Why not just hit up your local big box store, aka the evil orange, aka Home Depot. Most everything they sell is from China!

Well, they put a lot of markup profit.

Poor quality building materials are not a bargain. There's a lot of cheap used Chinese drywall in Florida.

Oh boy...... 20 hours/week... 9 months... all I can say is until you've done it, building/gc'ing is simply not THAT easy. And, just a guess, but if you're approaching the building process this early and coming to a forum asking 'can I save $150K', my short answer is a resounding 'No'. If it were just 9 months easy, lots of people would/could do it.

But, that's not to say that it can't be done. Lots of people here have done some impressive work and spent far less than what you might think looking at their houses. Then again, some people like myself, have spent more than 5 years (yep!) and still aren't finished!

On the importing issues, I'm sure you can get some goods outside of country that are nice and may be cheaper. Then again, importing anything is never a quick process nor always as cheap as you think it's going to be. And, subs will charge more to deal with non-standard building materials, so what you may save in materials, you may end up spending that (and more) in labor. Not to rain on your parade, just some advice to proceed with a great degree of caution.

Best of luck!

I'd be cautious about importing anything from as far away as China. It might never arrive, or arrive in time, or it might get held up in Customs, or turn out to be broken or defective or of substandard quality or the wrong size. And things like that seem to happen at the wrong time. So, the purchase you just saved $500 on will cost you another $10,000 in delays.

If you hurry you might be able to joint the law suit.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chinese drywall

Knauf. Funny, doesn't sound Chinese to me.

Homebuilding is such a simple and lucrative business that anyone--especially someone with an engineering degree--can save half by doing it himself in his spare time.

The mfgr's name is on the products, they are simply fabricated in China thanks to Mr. Clinton's "historic" trip to China during his "reign" where he escorted many American corporations who were convinced they needed cheaper labor to produce inferior products all at the expense of many Americans who ended up in the unemployment lines. Next time you purchase a Milwaukee power toll, take a good look at where it was "manufactured".

With the O.P's attitude and M.O., sounds like another quality built home headed for the pages of "Fine Home Building". NOT!

Of course I intend to hire subcontractors. I wanted to do the general contracting job and some easier indoor job like flooring, trimming, painting etc.

I'll stick to the OP questions. Yes, you can go around the big box stores and boutiques, but I'd only do it for unfinished flooring, tile and those types of items. Lights and plumbing fixtures, stick with normal companies, but search and buy online. BuildDirect was great for travertine and slate tile. They also have flooring, siding and some roofing. You do have to buy in large quantities though.

I'll stick to the OP's original question.

We did import some items from China about 3 years ago that were cost prohibitive here - marble stair treads, marble interior columns and marble (hand carved) fireplace mantels. My husband's father was a contractor, and it still was not easy. There are customs, details (something is always not right) and you have to be willing to do a LOT or work to get the items imported.

I'm not sure how much the prices have changed, but you can (or at least could), send photos of mantel carvings, etc. and it would be fabricated to your specifications. Installation can be quite complex for that type of item (heavy and breakable).

We also used BuildDirect for cedar siding and shingles.

Travertine tile we bought at close out at HD and used it in the basement. Installation was twice as expensive as the tile, so take that into consideration as well.

Good luck.

I don't know about material cost savings buying from Mexico, but 20 hours/week does not sound like enough labor for significant savings. You'll spend that overseeing the subs and fixing their mistakes.

DH spent 70-80 hours/week for a year - I would say that instead of saving money, we have a higher quality home than we could have afforded.

40 years ago I asked a motorcycle enthusiast if I should buy a bike to tour Europe and he said only if that was my preferred mode of transportation. It wasn't; so I didn't do it and had a great trip.

So I will tell you, don't GC your own house unless that is what you would prefer to be doing with all of your free time for the next year. Forget the money issue unless you are an experienced contractor and single. After deducting the cost of mistakes and a divorce it's a very poor investment of your time.

We are O.B'ing our build and are going ridicoulsly slow as we dont work on it during the winter months. I have been in various trades for well over twenty years and I can tell you there are many eye opening learning lessons that I have gotten so far from the experience from our build. We are close to getting our occupancy permit/final inspection and it has gone relatively smooth, as it should with a slow build. There have been hiccups along the way. Knowing how to do most of the physical work with my experience has only scratched the surface compared to what you are going to need to know involving the process as a whole. You need to do extensive research on not only your locals permitting process, inspection procedures and the order in which they happen, as well as site prep requirements, etc. That's just part of the local show. You need to know the steps of a build in general in order to be able to line your subs up efficiently without them stumbling over one another or worse, making them wait to take on your project. When that happens, it simply causes your project to be delayed, as they will go elsewhere to schedule their work. We all like to stay busy! Having motor skills as a "handyman" is great, but you are in for a long ride if you dont research in detail the whole process invoving your build. You will also need to have made major decisions concerning everything from layouts involving mechanicals to finishes, decisions that if not prepared for ahead of time will cost you as change orders from your subs as well as more delays. Pick up literature online as well as libraries, talk to your local building dept. for info as much about the process and steps that you can gather well before even thinking about breaking ground. Even at that, expect the unexpected and as stated above, you are going to need way more time than 20 hrs/ week.

