Own effort - What can be sold well at the bank?

I don't really care what you believe or not – I see it for myself. KNX I don't have, but the scope is already well beyond what is normal. That was only possible because it was done in EL... also because I get everything at equity prices. You can't always assume with EL that you only save on hours. Also, ask me where you read about a 3,000 euro saving on electrical from me? Once again guessed? I don't need to let it affect me – I deliberately exaggerated with the peanuts for you. We haven't done any screed insulation yet, but it will probably be quite a few hours. But what does that matter? Our hours don't cost money – and here we are again at the point from this morning. And your "Not....!" you can really save yourself – I've written it several times already (you even liked it once)... so what's the point of such a thing? Yes, nice closing sentence – and honestly meant too.

EL is very individual to assess and is perceived individually as well.
- Resilience
- Time factor
- Skills
- Quality
- Realizable savings potentials
- Family conflict potentials
- Division of leisure/profession/construction

For one person it fits. For another, it does not.
EL and scope are purely individual. There is no recipe for it – except that one should not set it too high.

Concrete example: I did not deliver my EL in the agreed scope.
Because a) I would have needed significantly more time and b) in many parts it would not have turned out qualitatively that good, I would have done it (because it was technically / craft-wise too difficult / too complicated for me). I recognized this and the break-even through accelerating the construction project (= reducing costs of double burden of transitional apartment (expensive) + furniture storage (expensive)) was clearly demonstrable. So I reduced my EL, then sensibly assigned trades to professionals and good companies, with whom I also agreed that I could help and what I then do would be credited. I think I was able to save around 5-7K this way. Especially with work that any fool can do. EL work and time effort over 8 months was already enough (for me personally). I was satisfied with the savings, that was the sensibly achievable.

Another building family XY (fictional) with a larger circle of acquaintances and a different distribution of the factors mentioned at the beginning would have said: Let’s do it casually, saves 15K euros. Besides, we don’t care, we have no double burden, we still live at grandma’s. So we save even more, time factor is no problem at all for us. Where would the problem be then? Exactly: none at all.

The thread originally was also about what is sensible to state at the bank. And for that there is neither a checklist nor a recipe. It goes wrong with self-overestimation. And as said, one can quickly calculate some break-even oneself.

Overall, however, accumulating wealth through EL savings is an incredibly difficult matter.

Best regards Thorsten

.. Thorsten, you save me from writing a lot

Everyone should take a step back again and leave the personal level a bit.

I think what has clearly emerged in this thread is that significant personal effort means really delivering performance. And it is not comparable to someone having renovated a single room once. And that is exactly what should be conveyed to future builders. A careful weighing of the factors mentioned by Thorsten.

I am also sure that it is definitely not that general. For example, I am professionally inflexible and cannot just add hours on the fly (at most on an annual basis, so one year with a little less/more). Vacation cannot be changed at short notice. I cannot take a day off at short notice. I have already done quite a bit in interior construction, and even without personal contribution, I already had enough to do with selection, control, etc. during the construction; I wouldn't have trusted myself to do much more without neglecting my wife and my one-year-old child at the time of moving in too much. Now with the second child, I see how much I missed despite little personal contribution. You never get that back. I personally preferred in my situation to pay "a few handfuls of k euros" more and have a (much) better relationship with my child (and wife) than the other way around.

The thread originally was also about what makes sense to specify to the bank. And there is neither a checklist nor a recipe for that. Things go wrong with overestimating oneself. And as said, you can calculate one or another break-even yourself quickly.

Exactly - and above all: be honest with yourself!
What’s the point of selling 30k€ to the bank but only being able to bring in 5k€? So approach the parameters honestly for yourself and then talk openly about them with the bank. In the end, you want to have a nice livable house.