How many prefabricated house providers were compared before making the decision?

We are slowly but surely making progress with our house construction planning. We already know that it will be a prefabricated house and roughly what the floor plan should look like.

Now the question: how many prefabricated house companies should one meet with or how many offers should one obtain? How long does such an appointment usually take and should one already send concrete ideas in advance?

AND how does one choose the companies to meet with in the first place?

Does anyone also know a good way to check how "healthy" a construction company is? Just to rule out the company going bankrupt during the construction...

Many thanks in advance.

Hello,

My tip: shortlist a maximum of 2 to 3. Simply read independent construction blogs to see who delivers good quality. Since the "sessions" at the providers often consist of several appointments, you should clarify in advance what you expect. Making several inquiries may not make much sense because it can be difficult to compare the different contracts and construction descriptions. However, there is assistance available from consumer advice centers (usually free of charge), specialist lawyers for construction law, and independent construction consultants (architects). At the Bundesanzeiger-Verlag, you can look at the company register, which also helps a bit. Just enter it into the search engine. Good luck

At the beginning, the question arises whether you want to build solidly or using lightweight construction methods. Once this decision has been made, it makes sense in my view to make a preselection, for example of three providers. If you have already at least clarified the floor plan solution – as it sounds – you can request concrete offers. It is important to clarify your requirements regarding equipment / technology / energy standards. Ultimately, the offers must be comparable; floor plans alone are not sufficient for this.

The discussion with the providers usually cannot be done in one appointment. The result should be an offer with a construction and scope of services description and a draft of a construction contract, which will be given to you. If a provider does not want to hand over these documents, by the way, you should stay away from them. Comparing prices alone is of little help. Now it is important to evaluate what is really contractually binding. Which services are included and how precisely are the execution, materials, etc. described? Besides purely construction-related aspects, references of course matter, as well as guarantees or other securities. Construction contracts also contain assumptions under which conditions the offer price applies (ground conditions, construction site setup, etc.) To really assess and compare this, I recommend involving an independent and knowledgeable construction consultant. Sometimes it is nuances in the contractual regulations that make the big difference – this knowledge is difficult for a layman to acquire autodidactically.

Consumer advice centers are certainly a first point of contact. However, construction contracts with the construction and scope of services description can be quite extensive (and should be). With several offers, the question arises whether consumer advice centers can handle this, since thoroughly examining three offers also requires several hours.

Please keep in mind, considering the amount of investment for a house, a professional consultation within the financial framework should also be possible. Don’t save at the wrong end!