Is the construction project feasible or are we taking on more than we can handle?

I'll pick that up and throw the thesis/experience into the room that Eastern Europeans often deliver better and especially faster work than local craftsmen.

Just take a look at the construction service description from Town & Country. About three years ago, while searching for disability insurance, I dealt with Town & Country among others and spoke with the homeowners. You might get lucky, but the probability of problems is higher.

I think the debate leads nowhere because both your and my opinion are based on "I think that", "I believe that" and "I've heard from other homeowners that"...

I just don’t stand in front of an ALDI and tell everyone coming out:
"This is a discount store, there’s only crap here... you have to shop at Käfer, only there is there quality..."

Not everyone can do that. Should one starve because of that? ;)

PS:
If things go well for me, I’ll travel the world by cruise ships several years earlier than you, because I saved a few tens of thousands of euros... and the probability that things will go well is high. Not every Town & Country house collapses within a few years. :D

The debate leads nowhere, I think, because both your and my opinion are based on "I think that," "I believe that," and "I've heard from other builders that"... I'm just not going to stand in front of an ALDI and tell everyone who comes out: "That's a discount store, there's only crap here... you have to shop at Käfer, only there you get quality..." Not everyone can do that. Should you starve because of that? ;) PS: If things go well for me, I'll be traveling the world on cruise ships several years earlier than you because I saved a few tens of thousands of euros... and the probability that it goes well is high. Not every Town & Country house collapses within a few years. :D

With Aldi comes a really bad offer. Because there you rarely spend €500,000+. And guess why more and more people are opting for regional products like fruit/vegetables/eggs/meat... It’s not hearsay, it’s a fact that cheaper goods are more likely to have worse quality than expensive ones (excluding brand names). And if I spend that much money, then I try to secure it as well as possible and put it in the best hands. In the end, it’s up to everyone what they do, but I prefer to secure the money 2-3 times rather than building cheaply twice. AND as I said, it’s about probabilities. Town & Country certainly builds good houses, but also some shoddy work.

What makes you so sure that no shoddy work is being done on your project? I have an acquaintance who built with an expert and a regionally well-known and quite expensive general contractor, and now, after 2 years, there's water damage in the guest bathroom :D Oh, and the plumber connected the gas line incorrectly; after 2 days, the trap failed, and the utility company showed up with blue lights... You can't support your "higher probability" with any facts, but you insist on it. Do you have to justify the extra cost to yourself? You don't have to do that for me.

No thanks. I first want to know why I am wrong when I base prices on those mentioned here and you are right because you base prices on those mentioned in your region? Your region is not representative of Germany, is it?

Your claim was 3000€/sqm is a proper estimate. I have clearly refuted that. One counterexample is enough to invalidate a general statement. And yes, the East and North are cheaper than the South when it comes to building. However, the initial calculation should always be on the cautious side; it will certainly become more expensive. In that context, 3000€ is absolutely not exaggerated. Especially when you also factor in the additional costs.

What actually makes you so sure that no botched work is done with you? I have an acquaintance who built with an expert, through a regionally very well-known and also quite expensive general contractor, and now after 2 years a water damage in the guest WC :D Oh, and the plumber connected the gas line incorrectly, after 2 days the flap had fallen off and the utility company was there, blue light operation... You can't support your "higher probability" with any facts, but you insist on it. Do you have to justify the extra cost to yourself? You don't have to do that to me.

Are you reading what I write or only what you want to read? It's about probabilities. I know many builders who built with the general contractor (not reference customers). Besides, the general contractor neither has glossy catalogs nor model houses and lives only from word of mouth. He can't afford poor performance on 20+ houses per year. That said, it can of course happen. But I am very sure that the probability is much lower with me than with Town & Country. And I also build with a construction supervisor couple. The wife is an architect and TÜV mold officer, her husband a civil engineer.

Do you read what I write or only what you want to read? It’s about probabilities. I know many builders who built with the general contractor (not reference customers). Also, the general contractor neither has glossy catalogs nor show houses and relies solely on word of mouth. He can’t afford poor performance with 20+ houses per year. Nonetheless, it can of course happen. But I am quite sure that the probability is much lower with me than with Town & Country. And I also build with building supervisor couples. The woman is an architect and TÜV mold officer, her husband is a civil engineer.

I think you are greatly mistaken there. The probabilities that your general contractor goes bankrupt during construction, for example, are significantly higher with small general contractors. Probabilities from a small sample are arbitrarily inaccurate. Especially if you know 10 people who built with Town & Country, one has botched work, and you know 2 who built with small general contractors without botched work, you don’t have representative feedback. If Town & Country delivered significant botched work, they wouldn’t necessarily be able to survive for so long. They have just as much reputation to lose globally as the local general contractor does locally. That you read more negative things overall is also to be expected with more houses.

And of course, you won’t find reviews of the insolvent local general contractor! (Especially since it has meanwhile gone bankrupt again under 5 other names.)

Aldi is not cheap because they deliver poor quality, but because they are efficient! And they can unlock potential that the local general contractor can only dream of. If Town & Country pays an architect to prepare the plans for 1,000 houses, that is efficient and not botched work. A building plan that has been built 1,000 times, you can assume that no careless mistakes remain in it.

A real problem, however, is certainly Town & Country’s marketing department and business model: on the one hand, this again costs much of the saved money from the actually efficient idea, while at the same time it may mislead many about what is really the case. Then one or the other problem might look like botched work, because one is not aware that this is just the chosen standard.

I wouldn’t see the world always in black and white. Whoever blindly trusts blindly will always get botched work. Either because they fall for the standard/advertising of Town & Country, or because they choose a local general contractor who goes bankrupt (or has to).