The first thing you need to do is pick out a plan and meet with a GC.

The "I can do the finishes myself" is not wise if this is your first time building.......how much time on your hands do you have while building?.......construction interest payments do not stop until you are finished.

There are numerous costs to build besides the cost of construction. There are building permits, utility fees, etc. Best to go to your local building department and ask them what the applicable fees will be. I'd do this while looking for a house plan that fits your needs.

Don't bother with a builder until you have a plan in hand.

The idea of completing your house yourself is a bad (BAD) idea unless you have nothing else to do for a year, and you know what you are doing. You will need to make the house "occupible" within the term of the construction loan (often a year), so that you can convert the temporary loan to a permanent mortgage.

Perhaps you should go to your financing source after visiting your building department to find out the terms and conditions for a construction loan and conversion to a permanent mortgage.

Good luck on your project.

Congrats on finding land you love! Below is a link to an old Gardenweb thread you might want to read before closing on the land purchase. If there are things mentioned that you haven't done before you close, they should definitely be at the top of your list to take care of ASAP.

As for doing part of work on the house yourselves, it is certainly possible but how successful you'll be depends in large part on just how 'handy' you really are and on how much time and energy you have to devote. You don't mention having any children yet but, since you mentioned wanting 3 or 4 bedrooms and that you're in your late 20's, I'm guessing that you may plan on having a child or two eventually. A pregnancy WHILE you are in the midst of building can severely cut into your time/energy for devoting to the build while simultaneously putting a sense of pressure on you to 'just get the darned house finished!' LOL!

So, my advice is be careful not to bite off more than you can chew. But, if you have some actual building experience already... like maybe having volunteered extensively with Habitat for Humanity or having done some major renovations on a previous home... and can accurately judge both your skill level and the time you'll have available to devote - then go for it. Nobody else will ever put as much CARE into building your home as you will!

Getting a contractor who is in charge of finishing the entire house to agree to let you do certain portions of the work yourself MAY prove difficult. Contractors are much more likely to prefer to hire 'professionals' under the claim that they can rely on professionals to get in and get the job done and that having the homeowner do part of the work could delay the overall progress. It also puts you and the general contractor in a rather odd relationship in that, the general contractor works for you but, to the extent you are acting as subcontractor for some portion of the work, you work for him. It kind of blurs the lines of authority.

It is also possible to enter into a contract with a builder to him do the foundation, framing, rough plumbing, roofing, and finish the shell (up to dried-in stage or to the sheetrocked stage or to whatever point you decide) and, once he has completed all the work he was hired to do, he gets paid and steps out of the picture leaving you to finish the rest of it yourselves...either by directly hiring subcontractors or by doing the hands on work yourselves. Getting a bank on board with this kind of plan can be a bit difficult though. Banks typically want the house to be finished and ready to be lived in when the last of the construction loan money is drawn down. Plus, if there are any warranty issues once the house is fully complete, it can be difficult to nail down responsibility.

Another option would be to go the owner-builder route so that your are your own general contractor for the entire build. That way you hire can subcontractors or do specific jobs yourself, as you desire. You're in total charge. There are consulting companies that, for a fee (which is much less than a general contractor's typical percentage) will guide and assist you as you owner-build. They lead you thru the applicable laws so that you get all the necessary permits and inspections, advise you on the order in which to do various jobs...including how far in advance one usually needs to order certain materials, provide you with lists of pre-vetted subcontractors which you can choose to hire, etc. They'll even help you find banks that will give construction loans to owner-builders. Working with such a consulting company can give you the same clout with subcontractors that a volume builder would have because the subcontractors know that, if they don't do a good job for you, they lose all future business that might come their way via the owner-builder consultant. (And owner-builders tend to pay subcontractors ON TIME so, once they've worked for an OB, many subcontractors actually wind up preferring it.) Be aware that, as an owner-builder, YOU are responsible for any state mandated warranties if you sell the house to someone else before the warranty periods have expired.

My sense, from being on this board for more than 5 years now, is that owner-building is MUCH more common (and much more accepted) in the south than in the north...maybe because we tend to have fewer laws that protect homeowners from being victimized by unscrupulous builders here in the south so, to protect themselves, more southerners decide to owner-build. Or, maybe it is simply because having warmer weather most of the year just makes owner-building seem more attractive. Let's face it, most of us know that we don't want to be freezing our buns off hanging sheetrock or installing tile in an unfinished unheated shell in the middle of the winter! We don't even want to have to be closely inspecting a sub-contractor's work when it's 20 degrees outside. LOL!

