Property developer or independent architect

Hello everyone,

as already mentioned in another post, we are considering building a house (1.5 floors plus basement; solid construction; land available).

We have already had initial talks with a local general contractor. For various reasons, we are unfortunately not really 'enthusiastic' about this one (contact person very pushy, the supposedly detailed cost breakdown was a bad joke, etc.).

Now acquaintances have advised us, for cost reasons, not to build with a general contractor but with an independent architect. The idea is that this architect would also take over the construction supervision (with construction diary, etc.) and ideally coordinate the individual trades.

Regardless of the form, we want to contribute various tasks ourselves!

Now we have the most concerns in two areas. On the one hand, we were told that an architect can only provide an overall price estimate, whereas a general contractor offers a price guarantee (yes, of course, in both cases there will still be additional costs here and there).
On the other hand, we cannot imagine that an architect who additionally takes over construction supervision and coordination is really cheaper than a general contractor.

Can you confirm or rather refute this information we know? Can you say something general about this topic?
Coordination in our own hands will be insanely difficult due to professional and private reasons. This task should presumably only be taken over by one (and not several) competent person, right?

In our circle of friends, only general contractors have been used for building. Therefore we have no direct comparison.

A "let’s give it a try" is out of the question for us with these sums.
We also need a concrete figure before we go to the bank.

I hope you can give us helpful tips at this point. Maybe there is one or the other (ex) builder who has already built with an independent architect.

Many greetings,
Hausbau18

Developer: Builds a house on their own land and sells the land and house in one transaction to the customer (purchase contract). Fixed price.

General contractor/main contractor (GU/GÜ): Builds a house on the customer's land under a contract for work. The customer is legally the builder and has more or less many additional things to arrange. The contract for work has a fixed price, but there are variable additional items whose costs can often only be estimated beforehand (e.g., earthworks).

Architect: Independent planning and individual awarding of contracts. Like GU/GÜ, but many small contracts instead of one large one.

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Those who want an absolute price guarantee (and possibly adherence to deadlines) are well served by the developer.

Those who want a house from the standard range without major changes are well served by the developer and the GU/GÜ.

Those who want to contribute own work (beyond wall and floor coverings) should keep their distance from the developer.

Those who want to realize themselves individually and seek special solutions (at a fair price) should find the right architect and build with individual awarding of contracts.

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Those who do not have their own land must buy from the developer. Those who have their own land cross the developer off their vocabulary and choose between GU/GÜ and architect with individual awarding of contracts ([then there's "Baubegleiter"; but basically nothing else]).

The conclusions you have drawn about the architect are all correct. If you hire an architect for all planning phases and according to the statute, with a house costing around €300k, you are looking at a gross fee of about €45k. Even if you build with an architect, you will not avoid a high coordination effort. It’s not as if you just tell him your wishes and he does it. I can tell you that straight away.

You also won’t get a price guarantee, not even when you have almost all the offers.

Furthermore, it is now the case that architects are already having problems negotiating reasonable prices with trades.

I can only agree with Bieber: if you want to have a say in your house, an architect is probably better suited.

There are certainly many general contractors who build according to free planning, that is not the problem. But it can become difficult from my own experience if you inform yourself a lot, whether here in the forum or elsewhere. Because then you will eventually develop ideas about how the house should be technically constructed. And pretty soon you will disagree with the general contractor, who will want to build the way he has always done it and not the way recommended in some forum.
An architect also offers the advantage that he is on your side - at least more than a GC.
What would also be a huge advantage for me with the architect is transparency. I can't stand being slapped with some far-fetched flat rates. I want to know exactly what I get for how much money and then decide for myself what is worth how much to me. If I then don't want something or want it from another company, I want the full price reduced, not just a small fraction of it.
But everyone thinks differently. Some will also say: "I don't want details, just do it, as long as the total price fits."

"Actually" an architect is, from my point of view, the more expensive option. A lot COULD be done cheaper by the GC. But in a building boom, everyone takes what they can get. I've heard from various people that GCs pocket about €60,000 profit per construction project. That relativizes the costs of an architect quite a bit.

