![\"Mike](\"http:\/\/architectanddeveloper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Mike_Benkert_Header-1024x341.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn June 2017, I sat down with Architect & Developer Mike Benkert, AIA in Cincinnati, OH. See more information about Mike at\u00a0mbenkert.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0follow along his Home 2.0 Blog {home2blog.com<\/a>} for the latest updates. Also, check out his video series on YouTube {h<\/a>e<\/a>re<\/a>}\u00a0and see more articles about Mike {here<\/a>}.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mike Benkert:<\/strong> Learning by experience is by far the best education. Keep your day job and start small. Build your own house. That is what I did for the first one. It is definitely the best way to start I think. In Ohio, I can pay cash and buy a lot, and get a construction loan to build it. I got a great lot for less than $25,000. It is a nice urban, walkable neighborhood that is a really desirable place to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n James Petty:<\/strong> Even though you are developing your own projects, you still have a day job at an architecture firm. Talk to me about your day job. What kind of projects do you do there and how has the Architect & Developer endeavor overlapped with the 9-5 job?<\/p>\n\n\n\n MB:<\/strong> I work for a commercial firm and do a lot of educational work. I like it there. It has benefits, and I live off of that. When I sell this second project, I will make significantly more money off of that than what I do working at a firm. But, there is still no reason to quit. The banks want to see that you have a steady job. If I get to the point where it doesn\u2019t make sense for me to have a job working full-time as an architect somewhere else, then I will revisit my options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JP:<\/strong> I seem to see a lot of that regarding keeping a full-time job for financing reasons. It seems one reason alone for keeping gainful employment. Banks want to see that security in their risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MB:<\/strong> I would say that is the biggest myth to being an entrepreneur; the myth that you have to go all in and risk everything and that you have to jump in with both feet. Most successful businesses do not start that way. I think it is better to air on the side of keeping your full-time job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JP:<\/strong> How do you balance the time of working on your side hustle of developing homes and your day job at an architecture firm? Do you work reasonable hours?<\/p>\n\n\n\n MB:<\/strong> Yeah, aside from deadlines, my day job is about 40-hours per week. My office is pretty cool with it. Sometimes I have to cut out in the middle of the day to check on something or go to a meeting. It hasn\u2019t really been an issue balancing the two. My work is 5-minutes down the road from where I live and 5-minutes from the Oakley Home. That really helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JP:<\/strong> You mentioned that you were working on schools and commercial projects with your day job. Did you have any previous experience in stick-built construction or single-family homes before developing MB:<\/strong> There is a lot more leeway in terms of codes for single-family residential. My only residential experience was in school. I worked for a non-profit homebuilder in construction. I got to work on some stick-built remodels and new construction. I would say that it is pretty basic to do this. If you can do commercial, you can definitely do residential. For example, I gave my builder the plans for Pleasant Ridge House, and he said, \u201cThis is the most detailed set of plans I have ever seen in my life.\u201d Typically these guys are used to getting elevations, plans, and maybe one wall section, and they build off of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JP:<\/strong> Did he appreciate the extra detail or did he think you were crazy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n MB:<\/strong> He appreciated it. He was definitely leery of working for an architect and knowing it was an architect\u2019s home. But I won him over, and I have been using the same builder. I have a good relationship with him. I made it clear that I am not one of those know-it-all architects that say that my way has to be the way. I let him know that I wanted to learn from him and use this as an educational experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more on Mike Benkert, see the book\u00a0Architect & Developer: A Guide to Self-Initiating Projects<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>Follow Mike\u2019s latest progress at his Home 2.0 Blog {home2blog.com<\/a>}. Also, check out his video series on YouTube {here<\/a>}\u00a0and see more articles about Mike {here<\/a>}.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In June 2017, I sat down with Architect & Developer Mike Benkert, AIA in Cincinnati, OH. See more information about Mike at\u00a0mbenkert.com\u00a0and\u00a0follow along his Home 2.0 Blog {home2blog.com} for the latest updates. Also, check out his video series on YouTube {here}\u00a0and see more articles about Mike {here}. Mike Benkert: Learning by experience is by far the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":685,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,6,12,156,7,71],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/architectanddeveloper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Mike_Benkert_Featured.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/architectanddeveloper.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/architectanddeveloper.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/architectanddeveloper.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/architectanddeveloper.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/architectanddeveloper.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/architectanddeveloper.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":691,"href":"https:\/\/architectanddeveloper.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683\/revisions\/691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/architectanddeveloper.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/architectanddeveloper.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/architectanddeveloper.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/architectanddeveloper.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Starterhome](\"http:\/\/architectanddeveloper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Mike-Benkert_Starter-Home-2.0_1.jpg\")
![\"StarterHome](\"http:\/\/architectanddeveloper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Mike-Benkert_Starter-Home-2.0_2.gif\")
![\"Oakley](\"http:\/\/architectanddeveloper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Mike-Benkert_Oakley-Home_1-1024x576.jpg\")
these houses? Single-family home construction can be very different that large commercial or institutional buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Oakley](\"http:\/\/architectanddeveloper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Mike-Benkert_Oakley-Home_2-1024x651.jpg\")
![\"Oakley](\"http:\/\/architectanddeveloper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Mike-Benkert_Oakley-Home_3-1024x576.jpg\")