With thousands of companies only a click away, the web will be an invaluable tool in your self build journey - just remember to keep track of your online adventures.
You can now find everything online - toilets, soap dishes and decorative boot-scrapers in the hilarious shape of a pair of breasts. You can bid on eBay and buy a house for 3p. You can become the owner of an entire French barn, in pieces. All of which represent phenomenal value to the right person and all of which should be celebrated as the acme of sustainability and recycling.
But the real value of the net to the home-builder is as a research and design tool. Every decent architectural practice in the land has a good website, packed with photographs and drawings that will save you not hours, but weeks of investigation when you come to decide who should design your house (but do visit those architects you really like the look of).
RIBA offers online advice and contracts (architecture.com); the RICS has free downloadable guides; and you can now even file and monitor your planning application via the Government's planning portal, which has a lot of useful building regulations and planning advice as well.
Find out more about estate agents and how they can help you
