Single-family house with a granny flat

Schrandt is not bad either. He is definitely a solid company.

The inclusive services were "a bit" better at Schmieshaus (and that with only 5000€ additional cost)... (e.g. standard KFW55, better bathroom equipment, more budget for tiles/floors/clinker/doors/etc., construction electricity included,)

With Schrandt, you just must not forget to order the construction electricity yourself, for example. Our direct neighbor and our neighbor opposite are currently "left out in the rain" because Schrandt did not inform them that they have to take care of the construction electricity themselves, etc. You can guess three times on which box one of them is now connected (Of course, all coordinated with our contractor)

But with both companies, you would of course first have to have a conversation to see if they are familiar with your conditions...

Schmieshaus is simply not a general contractor! Rather, a construction executor. Except for minor tasks (for us, for example, the pointing of the bricks), all trades are subcontracted. But they really take care of EVERYTHING. All applications for the utilities, etc. are filled out. You really only have to sign...

Thank you for your experiences.

But with both companies, you would of course first have to have a conversation to see if they are familiar with your circumstances...

Yes, the legal side is not quite straightforward or rather quite specific for us, even though we are currently quite optimistic after our contact with the district office that it should go through, as long as there is no total mess made with the application.

Schmieshaus is not a general contractor! Rather a construction implementer. Except for minor works (in our case, for example, grouting the clinker), they outsource all trades.

GU stands for general contractor or what? Then our civil engineer would probably also not be one.

Can you say what the general advantages and disadvantages are of building with a GU or not? What you describe, that you basically don’t have to do anything yourself, sounds much more attractive to me at first due to our lack of experience. With smaller offices/companies as site managers, the risk of insolvency is probably a bigger issue, right?

So far, we have had an appointment with the local Town & Country provider as well as with the well-known civil engineer. With the former, we don't really have a good feeling, partly because of the seemingly minimal experience with the legal peculiarity of building in an outer area, but also because of the many compromises such a house would entail. With the civil engineer, we have a much better feeling, but we are unsure whether it even makes sense to build with such a person and how realistic the mentioned price per sqm of about 1800 euros (just for the house, so without ancillary costs, outdoor facilities, and so on) is.

I would be surprised if the price is maintained. With some customization etc., you are on average at about 2000€/sqm. That is also the value conveyed here in the forum as a rough guideline. If you can do without frills and gimmicks, then 1800€ is definitely doable. But with a granny flat, corresponding regulations must be observed and, in addition, many things are needed "twice." This ranges from sanitary equipment over electrical systems to appropriate fire protection walls. This quickly increases the price per sqm quite a bit. We had also considered building like this back then, and we were then more at 2500€/sqm. However, we only had a handful of conversations because we then found another property where a granny flat was not possible.

Schmieshaus is simply not a general contractor! [...] But they really do take care of EVERYTHING.

Then, according to your description, they are after all a general contractor, who just - as is the case nowadays in the majority of cases - is not also the execution contractor.

I would be surprised if the price is adhered to. With some selection of samples etc., you are on average at about €2000/sqm. That is also the value conveyed here in the forum as a rough reference point. If you can do without frills and gimmicks, then €1800 is definitely achievable. But with a granny flat, corresponding regulations must be complied with, and you also need many things "doubled." This ranges from sanitary facilities to the electrical system to corresponding fire protection walls. This causes the price per sqm to rise quite quickly. We also considered building like that back then, and we were rather at €2500/sqm. However, we only had a handful of talks because we found another property where a granny flat was not possible.

Oh, that would be a significantly different ballpark and would overshoot the budget, unless we get dream conditions for financing or the demolition turns out to be much, much cheaper than initially planned. But that is also our current concern, that it will turn out to be significantly more expensive afterward and then unaffordable for us. The calculation was made with €400,000 including all costs, and as we understood the engineer, a (small) buffer is planned there and a medium level of equipment is assumed. With Town & Country, the price per sqm would be a good deal lower than the mentioned €1800/sqm, which is why we hoped that value is reasonably realistic.