First talks with home fertilizer manufacturers - tips?

Apart from that: a fireplace in a house built to the latest standards is just as useless. It gets way too hot. Except as a prepper or during power outages in winter, it’s really not useful.

Do you mean all KfW-House-70 and above?

A fireplace is just a bit of luxury, I, for example, like the sight of fire and when it gets too warm I open a door.

A fireplace is just a bit of luxury, I for example like the sight of fire and if it gets too warm I open a door.

That's how I feel too. For me, it’s purely a matter of the feel-good factor. And if it also provides warmth and saves heating costs, then I gladly take that along.

But a fireplace is definitely not for everyone and it also has to fit into the living concept. Quickly cramming a fireplace somewhere just because there are 3 meters of wall space left unplanned is, in my opinion, wasted money because then it simply isn’t planned for coziness.

Topics that interested us in the initial meetings were, for example:

- Help and support with development (electricity, water, heating etc.)
- Flexibility with floor plans - how many proposals are included? What if further changes become necessary? Costs?
- Advice on heating / energy / funding programs
- Adherence to deadlines / payment terms
- Can individual trades be outsourced (e.g. contracting the tiler oneself)?
- Who is the site manager?

I love fire, but please outside. I also need space for the Dutch Oven, Muurikka, and my coffee pot.

No one gives anything away for free. Conversely, a significantly cheaper provider does not necessarily have the same quality and certainly not the same equipment. In Hannover, you already notice differences just by walking through. In terms of quality, salespeople, etc.

Feel free to ask what is included in the additional costs and what will be charged to you. Of course, they can't give exact figures, but even that little portable toilet doesn't weigh much or the estimate for earthworks is extremely low or dismissed with "the excavator operator will do that anyway while he's there, it doesn't cost the world." When it comes to turnkey, ask right away what that means. The range goes from "the house has a door with a key" to "you can pull up with the moving truck."

If they come to you with sample floor plans, ask what it costs to move a wall, door, or window. Some charge horrendous prices for that, others nothing. Observe how the sales consultants behave. Some are downright aggressive, others complain more about the competition than telling you anything substantial. Others say we are expensive but we can..., and still others treat you like dirt and don't consider customer wishes at all. If you see model houses, ask what is standard here and what is not. Some sales consultants know that.

- Ask about the possibility of visiting a former building family to get an impression on site and also to talk to such people and hear about their experiences with the company

Reference building clients should also be treated with a bit of caution. Talk to people in new development areas where, instead of the pallet, the finished step is already lying in front of the door. By the way, prefab house providers regularly also invite to customer house inspections, where you will also meet like-minded people.

They should talk about money - not you!

I could have used a multi-line sentence there again.

Doesn’t it make sense to have your own preliminary contract checked?

It differs by what you have customized. Wording nuances or which additional costs (construction power, etc.) are their or your responsibility can already be assessed based on the sample.
Practice reading things like this a bit. You don’t go to the professional with all contract templates from the first round immediately anyway, that only makes sense in the semifinals.

Exactly. With such ladies and gentlemen who sit in the model houses. That means better to contact the prefab house manufacturer directly?

You won’t find others; the commissioned sales representative is the typical model. I just wanted to say: you regularly face a “representative” without power of attorney of the actual business partner, with correspondingly little binding talk.

We all want to have the conversations from mid-January to mid-February. That’s 4-5 weeks

I would advise against that. Between providers 1/2/3 and 4/5/6 you should take a breath and let the experiences sink in. The more qualified you go into the second round if you have properly reflected on the first.

and 3-4 providers (which could well be too few).

Don’t collect them by the dozen, the overview does not get clearer from that. Six to seven should be enough: three in round 1, pause, three in round 2, pause, and then the finalists from rounds 1 and 2 and possibly one last. If you are open to the type of construction, I would split the first two rounds into one for “prefab” and one for “solid” builders. If you already have four providers on the list, only tackle the fourth after the pause.

If they come to you with sample floor plans,

Sample floor plans, good keyword: in round 2 you can also come with a floor plan from round 1 and have a counteroffer calculated; within the providers of the first round I would have each dish up their own proposal.