I know at least a dozen different people who have owner-built custom homes (with guidance from one of several different owner-builder consulting companies) and every single one of them says that they saved money, got a nicer home, and would owner-build again in a heartbeat.

As for plans... you have several options for finding a plan and there are pros and cons to each:

1) If you want a custom design, hire an architect and have them create one just for you. Expect to pay anywhere from about $5/sq foot to 15% or more of your build price for architectural services. Price depends how detailed you want the plans and specs to be and what services, if any, you want the architect to provide beyond just rendering basic plans. If you want the architect to oversee the build process (i.e., ride head on the general contractor) expect to pay quite a bit more than if you just want them to render plans for you. At a minimum, if I hired an architect, I would want them to provide plans and complete specifications and then agree to be available (perhaps for an hourly fee) to settle any disputes regarding interpretation of the plans. And I would also expect them to provide, for free, any additional architectural services that proved necessary due to any flaws/omissions in the original plans.

2) Find a design online or in a house plan book that you generally like, purchase it along with a CAD version, and have it modified as needed to meet local codes. Some of the online plan sources now ask where you plan to build. I assume they do so so that they can advise you on whether the plan you have chosen already meets the building codes in your jurisdiction or can be modified easily to meet codes. Unless you find a plan that needs very very little modification to suit you perfectly though, you may wind up wasting significant time and money going this route. And apparently a lot of architects really don't like being asked to modify a pre-existing plan. You may have more luck if you hire a younger architect who is hungry for work. Alternatively, take the CAD to a draftsman to revise then have it the revised plan reviewed by a structural engineer with knowledge of local code requirements. Note that, in this case, if there are any flaws/omissions in the final plans, you're on your own hook to work out an acceptable solution with the builder.

3) Find a house built locally that you like, track down the architect and find out if he/she will license the plan to you. Be aware that if the house was fully custom, the architect may have contracted with the homeowner NOT to re-license the same work within a certain distance from the original build. (Folks who have paid for a truly custom design may not want another home exactly like theirs being built a block away!) Building a house from a plan that has already been successfully built minimizes that chances that there are undiscovered flaws/omissions in the plan.

4) Hire a design/build company that has an architect/draftsman on board. The really major potential problem with going this route is that, once you have a satisfactory plan, you can't put the design out for competitive bids. You are locked into either accepting the price the design/build company gives you for building the house or starting back over at square one. And, if midway thru the build, you find you have to fire your builder (it happens) or he goes bankrupt (it also happens), I'm not at all sure what legal right you would have to use the plans to finish the build.

5) Hire a volume builder and just choose one of their designs. Typically the only customizing that a volume builder will allow is in the finish work. I.e., you can choose paint colors, carpet colors, and choose from among the a limited palette of tiles, hardwoods, plumbing fixtures, and lighting fixtures. Don't go in thinking you can ask them to move walls or add in a window or two. Probably won't happen!

6) Design your own home. This takes an immense amount of time and study. It is definitely NOT for the faint of heart or those who are unwilling to learn one heck of a lot about architectural design and building codes AND be willing to learn to use a reasonably good CAD program. It also probably helps to have a good knowledge of basic physics and, even then, you'll probably eventually want to have your design carefully reviewed by a structural engineer. And of course, if there are any flaws/omissions in the design, coming up with a way to fix them is all on you.

Here is a link that might be useful: What do you need to do/know if buying raw land

First, before you close on the land,if you haven't already, get a perc test to be sure you can put in a septic system. If you can't, don't buy the land.

Also, make sure you're including the cost of septic, well, getting utilities to the building site, and cost of the driveway in your budget. I know you're in a low cost area, but there's a limit to how cheaply things can be done, and some of the real necessities are more expensive than I would have guessed (we're about to get started with our first build on unimproved acreage-- learning about all the costs from our builder has been quite an education). I suspect that you may either expand your budget or reduce the size of what you build now.

