How To Self Build During A Recession - My Experience Of Building A Large Family Home

Our meeting with the planning officer...

My architect and I met with one of the planning officers last week. As mentioned previously on my blog, the previous owner of this property had a pretty difficult history with the planners. For example, he put up a building without permission, which they made him knock down and he generally gave them a lot of hassle.

In principal the planners are happy with our knock down and rebuild proposal. She wanted to see exterior drawings for the property we have in mind before we make a submission so off we went with our current plans (exterior and interior). She turned out to be young and actually really nice (and very pretty too in case she's reading this).

Fortunately she liked our ideas!

I have always believed in working with the best I can afford so I paid a little extra for a talented architect. We made sure we figured out what the planners were likely to want us to build and then we created my dream home from there. Therefore, we always knew the planning side of things should sail through pretty smoothly. The main points to keep in mind if you want to get your application through:

- Keep the property to about the same footprint as the existing building if possible. If you need more square footage consider a basement, a room above the garage, a conservatory later down the line or pop a few rooms into the loft space.

- If you can, build the new property in about the same place on the plot as the existing property.

- Try to retain a similar aspect and look. In my case we are working with a symmetrical property so we have worked with that. We have also brought the middle of the front of the property in a little to match the design of the existing property.

Of course you can go and break any or all of these rules and still get your permission and many people do just that. The trouble with trying to build something drastically different from what is already there (especially in a greenbelt location like me) means possible local opposition, possible planning rejection, planning appeal and a lot of wasted time and money so you need to account for all of these eventualities.

What to focus your team on...

Throughout the build I am constantly keeping my team and I focused on maximising the end value of the property. In the current climate the advantage of cheaper building materials and labour is balanced out by the potential difficulty of selling unless you hit all the hot buttons of the kind of person with the money and inclination to want to buy the kind of property you have developed.

That is why I will be taking our detailed plans with me to the estate agents that specialise in selling luxury properties at the top end of the Leicestershire market.

This value maximisation goal also involves making the best use of the living space you have.

For example, it is better to have seven good sized bedrooms than five very large bedrooms and lots of open wasted space everywhere. Not many people will pay a premium for wasted space when they can buy another property that better suits their needs. So try not to limit the resale potential because you will make the property harder to sell should you decide, or even need to in the future.

I have also signed up to channel 4 on demand which allows me to watch about half of all the grand designs programmes ever made for free. When I have some spare time I also contact self build bloggers so that I can experienced experts my questions. Like I said before, there is a TON of completely free information on the net which can save you thousands of pounds on a renovation project or even a new build like I am doing.

If you are a member of my Tycoon Mastermind Alliance coaching program, don't forget you will be invited to come and see the demolition of the existing property! I will be supplying beers and munchies. Sledgehammers are optional.

I mentioned in my last blog post that I am looking at new and exciting building methods. I forgot to mention the disadvantages!

- You might have difficulty raising a mortgage to build the property. Remember this will also make it difficult for potential buyers to raise a mortgage which could devalue your property. Keep an eye on the expected life expectancy figures for any building method you are considering.

- Keep a close watch on the cost but also think about the long term savings too. SIP panels for example for example are more expensive initially but their U values are exceptionally low which keeps your heating costs way down. You also might be able to get away with a much cheaper boiler too - again this all saves money long term.

- Find out how the follow on trades will dovetail with the new building method/s. For example, how will the wiring go in? What about plumbing? Will you need to train people to learn to work with the technology or is it straightforward?

When I have the plans finalised we will make our submission. In the meantime I will contact around 150 timber frame, SIP, ICF and other builders across the UK for quotes. I should be able to secure some keen prices here.

Great crested newts spotted nearby!

Oh and before I forget, there is a pond within 500m of my plot where great crested newts have been spotted. We therefore need to pay for an ecological survey which should come in at around £500-£600. It's not a problem as I spotted this when looking at a planning application from the previous owner so I have budgeted for it.

So now we just have our detailed plans to get finished off this week and the ecological survey to come back before we are ready to make a detailed planning permission submission.