I Asked One Question. More Than 125 Owner Builders Replied.

One of the things I've learned since buying our rural block is that there are two ways to learn.

You can spend hours searching Google. Or you can ask someone who's already done it. This week, I decided to do the second.

I joined an owner builder Facebook group and asked one simple question.

"If you were building your own home again, what would you do differently?

I was hopeful people might respond, but the responses came thick and fast - more than 125 comments!!

Some people had built one house. Others had built several. Some had saved tens of thousands of dollars. Some openly shared the mistakes they wished they'd never made.

I spent the next few hours reading every single comment. By the end, I had pages of notes.

Everyone's journey was so different. Some built kitset homes, others built one room at a time over several years. Several years?!! Some had gone through the full consent process before they started, while others admitted they'd built a shed or cabin first before tackling the house. There were so many different ways people had made it work.

That was actually really reassuring because I really had no idea. This is all new to me and I need to work things out fast as we want to get out of our rental and onto our own land. So an efficient build is important!

What I learned was, there isn't one perfect way to build a home. There are lots of different ways to get there, and every family has different priorities, different budgets and different timelines.

As I kept reading, a few themes started appearing over and over again. People talked about buying smarter, not just buying cheaper. Easier said than done, but what did that mean?!

Things like joining cooperatives before spending serious money on building materials. Making the most out of the bulk buying power of the group. We'd never really thought much about that before, but after looking into it we've already joined a couple - the value is paid back in the first decent transaction.

Others people suggested checking out auction sites, online and in person, Facebook Marketplace and cancelled building projects (just ask the supplier if anything is on offer) because there are often perfectly good materials left over from other builds. It made complete sense. If someone changes their plans, why not give those materials a second life and save yourself some money at the same time?

Then there were the comments about planning. That one was very familiar to me. Before Paul and I started our own business, I spent more than twenty years working as a project manager. One of the sayings we used all the time was:

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

It's simple, but it's true.

If you don't spend enough time planning at the beginning, it's very easy to head down the wrong path. Sometimes you don't realise until weeks or even months later, and by then you've spent money, invested time and created a whole lot of work trying to unravel it all again.

Building a house feels exactly the same.

We're not in a rush.

I'd much rather spend another week researching than spend the next six months fixing an expensive mistake that could have been avoided.

That thinking has already saved us money.

Another thing I want to cover is getting lots of quotes for the exact same job. So that's what we've been doing and the difference between some of the quotes has been incredible.

For our windows and doors alone, we've found around $6,000 difference between suppliers for essentially the same order.

Six thousand dollars!

That's a huge saving from simply asking more than one person.

When you think about the size of the project we're planning, those savings really start to matter. We're not just building one house. Eventually we'll be building a second dwelling, sheds, poly tunnels, orchards, storage and everything else that goes with creating a small homestead. Saving a few thousand dollars here and there might not sound like much on one decision, but over the next few years it could easily add up to tens of thousands of dollars.

And this is something I dive deeper into in The Homestead Letters.

Every month I sit down, gather everything we've learned, work out what's actually been useful, and share those discoveries with subscribers.

Last month's letter included ten practical ways we've already managed to save money while planning our build. Next month's letter is already filling up with some of the best advice we've received from experienced owner builders, along with the ideas we're actually putting into practice ourselves.

The blogs tell the story of our journey.

The letters let me go a little deeper, sharing the practical lessons, the things we're trying, the money we're saving, family recipes and the little moments that don't always make it into a blog post.

More than anything though, I came away from those 125 comments feeling encouraged. Complete strangers took time out of their day to help us. Some wrote a few sentences. Others wrote what felt like mini blog posts of their own.

People genuinely wanted us to succeed, and that's a pretty nice feeling when you're standing at the beginning of something this big.

We're still learning. We're still asking questions.

And I have a feeling we'll be asking plenty more before this house is finished because we have nothing fully worked out. We're really making this up as we go along.

Best way to learn I reckon.

If you want to check out The Homestead Letters, the monthly main subscription I send to my subscribers - check it out here to learn more.