When you consider doing work yourselves, remember that you will be paying interest on your construction loan throughout the build, while living elsewhere, and if your sweat equity makes the construction process take longer (for example by delaying when the next step can begin, while the subcontractor goes on to another job) that might end up costing you more than you saved.

On the other hand, if you can afford for the build to draw out (do you have free rent in your employee housing?) it might be fine.

Wow, thanks for all the info, and thanks for the link bevangel! Good to know re: finishing ourselves. We don't have to worry about kiddos right now, and our housing is free, so there's not a lot in the way of us taking a little more time to save money by DIYing some things. But I was concerned about a GC "allowing" us to do that stuff - and for good reason, it seems. I hadn't known about the impact of buyer-finishing on the loan status - that's good advice!

I failed to mention - the land has been somewhat improved by the previous owner, who had planned on building there until the housing market crash a few years ago - the bank pretty much laughed them off when they tried to get the construction loan at that time. We have a copy of the survey that was done as well as the soil test. He did have a transformer installed (shared with the neighbor) so underground electric is already on the lot, and it has been perc'd previously - we'll have to have it updated, since the permit expired in 2009, but we do know that it at least perc's for a 3 bedroom house. Water lines aren't run yet but do exist in the neighborhood. He also did quite a bit of heavy clearing on the part where the house will sit. We also have a copy of the developer's restrictions, which only concern us in that we can't build modular (anything that comes on wheels is a no-no) which might have saved us some money and been a quicker build. I've spoken to the county building inspector's office and she was mostly concerned with us making sure we had the sewage perc done. :-)

So much to learn!!

it has been perc'd previously - we'll have to have it updated, since the permit expired in 2009, but we do know that it at least perc's for a 3 bedroom house.

But, you still need to get it redone. The rules may have changed since then and what was allowed when the permit was issued may not be allowed now. Also, there are rules with regard to how far away from the septic field the house can be located, so if you are changing the location of the house on the property, you need to consider the location of the septic field.

Also, you really need to discuss everything with your lender. Some lenders are reluctant to loan money for the construction of a house if the property owners currently have a loan on the land.

Yeah, that's what I meant by "we'll have to have it updated" - we know it has to be redone, but we also know that we are building in the same place as previous plans and so we can keep in mind the previous permit. As for the lender, we are working with a lender who will roll the balance of our land loan into the construction loan while allowing us to use the part of the land that's paid off as our equity on the construction loan. We are paying half of the land cost up front and financing the other half, so the loan on the land is very low, relatively speaking. (I hope that all made sense!)

I have on my list right now: get sewage permit, investigate approximate taxes and insurance cost, schedule initial meetings with builders to look at our land, look at plans and understand what we can do within our budget, and research research research!

It looks like the easiest route is to allow the GC to do everything, and maybe just save money by going with builder-grade finishes at the beginning... I'm just overwhelmed by the thought of spending so much money, but as I said, it will be our first time as homeowners!

"...It looks like the easiest route is to allow the GC to do everything..."

If you put "everything" into the hands of your builder, you'd better be very sure of the builder's:
--experience
--judgment
--integrity
--skill of workmen and subcontractors
--scheduling and availability for consistent and timely work
--regular payment to subcontractors and suppliers

Most of all you do not assume that the builder will always put your interests ahead of her/his interests, which is seldom the case.

Some words of experience: do your important early due diligence, and take all steps necessary to look after and protect your own interests. This includes getting all requirements for zoning, construction and occupancy from your local building department, a commitment from your lender and final design/construction drawings and specifications in hand that are fully acceptable to you.

Eliminate or minimize allowances; have everything selected and specified or shown on the construction drawings.

Do nothing without a careful, detailed and explicit written construction contract. Look for model examples and don't just accept what the builder wants to hand you. Think about all the things that could go wrong and be sure they are covered in the construction contract before signing and commencing construction.

Good luck on your project.

Thank you all - it's so helpful to hear from those who have "gone before"!

I'm so OCD that everything - county requirements, contractor info, conversations with ANYONE, lender info, specifications on everything going into the house or on the land, etc etc - will be researched out the wazoo, checked and double checked, written down, signed, and followed. It would stress me out to do otherwise! haha I'm already setting up a binder to keep us organized - I read another great thread on this forum about that very topic - right up my alley.

I'll definitely stick around and keep reading other threads here - if that's okay! :-)