House Building Forum - Would you buy or build a house again?

Faith in salespeople is like with all other professions... there are good ones and bad ones. I would assume that most are highly commissioned and accordingly try to sell and react accordingly when the customer does not buy, even though a lot of effort may have been invested. One must not forget that they certainly know every customer archetype by now. We had mixed experiences with the big GÜs... we noticed that everyone has to operate somewhere within the program’s framework and that you can unsettle them a bit with questions outside of that - for example, can we also get KS interior walls? What do you answer then? a) you simply say “no - not in the program” b) you explain why it’s nonsense anyway in the hope that the customer believes you Both are suboptimal answers - certainly something a salesperson knows as well and is correspondingly annoyed about. Honestly, so would I be... With Stadt-Land Haus, we felt very honestly treated within the framework, even though the salesperson was a bit slimy - what didn’t fit was the somewhat awkward way of planning the floor plan. With Viebrockhaus, I think the salesperson was simply overworked and somewhere didn’t want to deal with our questions about the heating concept - looking back, we were also a bit unfair to him there. The newer Viebrockhaus houses apparently work well with the air-water heat pump. The Helma salesperson seemed to be the most competent and experienced. He immediately planned a flat 50 more power outlets and openly pointed out the weaknesses of the materials and construction service description. Here it then failed because of the bad reviews online. We had a maximum of 3 appointments alone. It took us about 14 months from the first idea “we could build” - with all detours through used property viewings, fairs, etc. pp. - until the signature.

With Stadt-Land Haus, we had the feeling that the framework was treated very honestly, although the seller was a bit slimy – what didn’t fit was the somewhat awkward way of finding the floor plan.

The Helma salesperson seemed to be the most competent and experienced. He immediately planned 50 additional sockets flat rate and openly pointed out the weaknesses of the materials and the construction service description. Here it then failed due to the bad reviews on the internet.

For us, Stadt-Land-Haus lost when they named a flat rate of 2,000 euros for earthworks (including departure and landfill).
With the next two providers, we still thought they wanted to rip us off when they set prices of 25,000-35,000. When the 3rd and 4th were in the same range, Stadt und Land was eliminated due to unprofessional information.

Helma: Here the consultants made a very good impression in the show home parks. They took their time, responded to our questions and wishes. However, this was still the pre-planning phase, where we didn’t even really know if it would happen and what we wanted. Through these discussions, Helma was temporarily very high on the partner list. The decline happened with the consultant who later came to us for further implementation. In our view, he provided insufficient information, had his laptop with him but could/would not even look up any information, quoted prices with the note that they would soon increase by 3% (for the previously planned basement this would actually have been a surcharge of >20%, others with 7-10%), etc.
This conversation shot Helma in the foot.

How did the matter turn out?

How did the matter turn out?

Who do you mean?

Building a house: You pay an insane amount of money (in our case 500,000 €) and are annoyed for years with the botched work. Hard to say whether you would do it again. Next time only with a building savings contract and a specialist lawyer by your side (who probably wouldn’t have prevented much either!).

Wow, nice thread that has surfaced here for me.

As - at least currently - a convinced and also happy renter, I can represent an absolute minority position.

I consciously and provocatively put forward a thesis: The gain in freedom that most homeowners associate with building a house is an illusion. Conversely, renting offers significantly more freedom.

What? Yes, you heard that right!

I see two views on freedom competing here.

a) For the convinced homeowner, freedom of design is paramount: to create a living space that best meets individual needs without having to take into account restrictions imposed by a landlord. For this, they are willing to be bound to a location and take on commitments to a bank for 20 to 30 years. Furthermore, they very often accept significant limitations on wealth accumulation and thus retirement provision (depending on the size and location of the property).

b) For the convinced renter, freedom of movement and financial freedom come first. Career opportunities associated with changing jobs are not prevented by the obstacle of an owner-occupied property.
Also: Giving an unwanted employer the finger and, if necessary, downsizing without problems, or daring to take the financially uncertain step into self-employment: You no longer do any of this if you have obligations tied to a house that do not allow for a temporary reduction in cash flow.
So you have given up this freedom to your house. If you then live in a rural area where resale is more difficult than in urban areas, you make yourself a slave to your property.

You can see that there is a trade-off between different freedoms and that you need a solid life concept as well as basic economic knowledge in order to make the right decision. Then, despite their respective disadvantages, one or the other living concept can also be fun.

I am in favor of everyone doing what makes them happy. But for this to happen, you have to have all the above-mentioned respective advantages and disadvantages in mind in order to be able to weigh things correctly.

Sometimes - and I mean this truly constructively - I don't get this feeling. For example, when young people under 30 (and I myself am hardly older) finance something rural for 30 years and even partly believe that if you no longer pay rent at some point, you have done your retirement planning.

Only when they know that this is wrong and still want to build with a clear conscience are they convinced homeowners whose decision will bring them happiness!

I don't want to wish ill on anyone here, but I would like to poke the filter bubble that I seem to be able to read out of some posts in this thread. No offense to all homeowners!