1 Location: is an important factors to consider before building your house,in some states in nigeria the areas are zoned into low income earners,middle and high income earners and this do affect the cost of your paper work with relevant agencies.
2 Nature of soil: this is the most important factor you must take into cognisance,there are stable soil and unstable soil that will cost you alot to build on them, so is important to get a professional to the prospective site before buying.
3 Use Professionals: is important you employ/hire a professional to oversee your projects because he/she can read/interprete the plan very well and he is trained to execute such jobs with little assistance but most artisians can't comprehenda plan of a building though they may claim to understand it but cheap technical questions by a professional will expose their incompetences. So hand over your projects to the professional and save yourself from avoidable wastes from mistake.
4 Save money by desiging to specifics and avoiding wasteful and bogus designs,the dexterity of your architect is important in this. A terrible designed roof will also cost you more to adjust or modify. This is why you need an architect to design your building.
5 Use quality and local materials where necessary
6 You can also save money by building in dry season especially in water logged soils,yes cost of materials goes up during dry season
7 Use multipies suppliers, this encourage competions and gives you power to negotiate prices
8 Buy only require materials to minmize waste
9 Don't give your artisian the impression that you really have so much money to throw around
10 Cultivate the habits of pricing down at the slightest opportunity. Engr. A. A Abayomi