What About Do-It-Yourself
Thursday, March 20th, 2014 | Uncategorized | No Comments
When the modern log home industry got off the ground the manufacturers primarily sold material packages only. They encouraged owner builders with their promotion of the “sweat equity” concept. This marketing approach claimed savings of 20% to 25% could be achieved by eliminating the contractor’s fee, and even more if the customer was skilled in any of the trades. Customers buying these packages were either do-it-yourself builders or they had a builder lined up to build the home.
Over time the manufacturers added dealers in local markets who in some cases were builders. At the same time a cadre of independent “log home builders” developed in areas where log homes very popular and they began to court the manufacturers to secure construction contracts with their customers. Eventually, some of the manufacturers formed their own construction crews and offering this service in addition to the material packages.
In many cases the do-it-yourself customer purchased the package from the manufacturer, hired a log home builder to erect the package and dry-in shell and then acted as an owner builder thereby still saving the contractor’s fee. The do-it-yourself customer continued to be a substantial percentage of log home customers. In time, the do-it-yourself customer faded and general contractors became the predominant builders in the log home industry.
Today, we are seeing a moderate resurgence in the owner builder market. With most manufacturers offering dry-in services, an owner can act his own contractor, subcontracting all of the work not completed in the dry-in service. Then he/she can either manage the project or hire a knowledgeable, experienced project manager or overseer to assist in completing the construction of the home. In this way the owner can still save a significant amount of the total cost of the home while not being consumed by the construction process.
A manufacturer that offers the log package, the dry-in service and a consulting, project management or oversight service would offer a very attractive bundled package to a cost conscious log home buyer. Obviously, not all log home customers want to be involved in the construction process, but for those who are willing to be, this bundled approach can result in a lower total cost of construction without introducing undue risk for the owner builder.
We see this approach as a viable way for the log home enthusiast to acquire his/her dream log home at a reduced cost while garnering the physic income and pride of “doing-it-themselves.”