By the way, we are building with a GC. So in the end I only know this one side - which might also be the reason why I see most disadvantages in it - I do not know the disadvantages of an architect from my own experience.
I would have liked to build with an architect. But the few I found were unsympathetic to me. Most were overloaded with projects...

Hello,

in 2016 we built our dream house together with an architect. However, we only let him handle the planning and the correspondence with the authorities. Obtaining quotes, negotiating, awarding contracts, coordinating, etc., were all done by us again. Since he lived in the neighboring town, he would check the work every few days and was also always available for questions. This way we saved a lot of money, but we also had a lot of work...

Before deciding on the architect, we actually wanted to hire a general contractor (GC). We had obtained offers from Massa Haus, Hanse Haus, Allkauf Haus, Fingerhaus, and many more. We decided on a GC, had a pre-selection of samples and eventually the contract, but the surcharges for the smallest differences were really enormous.

Example: The surcharge to swap a double door for a sliding door was 3,000 euros.
A friend of ours then laughed heartily about this. His company sold exactly this door for not even 1,800 euros. The double door was available from him for 900 euros.
So 1,800 euros for the door + 1,200 euros profit for the GC + 900 euros for the double door that was removed = 3,900 euros o.O

This was the case with all trades later on.
1% more roof pitch = 500 euros
Electric shutters = 5,000 euros
...

Many prices could not even be named to us; we would find out later during the selection process (and then the really big hammer would probably come).

In the end, the contract went into the bin and we did everything ourselves. Everything went smoothly. Move-in was after 9 months.

Neighbors of ours had built with a GC and had considerable trouble in places. Due to trivialities like shutter boxes but also annoying things like scratched windows and doors.

In the end, it is a matter of luck. The important question is whether you want to be involved in the construction or prefer to just watch and have it done. Get offers from several GCs, compare them, see what surcharges they charge if you intervene in the planning. You don’t need financing for this yet and it might show you more clearly what you really want.

Best regards,
Michael

Hi,

in 2016, together with an architect, we built our dream house. However, we only had him do the planning and the correspondence with the authorities. Obtaining the offers, negotiating, awarding contracts, coordinating, etc., was all done by us again. Since he lived in the neighboring town, he would check the work every few days and was otherwise always available for questions. This way, we saved a lot of money, but we also had a lot of work...

Before deciding on the architect, we actually wanted to hire a general contractor (GU). We had gotten offers from Massa Haus, Hanse Haus, Allkauf Haus, FingerHaus, and many more. We decided on a GU, had the preliminary sampling and eventually the contract, but the surcharges for the smallest differences were really enormous.

Example: The surcharge for changing a double door to a sliding door was 3,000 euros.
A friend of ours then had a good laugh about that. His company sold exactly this door for not even 1,800 euros. The double door was 900 euros from him.
So 1,800 euros for the door + 1,200 euros profit for the GU + 900 euros for the double door removed = 3,900 euros.

It was like that with all trades later on.
1% more roof pitch = 500 euros
Electric shutters = 5,000 euros
...

Many prices they couldn't even name to us, saying we would find out later during the sampling (and then probably the really big hammer would come).

In the end, the contract landed in the trash, and we did everything ourselves. Everything went smoothly. We moved in after 9 months.

Neighbors of ours had built with a GU and had quite a bit of trouble here and there. Because of trivial things like the shutter box but also annoying things like scratched windows and doors.

In the end, it’s a matter of luck. The important question is whether you want to be involved in the construction or just watch and have it done. Get offers from several GUs, compare them, see what surcharges they charge if you intervene in the planning. For that, you don’t need financing yet, and it might show you what you really want.

Regards
Michael

We are building just like you, only that we still have someone who gets us the offers and supervises the construction (not the architect but the one who found the architect for us).

Precisely for the reason mentioned above, we also decided against a GU; we didn’t want to be taken for a ride. The calculations of the GUs are really outrageous. Just with the inspection shafts, we experienced a surcharge of almost 2,000 euros per shaft. Complete rip-off.

However, you then have to think about many things like electrical planning or window plans; these are then compared with the available offer and the offer is adjusted accordingly.