Owner-developers start from scratch

If there's such a thing as an amateur residential developer, Greg Ripplinger may fit the definition.

The local physician, who had no prior building experience, took on the ultimate do-it-yourself home-improvement project: He conceived, developed and completed his entire Boulder City neighborhood from scratch.

Ripplinger moved to the small town 15 years ago, and a few years later set his sights on building a custom home in a one-street neighborhood.

"It started out as (my family) and some friends of ours looking to buy about 5 acres and divide it into a couple of lots," Ripplinger said.

Along the way, the project grew -- substantially. Although many partners dropped out of the project, many more joined. About two dozen parties wanted a part in the project and by the time they would subdivide their parcel, it had sites for 35 homes.

Anyone with a parcel of land in the state of Nevada can design, contract and build a home as their own personal residence, according to Bob Weber of the Clark County Building Department. This means everything: the wiring, the plumbing, the heating and cooling, the foundation and everything else. The rule is an exemption to state laws restricting such activities to licensed contractors and their subcontractors.

The owner-builder exemption applies to all phases of a home construction project. The owner may put together all of the designs including electrical and plumbing systems, submit the plans according to building codes and, upon approval, perform all of the contractor and subcontractor work, or any portion of it.

Although his department keeps no statistics on it, Weber said owner-builders are fairly common within Clark County, "much more than a handful."

What makes Ripplinger's project unusual is its size. Frequently, a few prospective custom-home builders, say five or six, will combine resources to build a private cul-de-sac street, allowing them to share costs on such things as roads and utilities and build on a more efficient scale.

"I'd heard of this on a smaller scale, buying 5 acres with some friends. I figured if you can do it on 5 acres, you can do it on more. It's just a bigger prospect," Ripplinger said.

Ripplinger was in for a crash course in residential development.

Lesson one: land acquisition.

Although size may not have been an issue, location was. Boulder City has strict controls on how many homes can be built per year in its city limits as well as where. Most land allocated for new homes is located on the side of town closest to Lake Mead; Ripplinger wanted the side nearer Henderson.

The opportunity came in 1993 when land slated for a few houses of worship on Buchanan Boulevard across from the golf course drew only a single LDS church, leaving more than 20 acres for acquisition. As the point man for about 30 "interested" families at the time, Ripplinger approached the city and proposed a custom-home neighborhood.

Interest dropped somewhat once the expenses came. Ripplinger contacted a surveyor and engineer to produce reports on the land so he could submit a development plan -- including elements such as sidewalks, roads, home sites, landscaping and drainage -- to the city. Mainly this involved simply hiring them, but there were issues of trust and commitment, as money was involved. The 33 buyers set up a limited liability corporation through which to channel funds, but basically entrusted Ripplinger with the books.

"I was the manager, sort of, for the whole thing. I was trusted to handle the business," he said. "Some of it was, `You have to trust me on this.' I was sort of `the king,' as I called it."

Once the city made its offer, the trust factor went way up: $40,000 each, all in cash.

Lesson two: land improvement.

With the patch of dirt theirs, the partners were ready to build.

Ripplinger described grading the land for construction and adding utilities not too unlike hiring someone to pour a patio: call a few companies and get some bids. These features as well as the common areas were also paid for by the corporation, which would become the homeowners association. Two unsold lots were reserved for a park and retained by the association.

The design is simple: 33 home sites, a small park, four interior streets that form a loop, and a greenbelt along the sidewalk. The lots were carved in varying widths and depths to accommodate everyone's size preference. Rules were established, such as architectural guidelines and incentives to build homes in a timely manner.

By 1996 when home construction started, the neighborhood, now called Los Vecinos, was no different from any other custom-home neighborhood.

Lesson three: home building.

Several home site owners carried on as builders.

"We had a couple of people who didn't swing a hammer, but they were essentially their own G.C.," Ripplinger said.

Many, in fact, did swing the hammer themselves and took it even a step further, practically building their own homes.

Edgar Peterson, a contractor and Ripplinger's father-in-law, built almost every aspect of his home himself.

"He hired contractors to do the drywall and shingling, but handled the rest himself," Ripplinger said.

Ron Smith, another neighbor -- this one with no connection to the building industry -- also built much of his own home after finding out what city and county codes require.

Yet another, Gordon Garff, performed limited work on his home, but drew up much of the design himself. The local appraiser took on the challenge of meeting building safety codes and other required design criteria.

All of this is perfectly legal to do under the state's owner-builder exception to contracting law, according to Weber, provided the home is maintained as the builder's primary residence for at least a year. Although he generally defers to public policy on the issue, he has some reservations about the owner-builder concept.

"The challenge with owner-builder is many of them are doing a once-in-a-lifetime project and they're not a licensed contractor," Weber said. "Sometimes we have some challenges with their plans as far as code compliance. They take a lot more assistance and time."

Although many do a fine job, the overall reduction in skill among nonprofessional builders may lead to workmanship problems.

"The challenge is we don't check every element all the way through. We aren't on-site all the time to see that they did everything exactly as they should," Weber said.

Weber advised any homeowner planning to undertake a construction project to consider their own expertise before doing any work personally, or even pulling the permits and hiring a tradesman. By pulling the permits, he explained, the owner is taking responsibility for the quality of the work.

Design work, such as that performed by Garff, falls under the jurisdiction of the state Board of Architecture. A similar rule to that of construction applies, however: If you aren't a licensed professional, you can design only for your own personal use.

The nearly finished neighborhood -- only one house is under construction -- looks like many affluent developments throughout the Las Vegas Valley. So why all the headaches and sweat?

"It costs less," more than one Los Vecinos homeowner said. Estimates are that each buyer saved about $15,000 to $20,000 based on a comparable home site in a custom-home neighborhood.

Garff said that savings was just on the home site.

But they add that cost alone was not a sufficient reason to go to all the trouble: It takes a high degree of commitment, and in their case, trust.

"Some people have a dream of building their own house. It's one of those things you do once (in a lifetime)," Ripplinger said.

Neighbors also cited a rare opportunity to live in a desirable area of Boulder City and to create their own neighborhood from the ground up.

"This is a nice place to live. Everybody, of course, knows each other from having done this together," Ripplinger said. "We had a vision of what we wanted to do and pretty much it came out like we had hoped.

"It probably would have been easier elsewhere (other than Boulder City). All you have to do is go out and buy a piece of land from somebody," Ripplinger said, perhaps oversimplifying slightly.

"I wouldn't discourage anyone from doing this. I didn't have any personal connection to the construction trade in my life."

Ripplinger's home, next to the neighborhood park, came out as one of the grandest of all. It measures 7,700 square feet with six bedrooms, six baths, two half baths, two fireplaces and a pool. Half of the square footage is below ground.

The experience may lead Ripplinger to developing his own neighborhood again.

"I would do it again, under a different circumstance," he said. "Now that I've done it, I want to do it again because I've learned how to do it."

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