I thought as you did at one point; the math really does work out in your favor if you build yourself. > You need to get approved plans in order to get the building permit This doesn't increase the years or number of men it takes to do the job. Generally, the approval process takes 4 weeks if all is well, and can be as much as 2-3 months if they find things they don't like and tell you to take it back to the engineer. Look it up in your locale - you'll be surprised. > with inspection every step of the way Apparently, you can hire inspectors who can check for code compliance with more than one code at once. Even if you didn't, inspection takes less than a day for a typical house.