record. If you have other financing where we are not the Contractor of Record the fee is negotiable.

return to top of page
 

COST PLUS FIXED FEE PROGRAM

Although commonly used in the commercial field this method is not often used in residential construction principally because the homeowner and builder never have a period of time to build a basis of trust.

This program, however, can save you those costs that any good contractor adds for contingency, normally 10% or more plus overhead and profit which can add up to a total of 35% or more.

The way this program works is that an estimate of cost for the home will be agreed to between Owner Builder Homes and the homeowner.  Based on this estimate our fee will be determined. From that point on any additions or reductions in the cost of the project will have no effect on the fee. In other words, Owner Builder Homes has no vested interest in increasing the cost of the project through change orders, our fee is fixed.

Although negotiable, our normal fee is 15% of the construction costs.

return to top of page
 

PROJECT CONSULTATION PROGRAM

Before Construction We Can Assist You With:

Your Plans and Specifications to make recommendations and help you get the home you want.

An Energy Audit to assure that your home meets the Oregon or Washington energy codes (necessary for obtaining a permit).

The Project Estimate to help you in insuring that no items are missed and that the costs seem reasonable.

The Schedule of Work to insure the time lines are reasonable and all items are scheduled.

Contract Documents to insure you are protected and getting what you want.

The Siting of the home to your best benefit.

During Construction We Can Assist You With:

Site Visits in which we will inspect the work and make recommendations as to corrections with written reports.

Review of Costs To-Date to assist you in paying and budgeting.

Review of your Schedule to assure a smooth flow of work with no down time.

These services are provided on a $65 per hour consultation basis. We are available at any time to provide expertise in all areas of your construction project.

---

These three programs put a team of proven professionals on your side. Our purpose is to assist you in completing your project as quickly as possible while getting the most house for the money.

Whether you want to be your own contractor, work with a full service builder or just need a little advice and help with problems as they arise, we can provide the know-how in all phases of your project.

return to top of page