Process of building a prefabricated house with land brokerage

Hello everyone,


in search of a home, we are considering building a house. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of land in the Mainz area. A well-known prefabricated house company (Bien-Zenker) offered us an interesting plot of land through a sales representative. As often seems to be the case, we would first have to sign a work contract before being shown the property. Although there is a cancellation clause stating that if no land is found within a year, the contract can be terminated, a specialized lawyer said this clause is so vague that one should not sign.


I also don't like the order of things. We visited the representative once and roughly discussed our ideas and costs, but I would only want to sign the contract once soil surveys etc. are available, in order to better estimate the costs before signing.


Now to the question:


Is it now "normal" to sign a contract before even knowing what you can build? Does anyone have experience whether it is possible to arrange the sequence according to one's wishes?

In connection with a property service, definitely.

In a milder form, even on your own property. Here you get a rough cost framework but additional costs due to difficult soil conditions, information on further ancillary construction costs or surveying are still missing.

At the moment it’s a take it or leave it situation. That means you either agree to it or the deal will be done with someone else!

...however, a specialist lawyer said that it is so vague that one should not sign it.

Good lawyer. Actually answers your question itself. I would not agree to such a contractual arrangement. There are still better ways/opportunities to find a property, even though it sometimes seems hopeless. That does not mean that everything can go well. But you are in total dependence if you do not want to be saddled with a contractual penalty.

Please be sure to read the threads hopefully linked immediately by the elephant memory on this sensitive topic as a warning notice... Thank you

There are actually also sales agents who offer a plot + house, but still initially inform you about which plot it is; however, this seems to be increasingly becoming the exception, especially with major providers like Bien-Zenker, DFH, ... I wouldn't do it unless you - for whatever reasons - absolutely want to build with this company. If you ended up there more or less out of necessity because no other plots are available, then better leave it.

There are indeed sales agents who offer land + house,

More precisely: those who pretend to have such offers without a real estate license.

Please be sure to read the hopefully elephant-memory-linked threads on this sensitive topic as a warning...

Sorry for the delay, here you go - the search term "11ant Leerverkauf" leads to the following findings:
https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/hauskauf-vom-Bauträger-benoetigte-unterlagen.27734/#post-261758
https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/Grundstück-erst-nach-vertrag-beim-Bauträger.30401/#post-311753
https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/banale-frage-hauskauf-vom-Bauträger-mit-Grundstück.33358/page-2#post-367253
https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/bauen-mit-aesthetik-Haus-GmbH-Bad-salzuflen.33594/#post-372803