Shared my experiences: we have been dealing with the topic of house construction for 4 years, and in 2 weeks the excavators will finally roll up at our place... At first we thought everything would be done with €250,000 (excluding land). From prefabricated house providers to construction companies (all from one source) to an architect-designed house, we went through numerous invoices, offers, and considerations. As a result, our estimated budget rose to €300,000. After further rounds of offers, it then went up to €325,000... With that, we entered the race concretely, to our architect. Here there was still something that added to it and we reached €350,000, which we then declared as our maximum. Until further additional costs appeared and we are now at over €400,000 with all our wishes and incidental costs. We have a structurally not simple floor plan and no uncomplicated statics but our dream house. For Kfw 70, controlled ventilation and heat pump we then gave up for cost reasons.
But the time was worth it. Because over 1/3 of the costs are paid or commissioned as of today and we are slightly below the estimated costs.