OK, I admit, probably I won't be able to do the GC job.
How about hiring UBuildIt (UB) or OwnerBuilder (OB)consultant who basically does all the GC task with owner full involvement?
Would that be practical?

Choice 1) A builder is asking for cost plus 15%. That amounts to $90,000 on $600,000 home.
Choice 2) UBuildIt (UB) or OwnerBuilder (OB) consultant would charge $3.00/sq. ft. That would cost me $18,000 on 6,000 sq.ft. house. But with OB or UB I will have to spend a lot more time.

A well established/experienced builder who is well known in your area for outstanding, quality workmanship/business sense got that way by knowing the in's and out's of a build and by having quality subs/employees. I know of a Bay area builder who says that even after thirty + years, He is still amazed at the many variables of a home build but also stated that part of a succesful build is owner participation. You are still going to have to know what you want concerning many aspects of your home well ahead of time to lessen "change orders" that can break a build. Imo, you would be best suited to seek out a quality, reputable builder in your area for your project and set up a scheduling with him/her for things like layout, locales, finishes, etc., which you are going to want to know ahead of time in order to keep it all on that schedule. You're going to have to dedicate time no matter which route you choose, but sometimes spending a little more dinero now will save you tons in the end. Pay now or pay later in a lot of cases.

By the way, no offense, but my wife works with various engineers on a naval base who all seem to have the "get r as cheap as you can" mentality and it seldom works out that way with their projects. She listens to their whines and complaints all the time!

I was just wondering what does it take to make homes like this? Click through some of these pictures.
http://www.steverobertscustombuilders.com/steveroberts.htm

Money.

More money than taste IMHO.

More money than taste

For the nouveau riche, excess is success.

And the most successful luxury builders cater to it slavishly. That builder claims 40 homes a year. I'm downloading all those pics!

They do not know what Understated Elegance means.

One of my clients nailed it by calling it "feigned elegance".

http://www.steverobertscustombuilders.com/steveroberts.htm

"Feigned elegance" ?
That's neither fair nor true.

Those houses are really elegant. You and I might not be able to afford it that's a different story. But no doubt interior looks fantastic. And there is nothing fake about it.

I talked to this builder for hour and a half today. According to him, in his 35 years of carrier he has build hundreds of houses ranging from $400,000 to $15,000,000

He is going to take me and my family to show some of his show cases in Dallas/Frisco/Plano, Texas area this weekend.

Liberace called. He wants his candelabra back.

It looks like the builder is good at what he does, and, if that's your taste, then I think you may have found your guy. I would not be comfortable in such monumental and ornately finished rooms, and you would probably find my house far too austere. But it would be horrible if we all liked the same type of house. The main thing to think about when you tour those houses is: would I feel comfortable living here and inviting my friends and family to visit? There's no implied judgment there. I'm just suggesting you should reflect on your feelings about the impressiveness of the rooms and what your feelings are about what a home should be. If those two things are in alignment, it should work for you.

Q "I was just wondering what does it take to make homes like this? "

A. The balls to charge $400-$600 per square foot plus a case of Pepto Bismal to stomach actually building those monstrosities.

Here's a clue: "Elegance" isn't gold lined walls and crystal chandeliers everywhere and 99 gables in the houseplan. Since I'm a KD, I'll pick apart the kitchens. Here's a real big point for anyone to digest, and it goes for more than kichens: BIGGER ISN'T BETTER! Badly designed big spaces are actually worse than badly designed small spaces. That barrier island in the middle of everything and the huge space would make that a truly awful kitchen to actually work in. Even if you only cared about how it looks, there are more than a few issues here. Putting a cooktop under a window is both against code in most of the US and a really really stupid idea from any functional or fire safety standpoint. Using cheap awful cabinets with stacked crown molding and a "garden" growing above them is no substitute for taller better quality cabinets. That's also true of most of the rest of the houses. Using ornate poor quality materials is no substitute for good design and high quality bones. It's a pig in a satin prom dress with a sparkly tiara and faux diamond earrings and a Hummer limo. It' screams "look at me" but doesn't have any clue as to how to be functional and authentic.

Some items are just sooooo much cheaper in China it's ridiculous...

A staircase that I really like from a "distributor" in Florida costs $27000 (twenty seven thousand). I found the EXACT same staircase from the Manufacturer in China on their chinese web site. Quoted price from factory is 18800 RMB (Chinese currency), which converts to $2752.

