Savings potential in turnkey prefabricated houses - assessment?

Okay, those are concrete answers, thank you very much! Let me elaborate a bit...

We have an architect who is initially taking care of the building permit and so on. Getting everything approved by the district office is not going to be easy, and he offered to take on the whole thing. As a private person, that would never have worked. The district office is extremely obstructive when it comes to building anything in the outskirts here...

If the first talks with the gentleman from the building authority go well and he gives his verbal consent (he is coming tomorrow to take a look at the situation on the yard, etc.), our architect will have to get to work and draw up plans, etc.

To even get an overview, we had looked at floor plans of prefab houses and came across the V1 from Viebrockhaus, which we really, really, really like and could practically build 1:1 as is!

But if our architect now pushes the whole thing through the building authority for us, we obviously cannot just go to Viebrockhaus and order a house there. That would not end well because I don't think Viebrockhaus deals with such "problem cases" or puts the same passion into getting special cases approved as our architect does. Besides, it would simply be "unfair" to let down the architect (who is, by the way, an acquaintance of my father) like that.

That’s why our idea now was to present the building plans of the V1 to our architect and have them adjusted so that they fit our needs (roof pitch possibly a requirement from the building authority...) and then go ahead with the project ourselves.

I just can't seem to accept that it is not possible to build a house cheaper than a company that has to factor in completely different overheads, etc., when you have many acquaintances in various trades to choose from who can help, etc.

It could also simply be that I am too naive and idealistic about the whole thing...

Better slow down your enthusiasm a bit, the floor plan is not spectacular at all and I am sure the architect can come up with something better.

Also, figure out the price and see what you want and can afford.

That is the much better approach than glorifying this model home.

Why should we curb our enthusiasm if we simply like the house? As I said, we would want 1-2 small changes, but that’s all. For us, a house doesn’t have to be oh so spectacular, it just has to fit and that’s it.

Viebrockhaus not only charges extremely well for its marketing machinery but also for its construction time of only about 3 months. Basically, they are one of the most expensive "regular" providers (i.e., not from the obvious luxury segment). It should therefore be easily possible to undercut their price. However, by 23%? Probably not, especially with a V-house (which is comparatively cheap for Viebrockhaus standards). And the base slab is indeed included with Viebrockhaus (as with all providers I have spoken to, regardless of whether wooden frame or solid construction. But there are rarely some without, so always check). Earthworks can still cause considerable additional costs depending on the plot, but that you have regardless of the provider.

Stick to what Readytorumble wrote.

Viebrockhaus always builds the same house in mass production. The construction process is optimized for efficiency, and they have purchasing prices that many can only dream of.
If something cannot be done by yourself, you have to hire craftsmen for it, and they sometimes charge steep prices and have long waiting times.
Have the house planned for you, plan the work you can do yourself realistically, and get quotes.

I think you are right! Check out my thread in the Architects/ Site Managers section (it's the newest) - we had similar considerations as you guys: locally, you should be able to beat the big ones; and that's how it turned out. I don't want to talk about prices here, but we designed our house completely ourselves and hired a locally very well-connected construction engineer as site manager, who, together with his crew (trades), built the thing up. Result: I know every window by first name (just a little joke) and discussed individually with each trade what we wanted and the feasibility/ implementation. All this at a price for which you would probably just get a 2-room apartment in big cities. Forget about Viebrockhaus etc., they buy very differently, etc., etc. The local people also have their contacts. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask anytime! Best regards from Münsterland