Turnkey or self-contracting?

Hello everyone,

I am new to this forum and hope you can help me a little.

I am 28 years old and come from Schleswig-Holstein.

I want to build a city villa ([Grundstück ist bereits reserviert]).

Since I am very inexperienced in this, I now have a question for you:

Is it cheaper to build the house with a company that completes the house entirely or is it cheaper if I assign all contracts myself (shell, concrete, windows, roof, electrical, heating, etc.)?

Do you really save a lot by finding the companies yourself or does it not make much difference?

It would be great if you could give me some tips.

I look forward to your feedback.

Best regards

Alex

I'm sure you can save a lot with individual contracting. But then you have an extreme amount of work, extreme stress, and if things go wrong, extreme trouble. You have to negotiate prices for each trade, compare them, and know what is included in each trade. Otherwise, you'll get offers that sound cheap but are not complete. That requires a lot of expertise. It also depends on how much time you have, how much time you have to build, what rent you're currently paying... these are all factors that play a role. I was glad to get almost everything from one source and was already completely annoyed by the 3 small trades I had to organize myself. Just one week of phone calls with about 10 tilers, until I found one who had time and was willing to take on a smaller job.

The Da has already described that quite well.
With the same quality, turnkey houses are not more expensive than construction projects built by individual contracts.
The comparison between the two is (unfortunately) very difficult for a construction layman to assess.
With Gu/Gü/Bt, it is important to compare the construction service descriptions.
Here, the coordination of the craftsmen is regulated (more). And regarding warranties, you only have one contact person.
With individual contracts, each position can be compared separately. The prerequisite for this is that you know your desired standard.

Correct, I would always choose the turnkey construction again. When we built the conservatory back then, I already had enough to do, and if the architect hadn’t taken over the general planning, the craftsmen would certainly have made some mistakes. For example, we suddenly had an approximately 15x15 cm squared timber in front of the living room opening. It would have just been a hassle again, as the craftsmen told me when I complained, "that’s what the plan says." A call to the architect/general planner and the issue was resolved.

From my experience, the construction management with individual trade contracts is cheaper but involves significantly more work. The general contractor's profit also has to be earned somewhere. We will start construction in about 6 weeks and have a competent site manager for the construction phase, who will also carry out the tendering/trade awarding together with us. During the construction phase, an average of one site visit per day is contractually fixed. Without professional supervision, construction management is also feasible, but I do not want the mistakes made to be in my house.

Hello,

so we hired separately, even though almost everyone advised against it because we had no idea about construction.

First of all - we would do it the same way again and are glad we didn’t take a general contractor

Our conclusion:

It was not cheaper purely in terms of money, but significantly (!!!!) higher quality

It is not true that it was as stressful as most people think

We did not have this "fuss" with construction service descriptions, (there were none in the classical sense)

We knew what we were getting for our money

There were no discussions and "bickering" when changes were wanted during the construction phase (sockets, switches, additional wall, etc.)

No financial risk, because we paid the craftsmen after the work was done and did not go into prepayment with "wild" payment plans

It is a huge advantage if you know the craftsmen personally

You don’t have to stress at the beginning with selections where you have to decide everything in 2 days, but do this yourself while the construction is already in progress

The commission of the sellers/general contractor is in my house and not in their pocket

The craftsmen are much more motivated because they are not squeezed on price by the general contractor (statements from craftsmen of most trades)

You have complete transparency and decide yourself what you want