Do not receive offers/quotes

My first thought was: "There is something personally wrong with them." No idea how you approach negotiations / information gathering, but the companies are flooded with orders and often have little desire to accommodate very special requests when these are expected to involve significant work (costs) in planning and execution. Sometimes it seems to be the personal impression that one is not supposed to have fun with "these" clients if "it already starts like this."

I would critically question myself whether it might also be due to one's own demeanor. Perhaps combined with one's own profession (prejudices?).

It is certainly unusual if no concrete offers are received.

Or maybe you live out in the sticks? We also had a few companies that simply didn't want to come out to our village.

Quite a bit. We are moving to a village with 800 inhabitants. However, there is a district town with 30,000 inhabitants just a few kilometers away. And especially the local construction companies come across very dismissive, as if they don't need our order or as if they don't take our inquiry seriously.

I have now posted our floor plan draft. The thread can be found . Now make up your own mind whether that is too uninteresting for the construction companies.

Hello,

in advance, I was a bit shocked by Merlin’s approach to question 25 construction companies. A miracle that he kept track

...

I don’t remember exactly how many it was; maybe only 17 – also not all of them provided a cost estimate --> Rather, they all showed similar interest. We rarely sought out the conversations ourselves but were actively drawn into them at the prefabricated house exhibition and through our internet research. Ultimately, the conversations served more as orientation for us, which finally led to the direct awarding of the individual trades than any of these salespeople actually making it into our closer selection. One of the best-known in our region ignored our wishes and planned against the development plan (and was horrified that the municipality would not grant him a deviating ridge direction).

In the end, we needed the time to approach the matter with a clear conscience; which, in my opinion, is the most important thing. Whether it requires 5, 15, or 30 conversations shouldn’t matter in my opinion.

Again on the topic here: The prices were on the table quite quickly. According to the offers submitted to me, construction costs were between 350 and 400 euros per cubic meter of enclosed space with a reasonable solid construction company, and about 400 to 450 euros per cubic meter with reasonable prefabricated house providers.

I can totally identify with what merlin is saying here. I just don't have a really good conscience with the previous providers and offers. merlin, how did the decision come about to assign the trades separately, or how did you go about it?

We found the first one through a show house visit (personal contact on site). We came across the second because this company had built a house in the area (contact via phone). The next one was a recommendation from a colleague of my husband’s (contact via phone). I found a provider we are in contact with via the internet (contact via phone or email, I don’t remember exactly). Then we also got in touch with a company that a colleague of my sister had recommended (contact via email). And we contacted two more local companies whose cars you often see driving around here (contact via phone).

Among these are local companies as well as those that have nationwide distribution partners and both those who sell standard houses and those who do individual planning.

We had personal conversations. We always presented sketches, emphasizing that these are only personal drafts that can be changed.

I’ll post the floor plan soon that we roughly like. As I said, we are not set on it and open to change proposals from the construction companies. But you have to start somewhere.

I simply still don’t have a really good feeling about the previous providers and offers.

To me it sounds (well, reads) like you want a price offer already in the initial phase.
You haven’t yet selected whether the scope of construction services suits you, nor the philosophy of the construction company. You roam arbitrarily with definite ideas from one builder to another without having had a conversation. Why should the builder put work into something now if roughly everything is visible on the homepage anyway, or the customer will likely drop out?!
Maybe I’m exaggerating in my imagination, but I have searched myself before:
Requested catalogs with price annex or/and used the internet for help.
Inquired by phone and email with 3 - 5 companies about a building structure and ultimately visited the one remaining for a personal conversation and then presented the plan regarding special equipment. Maybe another would have come to the same price but built me 10 sqm more? Doesn’t matter, because my gut feeling has to tell me that with this builder I’m well and correctly placed.
That’s why for comparison in a standard house the rough approximate figures are enough to select – which you haven’t done yet.

My opinion!

I can totally identify with what merlin is saying here. I just don't have a really good feeling about the previous providers and offers. Merlin, how did you come to the decision to award the trades separately or how did you proceed there?

It happened that the offers from the turnkey provider were too opaque for me and I always had the feeling that I was paying too much for what was promised to me. Furthermore, the surcharge list was always in disarray with the turnkey builder. My negotiating partner and potential trusted partner only represented my interests secondarily when it came to turnkey construction and after signing I would have been at the mercy of such a person. I didn't like that.

That’s how we came to an architect who is paid directly by us for what he actually delivers (flat rate). As a result, I will also see in every other component of our future house what I pay for, how much, and whether I want it. Primarily, I wanted to exclude paying someone a lot of money for something that benefits me little. Only the architect was able to convey this price-performance certainty to me.

Compared to the turnkey offers and the previous course of the construction project, it currently looks like several tens of thousands of euros are being saved in the end.

To be fair, I have to say that there are also big differences among architects. There were very large price differences in our selection of the architect. Our favorite was incidentally also one of the cheapest. Billing according to HOAI is legally provided for but is often undercut in the market. There is currently a pending procedure regarding the permissibility of undercutting the HOAI at the ECJ.