"Classical" approach to vendor selection - To-Do list

When a general contractor assigns which of their site managers where, I cannot imagine that being included in contract conditions - that seems like an unrealistic expectation to me.

By the way, we met the site manager responsible for us before signing the contract

So, I would like to help you and explain step by step how we proceeded:

A brief overview of our timeline:

Everything started in February and currently we fluctuate between 3 construction companies, which we plan to narrow down to 1 within an estimated 4-8 weeks, the one we will ultimately build with! All the effort has really paid off and we are overjoyed to be at this point now. We know exactly what we want and in the end, it is "small things," like sympathy, of course also the price, that are decisive for the ONE construction company.

First, we went to the model park in Villingen-Schwenningen (a relatively small model park here in the south) and had talks with all the prefab house providers such as Schwörerhaus, Schwabenhaus, Hanse Haus, Haas, Weberhaus, and another 2-3 others.

In advance: We were totally fixed on the prefab house track – timber frame construction, don’t ask me why

Here we invested all our first time (2-3 months) and compared everything we could.

--> Lots of research on the internet also in various forums, like here, you will find a lot on the internet if you make an effort and invest time --> several initial on-site meetings held with different prefab house providers and finally filtered out from the 100,000 prefab house providers based on sympathy, references, internet presence, reports of experiences from builders, talks with homeowners in new housing areas who also built prefab houses, so that we ultimately had 4 prefab house providers "in the race." Believe me, try to filter out relatively quickly and don’t “waste” time with 10 prefab house providers. In your research, you will always read the same names of providers that stick in your mind and have a good reputation. Look closely at the philosophy the companies represent and then just hope that when you go deeper into the whole matter, your counterpart is also good and you are well taken care of as an interested party.

If you want help with selection, I cannot support you here but can privately send you some documents/info/tips.

--> Have initial talks with those few companies and just let yourself be “advised.” See what happens. You will quickly notice who just wants to sell and who doesn't.

--> After the initial talks, it’s entirely up to you how deep you want to dive into the topic of house construction. For our part, we did it very, very thoroughly and were gradually rewarded because we then knew exactly which company was right for us and which was not.
--> Really read yourself into all topics: timber frame construction, interior walls, exterior walls, ceiling, roof, windows, stairs, heating & ventilation, additional services, etc. If you do this, you will partly end up even "smarter" than your counterpart. In my opinion, this is extremely important nowadays as we experienced ourselves how much junk is actually sold.
--> Create construction and service description comparisons. Get the construction and service description from each company, make an Excel table with the most important points and make a comparison. You will quickly notice what a "cheap provider" and what "quality" means. Of course, it also always depends on what you expect from a house. This helped us a lot because we then continued to dive deeper into the whole house building topic and acquired a lot of knowledge.
--> Think about your floor plan/house shape itself and look carefully at what you want. It simply makes it easier for you in the 2nd, 3rd, etc. talks and you can also compare apples to apples. Of course, later on, as you deal more with it, other ideas will also come up, but it simply helps immensely if you really compare similar houses with each other.
--> Get your first clean cost estimates/offers and try to figure out if one or the other provider might already definitely fall out; maybe then you can write to one or the other provider again if you want more input and more comparisons. But don't deal with too many at once; that is pure stress sooner or later and you will only dream of construction and service descriptions.
--> Weigh up, go even deeper into the offer track and stay with the providers who really appeal to you. Important things for comparison are ultimately quality, floor plan, your counterpart (very crucial), references/experiences of the company, and, of course, clearly the price.
--> You have to be very cautious with prefab house providers... There is a strong lack of cost transparency here – the sales pressure is enormous. It is very clear here: They ultimately want to sell you a house quickly and ideally you sign after 4 weeks. Very IMPORTANT: Take your time, allow yourself enough time for planning. You will need between three quarters of a year and one year until you are where you ultimately want to be, believe me, depending on how much time you invest in the whole thing.

---> After 3 months we then said goodbye to the prefab house track and are building with a regional solid construction company. I have already explained the reasons above and you can also read them everywhere on the internet. Everything has its pros and cons; ultimately it is a personal preference how/what/with whom you want to build.

--> I can only say to you – definitely also compare the offers with those from regional solid construction companies, in the end, you will definitely not come out more expensive, quite the opposite...

These are the first steps, everything else definitely comes by itself, I am sure of that! The important thing is simply: inform, inform, inform and then compare properly. Only this way will you manage to get the best out of it for yourself.

I hope this helps you for the first weeks and you know how to start. Every beginning is difficult, it was the same for us. It certainly won’t end either