House Building Prices: Architect vs. Developer

Hello,

do you have experience with how the prices/construction costs compare between:

a) a developer who has their own craftsmen on hand versus
b) an architect plans the house and we contract the trades ourselves. (We are craftsmen ourselves and know many trade businesses, so we probably wouldn’t get the worst conditions and could get many things at purchase price.)

Is there a big difference? Or are the costs roughly "the same"?

In any case, we would also contribute our own work.

Well, what bothered us the most was that you don’t get a reliable price from the architect. With our general contractor (GU), there was a fixed price and if we wanted to remove trades, that was possible. However, we didn't even find craftsmen on MyHammer who would have done the respective work cheaper than in the contract with the GU. And are the trades on MyHammer any good? The GUs have their regular craftsmen and can guarantee them a certain volume of work. Of course, the craftsmen's prices are also pressed down by the GUs. Opinions probably vary greatly, but I would always build again with a “flexible” GU, meaning one where you can do what you can yourself, but otherwise have a fixed price that is pretty much certain not to be or only slightly higher than with the architect. Materials (e.g., electrical) were naturally significantly cheaper in online trade, so we bought them ourselves.

With our general contractor, there was a fixed price and if we wanted to remove trades, that was possible.

Safety costs money, we have to face that. Everything has its pros and cons.

For example, we worked out a very detailed cost estimate with our architect, including a buffer. That way, after every step (trade), we have full cost control and can intervene in time if something gets out of hand.
But nowadays, it is much more important to have good craftsmen at hand who do good work at fair prices and, of course, also have time.

We have the architect in the family who planned our house. With the planning and our equipment wishes, we then approached GUs. After receiving offers, we decided to proceed with individual trade contracts. The house became SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper; we had offers that were over T€ 100 above the final costs with individual trade contracts. We are not representative, but I would build with an architect again. Maybe it is also because I professionally finance many larger developers and see how their calculations look.

You cannot say this in a generalized way at the moment. It always depends on the region ([Wettbewerbsumfeld der HW und Kaufkraft]) and the current occupancy. Otherwise, the houses should cost similarly with comparable equipment, especially the more expensive, valuable, and larger the houses are.

Regarding A: a developer sells a house _with_ land. So there is no alternative B or C, as the land is bound. Comparison architect vs. general contractor: try using the search at the top right here in the forum, the topic has been discussed here extensively.