'Nother career question

Hey.

Our economy is too unstable to decide now. New home building is way down. Best to check out possibilities at your two year transition period.

RF

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It's not good enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required. - Winston Churchill

Looking at trends, we have an aging population, and young people coming up who often remain in their parents' homes until their late 20s or even beyond. We're also going to see an increasing demand for rentals as the credit crunch shuts people out of the mortgage market.

We have a lot of extremely large houses built in the last 10 years, houses that may not be practical in the near future, and we probably will have a trend of people (family members or renters) "doubling up" in these houses.

I'd look at specializing in converting existing homes into duplexes or ones with the old "mother-in-law apartment" (which also would suffice for grown children suffering from Failure to Launch Syndrome).

What he need to do is get on the front end of this wave and become the guru of multigenerational housing. Write a book, or something!

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"I love all of this mud," said no one, ever.

Since he is handy in all aspects of construction, consider a maintence position at a nursing home or hospital. There are all sorts of special rules and paperwork, but he sounds up to the task. Then with experience, he could work for the state and inspect the nursing homes. Our population is getting older, nursing homes will always be around and needed. Good luck.

Seems like most of the suggestions here are missing the point... He doesn't want to be a maintenance man or a home inspector, he wants to see about having his own drafting/construction consultanting company...

Quote" So our plan is for me to go to nursing school this fall, will take 2 years to become an RN. DH will continue to do what he's doing until I am done with school and working. My income as a new RN plus my child support will be more than we are living on now. So if we had to, we could do fine on just that." UnQuote

If it works that way, that would be good, 2 years is along way off

Quote" Once I'm situated, DH wants to just do drafting/design/consulting. He will be in his late 40's, doesn't want to do the physical work any more, and wants to go back to working for himself but this time he'd like to feel like he can charge what he's worth for his expertise. He has never been in that position, has always had to just take what work he could get at the time and sometimes did not even get paid or due to problems with the jobs ended up making no profit for himself after paying everyone else" UnQuote

2 years from now it's hard to say if any of his experience will be wanted or there could be just a mass of people just like him and the high dollars a hr he's looking for now will be hard to come by

Quote"Soooo...what I want to know is how much work do you think a guy like this can get freelancing? We actually don't want him really working full-time, It would be drafting original house plans or making customized changes to existing plans, design consultation for any type of project, and also a service where DH could be hired to oversee a residential construction project"UnQuote

Depends on what area you live in and whether that area can weather this econonic storm we're going through - plus like I said before 2 years from now - is anybodys guess as too what will be available..

Quote"How exactly would you market a business like this? What would you offer and how would you set it up (i.e. strictly hourly rates? different fee schedule for drafting only vs. design/consultation?) What types of adertising you think would work well? Would YOU use any of these services? (I am assuming most people on this board would be less prone to use these services than your "average Joe" since most on here are more self-reliant) Or do you think the general public would use them anyway" UnQuote

Marketing the services would be through his contacts he has now in the construction work, plus advertising in local papers, also home construction magazines, etc... I would offer what ever area he feels comfortable with and more than likely you'll have to charge both ways flat rate or by the hr. As for who uses the services - yuppies with money in the future - and those who can afford a home loan or can get a home loan...

Construction field is SUPER crowded with THOUSANDS of layed off workers, all the way from laborers up to high-experience arcitechs who will be fighting tooth and nail with him for any work out there...

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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered. My life is my own... I am not a number. I am a free man."

As a draftsperson for the past several decades or so and multiple construction ups and downs, there isn't a whole lot of money in it. Architects make out a lot better, but they had to get the degree. Can he go to school to be an architect and will they let him count some of his work time towards schooling credits?

Otherwise, go for the maintenance or inspection route so you'll not be in the same up and down swing with the rest of the construction trades.