House construction/renovation planning, please provide feedback

First of all, thank you very much for your answers - very informative, factual, and helpful.

Basically, we are currently in "waiting mode," which I would like to use. Yes, , we find both the potential existing property great and have already seen it in advance; but we are also not opposed to a new build. Thanks for your clear perspective on possible new build costs.

I have thought about it again and would basically first go to one or more banks to determine the financing potential, taking into account our household budget as well as equity.

In the "existing property" thread, we are trying, with the help of an acquaintance who is an architect, to enter the property once and get an approximate estimate of what the necessary and desired changes would cost. Unfortunately, the price is not yet known, but this way you can set a maximum since you know financing potential as well as renovation costs (+ buffer).

In the "new build" thread, I would a) first talk to the architect to see if he could support with a floor plan design and b) also check via various websites which possible houses from "the big players" would fit into our budget. Or would you already write to various companies with our room planning to get initial offers? I think that would be a bit too fast for me and would also distract us a little from the "step by step" planning approach of .

What do you think?

In the "new build" thread, I would a) first talk to the architect to see if he could assist with floor plan design and b) also check via various websites which possible houses from "the big players" would fit within our budget. Or would you already write to different companies with our room planning to get initial offers? I think that would be a step too fast for me and would also somewhat divert us from @11ant’s "step-by-step" planning approach.

My planning approach definitely clarifies the view away from the layperson’s typical erotic fixation on the partial aspect of the floor plan and advises taking a wide berth around the slime trails/marketing funnel of the big names. Don’t become victims, stay homebuilders! (or at 32/33 and still without concrete offspring, perhaps rather initially townhouse buyers?).

, thank you very much for your feedback.

I cannot quite follow you. What exactly would you recommend to us? I already said that the floor plan is only one aspect; for example, financing and spatial planning are also essential topics.

I would really appreciate your response on this – thanks in advance! :)

P.S. No, it will probably be "more" soon, so no "intermediate house purchase." There are also a few location-dependent factors, so the market is unfortunately not very large for us.

Oh, did I express myself unclearly? - no, the middle house (= typical developer offer semi-detached house 120...145 sqm) is an excellently suited model precisely in the phase "child(ren) planned until orientation level of secondary school," and is closer to the Pareto optimum than a simple provisional solution. The perception of a tight market tends, by the way, to a creeping steady self-reinforcement - i.e., the longer this impression solidifies, the more likely the truth is better than the perception.

In your place, I would decidedly prefer the option "moderately modernized used property" (ideally built around 2010 or newer) to a new building. Especially the young family is still very fluid in its demand profile and accordingly far from finding its "cap" as a static optimum. However, the "Wolpertinger fits all" is a very costly "escape."

Converting and (energetically) renovating an existing property can be quite sensible if interesting plots are not being offered. For the purchase of an existing property, the potential of this property should be evaluated in a property purchase consultation by an architect experienced with old buildings - in the overall context of the building and all trades that may have to be commissioned later.

I would advise against property purchase consultations by providers who cannot prove this qualification from their own construction activity. I also advise against commissioning energy consultants who immediately want to sell the "Individuellen Sanierungsfahrplan (ISFP)" of the KfW. These consultants usually also lack the necessary technical background. In recent years, I have seen some ISFPs that were nonsensical and had major technical deficiencies in the renovation planning.

The costs for converting a property can indeed correspond to those of a new building of comparable size - depending on the degree of "transformation" of the building associated with the conversion. Estimating this should be the task of the property purchase consultation.