Jump to content

Carl Heldmann

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Carl Heldmann (born 1942) is an American author, home builder, and construction loan consultant.

Personal life and his work

[edit]

Heldmann has been a home builder for over 30 years and a construction loan consultant to credit unions for 20 years. He is also the founder of two schools of homebuilding, a former newspaper housing columnist, and author of several books on building your own home whose aggregate sales are more than ½ million copies.[1] His book, Be Your Own General Contractor, has been in print for 25 years.[2] The 5th edition was published in 2006.[3] As of 2007, it had sold 300,000 copies.[4]

In April 2008, in response to the mortgage crisis, he was quoted as saying "In terms of finding land you want at a good price, this is the best market that I have seen in my 30 years of home building," in Money Magazine.[5]

The key element to Heldmann's written work, in both his books and his website[6] is estimating costs in home construction. He breaks down the selling price or market value of a house as follows: 25% material, 25% labor, 25% land cost, 12.5% builder profit, & 12.5% builder overhead.[7]

Published works

[edit]
  • Be Your Own House Contractor (2006)[8][9][10]
  • How to Afford Your Own Log Home, 5th: Save 25 Percent without Lifting a Log (2002)[11]
  • Learn To Be A General Contractor : Build Your Dream House Or Do A Renovation (1998)
  • Manage Your Own Home Renovation/How to Save 30% Without Lifting a Finger (1987)[12]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Amazon.com".
  2. ^ Morell, John (December 30, 2007). "For those who love to D.I.Y." Los Angeles Times.
  3. ^ "Home Book". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 22 July 2006.
  4. ^ Kelly, Caitlin (22 February 2007). "Lesson One: The Price the Contractor Quotes Is an Estimate". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
  5. ^ Money Magazine - Build Your Dream House Now
  6. ^ Build Your Own House,
  7. ^ Carl Heldmann (2006). "Cost Estimating". Be Your Own House Contractor. ISBN 1-58017-840-5.
  8. ^ Burns, Robert (9 July 2006). "Want to be your own contractor? First read this (book review)". Orlando Sentinel.
  9. ^ Daniels, Meredith (18 August 2006). "Want to be your own contractor? First read this (book review)". Newsday.
  10. ^ "LOOK FOR LOTS WITH TREES (review of 4th edition)". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Scripps Howard. 13 January 2002.
  11. ^ Romano, Carlin (1 September 1985). "For every undertaking, a how-to volume". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. L2. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  12. ^ Lang, Andy (16 April 1987). "Architect is good investment when remodeling a home". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Associated Press. p. 16. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
[edit]