I also found the sofa that I bought for $2400 in the USA at the Chinese manufacturer for $300. Totally ridiculous, those markups.

" Totally ridiculous, those markups."

Now all you have to do is arrange shipping (sea freight in a container), arrange for importation, pay any duty, and get the item shipped from the port of entry to your location.

Unless you have the entire container shipped to you, a freight forwarder will be required at the port of entry to empty the container and disperse the contents.

And if something arrives damaged, defective, or the wrong color, try getting anything refunded.

It is yours.

Your payments will already have been collected before the item even was loaded at the sending end.

I'm sure I can do this for less than $24000.

Look, I gladly would pay $8000 for that staircase, if there were a US distributor offering it for this amount. But they want $27000 for something that costs I've been to China on business and I have shipped items internationally before. I have native mandarin speakers in my family and I rather fly to Shanghai and import some items myself than pay an arm and a leg to some rip-off company in the USA.

Liberace called again. He wants his staircase back.

And you can probably get a real bargain on Chinese drywall while you are at it.

I have imported things multiple times over the years, and you are glossing over a whole lot of issues that will arise with a large shipment that do not apply to items sent in cardboard boxes.

Good luck.

What do you plan on doing if the staircase is not as you wish?

You can have all the Mandarin speakers you want, you have no leverage to force anything to happen.

Hello,

I realize this is 6 years later but i'm facing the exact challenge and for the same exact reasons. Did you ever follow through with importing from China ? I've found the same thing as the original poster and the many comments -- i.e. price = cost + shipping still wayyyyy less than U.S. bought .. To the point where even if i get 25% wastage .. i'm still ahead ..

By my last count -- because i'm considering importing all the aerated autoclaved concrete from China .. i'd have between 13-16 40' shipping containers .. and yes i've priced it out .. heck .. i can even buy the containers, and use them as extreme storage after the fact .. or that ideal workshop .. lol

Any new experiences to share ?

Thanks for any feedback/help

There is no free ride. You simply cannot build a high-quality home going cheap, unless your name happens to be Joe Silva.

That being said, the concern I'd have with importing materials is finding people who can work with it. You might be able to find some kind of rare hardwood for flooring in Mexico, but if contractors have no clue how to treat or install it, then it's just expensive junk.

And yes, Home Depot does make a profit, but they're nothing in retail like they were years ago.

You can't have both cheap and quality in the overall build situation.

I admit drooling over the prices of custom stone work on AliBaba. (Probably just the meds.) But even the plumbing ware from the Big Boxes manufactured on the Mainland is of such low quality, I can't imagine what one would get ordering directly. If it actually came. Since US prices are a bargain here, I'm content to occasionally dip my feet in that southern pool. (Until the Trumpster builds you a wall.)

I've ordered quite a few small consumer items from china recently ... direct ship though .. no problems .. once an item was overdue .. refund came the next day. However I was asking here because of the commercial side ..

I've looked at woods, concrete products AAC, electrical cabling (the 1/2" cable needed from the power company to the house 1/5 the price), stonework, plumbing, fixtures, etc etc etc .. even the total fee of about $5 door to door here in PHX still makes it cheaper to buy there .. and at worst the 3% tarrifs ... still my order would have to be 100% crap (on about 15 containers worth) and that's not likely ..

Anyway ...

I don't care if it were free, I could not bring myself to run Chinese wire in my house.I think there's a lot of scary imports, but that is one of THE scariest!

Funny you should say that ... external china made electrical OK inside the house Nope, outside water, gas, etc .. no problem ... inside the house .. i'll pay the surcharge even if its still being made in china .. there's a US manufacturer behind it ...

Yep there is a US mfr behind it, just like drywall, flooring and pet foods...................

Yep, People's Republic of China sourced electrical cable. What a bargain! (Till your house goes up in flames.)

As someone who is the current owner of a Chinese drywall house that was rebuilt after Katrina, be very carefull of buying any building materials from China....

I'm surprised no one's brought this up: A 6000 sf house is huge. It's overkill. It's better to have a smaller house built correctly with quality materials instead of something oversized but cheaply built.

Feigned elegance -- yeah, I see it that way, but I'm not into that faux European look.

Unfortunately MrsPete, people like to impress and they feel bigger is more impressive. I'm with you. I'd rather build a smaller home with quality materials and interesting details. I can see a 6000 sq foot home if you entertain 20+ most weekends or you have a dozen kids, but otherwise, why?

or maybe its a multi-generational home built to be able to give care to 2 sets of elderly parents instead of pawing them off on the state ? but .. i concede to the liberal new age moral superiority being expressed we should all be forced to live in a single wide trailer obamahousing, everyone equal comrade :-) Nothing is more unique than being the same.