"make install" does not require root to install in your own directory. When your building the application do a "./configure -- help" you should see a "--prefix" option. Failing that you can do some DESTDIR shell foo to tell it to install to a specific directory and move it from there...
It all depends on your permission in that DESTDIR. I'm doing this for my SpamAssassin, ClamAV, and ClamAssassin installs on Dreamhost.
