Architect and budget limit... insurance? possibilities

Income losses (death, disability insurance, etc. taken into account)

These are situations that often lead to the sale of the property anyway, so I would disregard that somewhat.

I don’t have a general contractor (GU) in between who also earns from everything I install! So one less instance

Here you are talking about a general contractor (GÜ). A GU is usually involved in the construction itself, typically providing the shell construction. And now to be very honest, it’s the same with the architect—a layer between you and the executing company that makes money ;)

May I ask what equity you had, meaning loan-to-value ratio? Happy to receive it via PM as well. The thing is, we actually stay well below the limit of what is possible for us, but as I said, we don’t want to pay off until the bitter end ... the whole thing should be completed in max 20 years and with a manageable rate because I simply think ahead and also take income losses (death, disability insurance, etc.) into account. I know you can’t think of and insure everything, but normally I get along well with my approach.

In the initial considerations, we had about 1/3 equity (150,000 EUR). Now with 300,000 EUR equity, unfortunately it is still 1/3.

Difference => I don’t have a general contractor in between who also earns again on everything I install! So one less instance

I see it that way too. The architect has no financial interest in "selling" expensive or overpriced things.

But basically it’s like I basically have to give the architect a budget, say the one I mentioned, because it won’t work anyway and I have to reckon with 20% more and thus also roughly borrow that much more?!

With the architect, it’s always just about estimates (price per sqm x sqm). That is more than rough. What it costs in the end... you only know at the end :)

The advantage with the architect, I assume at least, is the demand orientation. You don’t stock up at ridiculous prices if you want to change something later. Conversely, you can easily get the €50 basin from the hardware store installed if you want it.

We ourselves are in preliminary planning with an architect and have as a "special feature" that we don’t use flat-rate formulas, but calculate from the beginning with material costs and current experience values. In the hope that this is more realistic.

then 11k for development and the cellar is too little. or is the cellar included in the house.

i know what amounts were quoted to me for retaining walls of 1-1.2 meters height. it makes you feel sick

I don’t understand one thing about this matter. The architect obtains bids and thus prices – the one that corresponds most closely is chosen => i.e. I have the price for heating, shell construction, etc. etc. here and there, some changes are clear. What I don’t get is – how can there even be such extreme deviations from the conveyed budget (unless the builder knowingly SUDDENLY wants much higher-quality floors, fittings, whatever, then it’s his own fault. But without this variable, it simply can’t be that a 350,000 estimate suddenly becomes 450,000, that is just incomprehensible to me. I also wouldn’t go into a tile store, get a price for one tile and then have the tile cost twice as much – no one would put up with that – somehow I always think architect = free rein :) The basement should be included in the house... the 11k are: Excavation for basement or slab 6,000.00 € Earth removal 5,000.00 € only excavation and removal, no basement itself I just can’t believe that it’s not possible to build a house within the budget... I get the impression that nothing under 500,000 works (purely the property) and I really can’t believe that... especially when I assume a meager 140m². I’m not talking about luxury but higher standard, sure I can install flooring for 300€/m² or for 80....

So we end up with a general contractor from the lower price segment including basement and a few small special requests at around 320k, before sampling, without additional construction costs.

So it could already get a bit tight if you want to stick to 320k all in... in the end you will be at least at 380k with yours.