Building contractor or tender yourself

Hello everyone,

we would like to build a detached single-family house (city villa) with about 160 - 180sqm including a full basement as well as a double garage in Schwalmtal (near MG) (solid construction).

We have learned from the neighbors of the property that they all built or had their houses tendered themselves. Only the shell was constructed by a developer. According to one neighbor, he saved about 80,000 euros compared to a prefab house provider.

How can something like this be approached sensibly and does it really save that much money?

Looking forward to ideas and experiences.

Best regards, Tobias

Hello Tobias,

We learned from the neighbors of the property that they all built or tendered the work themselves. Only the shell was constructed by a developer. According to a neighbor, he saved about 80,000 euros compared to a prefabricated house provider. How can something like this be approached sensibly and does it really save that much money?

This sounds like a former colleague of mine whom I know quite well...

It depends crucially on how the trades following the shell construction were tendered. Whether you can really save EUR 80,000 is questionable—unless this sum is based on the fixed price mentioned by the former colleague; he has always had a penchant for high figures or apples were compared with pears.

Apples/pears: A solid house should not be compared with a prefabricated house—a solidly constructed prefabricated house is always more expensive than a masonry-built single-family house, assuming equal quality standards. If the builder decides for one variant, he should fairly compare the prices customary for the respective construction method; ultimately, the construction type is based on the builder’s decision.

Back to the point—based on my personal experience, the sole awarding of the trades following the shell construction by the builder himself rarely, if ever, goes well. At a minimum, a competent site manager should be involved, as well as a person who is familiar with awarding trades and can create the relevant specifications and evaluate the corresponding offers; who can intervene with the red pen before advance payments are made.

If my assumption is correct, a close examination of the statements of the future neighbors will probably reveal that the former colleague sold the shell and awarded the subsequent trades to craftsmen he trusted.

To what extent this approach aligns with your expectations only you can decide, because it entails a lot of homework for you.

Best regards

Hello Tobias, I personally think the idea is great and don’t let yourself be confused by others here, finding craftsmen yourself and negotiating with them is not an impossible task especially since when renovating you don’t need a construction company although renovating is not new construction but sometimes it can be just as demanding, we also plan to build next year and only want to have the shell completed by the contractor, everything else we will take care of ourselves and by doing so we save a lot of money and design our house according to our ideas and not according to the ideas of a construction company.

hello mrt345
can you already estimate in advance what you save with it now? The risk, however, is that you can very easily miscalculate, whereas with a developer you agree on a fixed price. If prices for the trades have risen during that time, the developer is responsible for and has to absorb that, but not you. with the awarding on the other hand, the calculation can very quickly look "old."

or am I mistaken with this assumption?

Honestly, I'm glad I don't have to write everything out myself. The topic of media connection and our staircase, which we removed, is already enough. I also don't believe that you really save money. The house will probably just be a bit more upscale. I'm more focused on work, doing things I understand and letting people do what they understand.

We also build with complete individual trade contracting and I can confirm the savings with us. We received the tenders from the architect/site manager and have also been with various general contractors. However, the effort and stress should not be underestimated! We now have the shell almost finished and it was a very stressful time, despite professional support.