Building with an architect or turnkey

Good morning,

this topic has - it feels like - already been discussed here hundreds of times. According to this, the search function should have provided you with quite a bit of information

We ourselves have hardly any knowledge of the whole subject. However, we have many in the family and circle of friends who come from construction and have offered help. My brother has also just built a house and is therefore completely into the topic.

Family, friends, and acquaintances usually have regular jobs; which means they must also be able to help you ... and not just for a few hours. Otherwise, you will never finish.

He only had the execution plans/statics/thermal protection done by the architect and then awarded everything himself. That worked out great because he also got a bit of support from a construction manager friend (and above all a few good tips for good and inexpensive companies).

It is primarily not just about being cheap: all trades must also harmonize with each other. Examples: it’s no use if you can buy insulation WLG 035 cheaply, but WLG 032 would be the right choice; if you are enthusiastic about a circulation line, but you end up with higher energy consumption, etc.

My brother has now offered to completely take over obtaining quotes and coordinating the various trades for us.

Then you still need someone specialized who accompanies and supervises your construction project continuously!

The offers he received are already available to him anyway and he would then obtain quotes from the cheapest companies for us.
Earthworks and probably also the foundation slab will be done completely by my brother-in-law, that is already decided.

I assume that you want to build a different house than your brother? Or are you copying his plans 1:1?

Especially the foundation slab is critical; I would always award this to competent hands! Hands that, in the worst case, I can also hold liable!

Now we don’t know if it makes sense to accept the offer from my brother that he takes over obtaining quotes etc. for us. We would only do that if we would definitely save a lot of money.
If a completely turnkey house is not much more expensive, we would save both him and ourselves the work.
What do you think, are there any assessments?

My experience tends to be that houses awarded via architects are not necessarily cheaper, even though recently opposite posts have appeared here. However, these reports of course say nothing about the aforementioned prices/quality of complete offers.

However, the manpower you describe from the closer circle of friends and acquaintances _but above all_ only if these people actually make their time available reliably, you are better off awarding individual trades. No general contractor will accept that you intervene in their schedule while trades are being executed during the house construction. Therefore, in my opinion, it makes more sense to buy the complete shell construction from one source and award the rest separately. Thus the topic of warranty is taken care of.

You can - before making a final decision - request and compare one or two offers from general contractors. However, these offers should also be commissioned in a comparable manner; otherwise, you are where you are now.

Rhenish greetings

To get offers, I first need to have a drawing. But the architect doesn’t just make that for me if I don’t even know whether I will ultimately hire him. And with the GÜs it’s probably similar, right?

On the contrary, the GU usually creates a free draft for you. The catch: the architect does not do this without payment; the GU hopes that his offer will convince. If you decide on the architect now, the GU has dealt with lemons; conversely, you still have to pay the architect’s service. In the second example, no one loses out. Rhineland regards

We have 6 electricians in our circle of friends, all of whom were willing to install the electrical system in the house. It would of course have been much cheaper for us. BUT what if something is faulty or even a serious damage (fire) occurs? Do I then want to sue my friends? For this reason, we have everything done professionally. Then we are on the safe side and I don’t get sleepless nights when things get rough.

Yes, the general contractor usually creates a free draft for you. The catch is: the architect does not do this without payment; the general contractor hopes that his offer will convince.

If you decide now for the architect, the general contractor has been left empty-handed; on the other hand, you still have to pay the architect’s service. In the second example, no one ends up on the losing side.

Rhenish greetings

Well, we talked to 3 architects and received a free draft from all 3.

However, we had also communicated this clearly in advance.

So we talked to 3 architects and received a free design from all 3.

However, we had made this clear in advance.

Then they were not respondents Our architect now chooses the clients and surely does not make free designs

Then they weren't respondents Our architect now chooses the clients himself and he certainly doesn't do free designs

You must know that. With your architect, I didn't expect anything different. Whoever builds such a super-duper house like you can only do it with a sought-after star architect