I am looking for an owner builder construction loan in Fayetteville NC. Can anyone suggest any banks?My husband and I have land in Fayetteville NC. We are wanting to be our own general contractors. Can anyone help us with locating a bank or hard money lender that does owner construction loans? We are called almost every bank in the area. Any help would be greatly appreciated. | |
I did exactly what you're doing in 1994. I went to a local bank and I was able to get a construction loan and then built my home myself. At that time banks weren't as gun shy as they are today after so many failed loans over the past 4-5 years.
The bank I used was First Citizens Bank. I was able to strike up a good relationship with one of the branch managers and he was very helpful. I also had an older neighbor that was a semi retired building contractor who knew this particular manager and spoke to him on my behalf too. They had worked together numerous times on past building projects and trusted each other.
My neighbor agreed to oversee my job from time to time and give me some guidance here and there as needed. I agreed to pay him an hourly rate for his advice and consultation work. This satisfied the bank that I wouldn't be winging it completely alone and their investment wouldn't be as risky.
My suggestion would be to contact a local bank and maybe even a community bank or credit union and make an appointment to go in a speak with them face to face. Not necessarily to make "the deal" but to get their advice on how best to make this happen for you. The bank may be satisfied if you're able to put up a larger down payment to ease some of their risk and show your good faith. I owned my 3 acres of land free and clear and used that as my collateral.
Or, they may like it if you had some sort of agreement like I did with a licensed contractor to oversee your job. If that's the case, inquire about any contractors they're familiar with that would be open to this type of arrangement. The fact that this would be someone they already know would be a huge plus for you as for getting financing. If you know someone that's qualified ask them what they think or if they'd be willing to do a similar arrangement. Consider their fee a cost of construction too by the way.
The one difficult thing about a construction loan that you need to keep in mind is that usually there is a time limit of something like a year for you to get the house built and convert it to a conventional loan. This time limit for a self builder can be daunting. I subcontracted out some of the bigger jobs just to save time to meet the deadline. Things like the brick/block work and grading. The roof framing and shingles and hanging the sheetrock. Aside from those things, I did virtually all of the work myself.
I don't know what the current laws are concerning a self built home but I assume those haven't changed all that much. As I recall I had to live in the house a minimum of 12 months after final inspection and couldn't sell during that time. I moved in during February of 1995 and I'm still here!
If I can give you further advice or go into more detail please get in touch. Email me if you'd like and I'll send you some photos of my finished home.
Good luck!
