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Building a Home on Maui

Build Your Dream Home in Paradise

My dream to build my own house began in college when I helped my father put a second story on the house I grew up in. Over the years, I have bought and sold homes, but it wasn't until this year that my wife and I broke ground on building our own home. This house is still under construction, but we already have had a number of learnings that I would like to share.

Finding The Right Land

When it comes to buying the right piece of land for your dream home, it would be easy to fall back on the real estate cliché of location, location, location. That may be true but I would add one more consideration -- zoning.

For most people their dream home is more than just the house, it may be a house and an ohana (cottage), it may involve having horses, it may be about privacy and low density. Zoning places restrictions and requirements on a parcel of land, and as such, you should discuss what your complete dream is with your REALTOR and then together determine which zoning would be the most compatible with your vision. For example, if your dream includes horses and you are willing to dedicate 50% or more of your land to some sort of agricultural pursuit, then an agricultural zoned lot may be perfect for you. Conversely, if you have no interest in anything remotely agricultural, then an ag lot maybe be the last thing you should own.

Design - Building Options

Once you have land, it is now time to design and build. There are a number of options here on Maui, ranging from using a full service design build company to design the house and managing the project yourself as an owner builder. The best option for you is dependent on how much of your own time and energy you want to invest in this project.

A design-build company is one stop shopping. You sit down with them, explain your vision and they do the entire project to completion. The advantage to this approach is that everything is done for you.
There is also the more classic approach of hiring an architect to design the house and then hiring a general contractor to build the house. The advantage to this approach is you can use the architect and builder of your choice. It is also possible to use a mainland architect as the plans need to be stamped by either a licensed Hawaii architect or a licensed Hawaii engineer.

As you may have just figured out, you don't need an architect at all, but could actually design the house yourself and have a draftsperson do the drawings. This is the approach we took and allowed us to create a house that would meet our unique needs.

It is a very personal decision whether you hire a general contractor or be your own builder. If you think that words like micro-manager and control-freak describes you well and you take them as a complement, you may want to be an owner builder. My wife and I decided that it was for us as we want to have the satisfaction of knowing we did some of the work ourselves and are comfortable managing the project.
If you go the owner builder route, here are some suggestions and things to be aware of:

• Hire a "permit expediter" to handle your building permit submission to the County of Maui. It will save you a lot of time and headaches.
• You are required to use licensed electrical and plumbing contractors.
• If you hire individuals to work on your project that do not work for a licensed contractor, pay these individuals through an Employment Agency so all the state requirements like insurance are satisfied.

If you share my dream of building your own home, it can be done here on Maui in a number of different ways. Just be honest with yourself as to how much time and energy you can personally invest in the project. By choosing the best approach for you, your experience in building your own home will be a positive one.

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