Collaboration with developers: experiences

Right. The builder/developer builds, you are buyers of a piece of house on land, which is why the special equipment is also included.

Thanks, so I understood it correctly. Just because the terminology tends to get mixed up a lot among laypeople (you can see that here in the thread :p), I was unsure. Actually, my main concern was that when I read in other projects "Yes, but development and construction power and x and y were not included in the price and there was an additional cost of about~ this much," that this is something I don’t have to put extensively on our additional cost list ;) A few things I have on the "don’t forget" list, but that’s more about the kitchen and outdoor facilities (and the latter are simply more manageable for a terraced house, especially if the garage+driveway is already covered).

Are you sure that all the tiles are included? Or only those in the wet rooms?

The ground floor is completely tiled. My husband thinks that’s stupid, I don’t think it’s bad at all :D We will have to figure out again what we want and just take a look at what the standard looks like. The developer pointed out at the first meeting on his own that this can be changed in the special request department (nice name – only after did I realize that it’s also officially called "special request"), but at that point (first getting-to-know) we didn’t ask much about additional costs. The next meeting then... which was postponed until after our main contact’s vacation. But now we’re kind of impatient, oops.

Then show them.

I am still hesitant to publish documents here that are not otherwise publicly accessible through the company. Especially since it is unfortunately not so easy to delete posts later in this forum. (And yep, I know it’s frustrating as a reader or more engaged forum user when the questioner provides sparse info ;)). If anyone wants, I can gladly send them by email. Otherwise, some framework conditions have also been included in the exposé on Immoscout. Our property itself is not included, but the 133834876 from the same project has a floor plan that is almost identical, albeit as a semi-detached house (the exposé is also for the whole project collectively). The object of our desire, however, is a terraced house (construction phase 2) and is cheaper at 515k (and is somehow 30 cm longer or something like that, thus has 143 sqm living space)

How does the offer compare in your region?

Price-wise compared to the region? uh, good question, first impression was: expensive for Castrop-Rauxel, cheap for Dortmund (you can walk to the city border and are in Dortmund central station by train in 20 minutes—the train stops right outside… although it only runs once per hour but still ;). Accessibility by car isn’t a problem anywhere here anyway...) If you compare to [B]131947303 also in Castrop-Rauxel (similar size, also basement, also with a prefabricated garage, 55k cheaper...), hmm... there’s more included in "ours" (painting and flooring work, underfloor heating, air-to-water heat pump instead of sketchy dependence on district heating, personally also better for the commute—but whether anyone wants to live so close to the train is an individual thing :)) Is it really worth 55k more? The heating alone probably accounts for quite a bit, but hard to say. We don’t feel like we have to significantly upgrade. And if the surcharges are all too expensive for us, we could also stick with the standard without feeling like we have to make huge compromises now. That gives a "fits quite well" feeling at first.[/B]

What kind of provider is it? You can also ask here in the moderated forum.

The latest post in the "Experiences with house-building companies" forum is from me precisely because of that ;) (although I believe the mods added "positive" in the title, haha) Unfortunately without any answers yet. Company Tecklenburg, not that tiny in terms of projects (at least that’s my impression), just fewer detached single-family houses, so probably not yet represented here? (mostly multi-family homes, but also some other terraced house projects and partially commercial and so on)

There are good and bad developers: the bad ones don’t even allow the buyer, let alone a surveyor commissioned by them, onto the property. As a buyer, you rely on the goodwill of the developer. However, you do not have any rights.

The salesperson said on their own that they are happy for people to come, but please inform them beforehand (at least for safety and so on). I will report on how it goes in practice, if things go as we hope ;) Still feels surreal right now.

Firma Tecklenburg

Very reputable. Excellent creditworthiness. Long established. Owner-managed. Can be taken as BT without hesitation.

The ground floor is completely tiled. My husband thinks that’s dumb, I don’t think it’s bad at all :D

And the rest is parquet. You have to take care of the basement yourselves.
There are also "warm" tiles, they don’t have to be cold white ;)

I’m still struggling to publish documents here,

You could redact them ;)
But it reads coherently. I would plan quite a bit for electricity, possibly plumbing better, e.g. a tub 180/80 or with platforms, maybe some higher quality for the hairdresser. It could also be that you want to use better paving stones. I would change some things/little details on the floor plan, but that later :)
You can see well by the example of IS24 what is meant by the "color scheme, architecture." You will then have to adapt to the uniform look if it is supposed to be that every second house is painted gray or something like that. There are no personal wishes there. But I think that can be lived with very well.

Very reputable. Excellent credit rating. Long-standing on the market. Owner-managed. You can take it as a general contractor without any worries.

This statement is also positive.
The downside is of course the real estate transfer tax, but for that you have less work on the interior finishing. Think positive :)
criminals at freenet etc… :cool:

I would reconsider tiles in the living area. I live in a new housing development and have looked at about 40 differently furnished houses here. Additionally, I do house visits for work and go into many different houses. I found tiles in the living area very rarely acceptable. In the best case, they were not disturbing, in the worst case, the living room had an ambiance like an average furniture exhibition. I did not find it attractive.

Linoleum, cork, or wood give me a better feeling because the atmosphere in the room is more pleasant. It is probably personal.

Building with a developer is, in my opinion, the easiest option for those affected.

Our first house was a terraced house from the developer, the price was fixed. On top of that came the special requests, whose prices were provided to us in advance on the special price list. We were also able to inquire about the prices from the electrician in advance, so that, based on the available budget, we could calculate well what would generally still be possible. In the tile exhibition, there were countless tiles that were within the developer's planned budget.

Own contributions were painting, flooring, and the outdoor areas. Parts of these could also be commissioned through the developer.

During the construction, our main task was the selection of samples and occasionally visiting the construction site to check on the construction progress and look forward to the house.

Now we have built, and it is definitely a whole different thing :D

We are currently trying to assess ourselves where there might be potential additional costs beyond the fixed price ("special requests"), but in one or two areas we are still having difficulty estimating that. Just generally: There is a lot of talk here in the forum about ancillary construction costs, etc. However, with a developer, they are the client, not me. Am I correct in assuming that we don’t really have to consider anything for "construction-side" costs? There are a few general indications regarding development (for example, electricity, water, telecommunications are included); when I think of things like construction electricity, nothing is mentioned in the documents I have received so far, but basically I assume correctly that this is the developer’s responsibility because they are the client?

First of all: don’t let yourself be unsettled, your contracting party in this case is acting as a developer. For those confused: I have explained elsewhere in "The Developer: frequently sought and often confused" when one is dealing with a general contractor and when with a developer. I also have an external reading tip for you regarding special requests: "Developer offers: caution with special requests," which addresses the issues of third-party added upgrades and also explains why you basically have to forget about significant changes to floor coverings. Regarding your question about the mentioned ancillary costs: these do indeed concern you as rightly identified in your capacity as buyer. That means you must ascertain from the notarial contract for the purchase of the entire property which payments to development authorities and utility providers have already been made or settled and which you have to bear separately and which may still be forthcoming (in the near) future. As everywhere – that is regardless of developer, general contractor, or complete self-management – you should also keep an eye on the ticking time bomb: namely whether the final construction of the road has already been invoiced.