Turnkey prefabricated house - total price okay?

@ Gluecklich

If I were in your place, I would get the construction service descriptions from various providers. Then you sit down and compare piece by piece. We made an Excel spreadsheet and wrote down for each item from each provider what is included or how it is executed. This way, we were able to exclude the first providers who offered high prices and low services.
Besides, this way we gradually got into the topic of construction.

For the details, we then took an independent construction consultant who can also assess what each additional or reduced service is actually worth.

Hello,

Nevertheless, I find it difficult and strange compared to all other products. I can equip a car brand with a special engine, leather seats, or various rims. Or I take it in the basic version and then pay the fixed price X. With house construction, it's somehow different. When I look at a house in the model home park and say I want it EXACTLY like that, I still don't get a concrete price. That's strange, isn't it!?

No, that is by no means strange. In the automotive industry, with few exceptions, the same suppliers are always on board. This way, any conceivable equipment can be put together for each car and in the end, the price can be given.

With house construction, it is different – although there are a few providers who have consistently adopted this approach (which benefits the builder) – usually everyone does their own thing with changing partners as suppliers. Then the possibilities for equipment in house construction are many times higher than with a car – this, combined with the respective personal situation/personal preferences, makes it almost impossible to name a sales price without calculating the masses accordingly.

Surely builders also give me corresponding subjective information about their house. But even here: concrete final prices ... nowhere to be found. Just like in all TV reports. Nowhere – with very few exceptions – do you find out what the house actually cost completely till the end.

That is also humanly understandable, isn't it? Very few builders will honestly tell you what their house really all-in cost, because it would expose them in public: oops, it cost more than planned ... the consultant or the "stupid" salesperson was right ... "unforeseeable" costs came up … etc. Some of them even tend to practice understatement…

What they will certainly honestly convey to you is their experience with their respective provider. Of course, again "subjective" – at least a good start!

I had actually hoped to find a forum somewhere that offers the following info: House Y turnkey with floor, wallpaper, and cellar/foundation slab purchased. That was the original price used as bait, that was the price we signed for and that is what we really paid in the end.

For that, for example, "Perlenmann," "Musketier," "Shism," but also "Der Da" have written quite a bit...

We would also build conventionally... if we had the time for it. Unfortunately, we don’t. So we’re a bit stuck with prefab houses. And I actually thought the prices there were fixed prices...

Do you really believe that a prefab house is finished faster?

The only advantage a prefab house brings in terms of speed is the pure ordering of the shell. After that, the interior finishing takes just as long as with conventional house construction. In the meantime – the prefab industry is strictly dependent on the approval-free building permit so it can start prefab production – usually the shell is already there with the conventional builder. And – among others, "Der Da" will confirm this to you – if it is a quality prefab provider, the waiting times are eternally long until production even begins.

Of course, there are also prefab providers who deliver with complete wiring and curtains on the windows... but I hardly believe these represent the provider you have in mind.

Kind regards

My post was somehow deleted, so here it is again

and yes, Bauexperte is right, the waiting time is about 12 months. But then it goes quickly, almost 3 months and you can move in.

So here again is my post from earlier:

With prefabricated houses, a final price can definitely be calculated. But the seller must also want that.
And that's where the problem lies.
Builders want to compare, and unfortunately often look at the bottom right at the total sum. And the one with the cheapest offer gets the contract.
So if the seller wants to sell well, he has to hide/conceal costs so he doesn't always appear as the most expensive.
Unfortunately, in the industry, the honest ones lose out...

We decided on a provider quite early and made that very clear to our seller. The decision was based on some colleagues who built with the same company and on conversations with builders of this company. We roughly knew what to expect with the house.

From that moment on, we could clearly tell our seller what we wanted and keep it fixed in terms of price.
Until the selection of materials, we had a fixed price. The only prices our seller did not inform us about were the trades not described in the construction service.
These were:
about €800 for the base plaster
about €1400 for a KFW pull-down attic ladder
about €1000 for construction electricity
about €500 for the fencing
about €4000 for the redesign of the floor plan (we changed a lot.)

The only unknown was the selection of materials for the house. Here, about €10,000 was added, which we spent on special requests and technical upgrades. About €3000 of this amount was unavoidable because we absolutely wanted a fireplace, and it had to be room-air independent. But in financial distress, you can just skip that kind of thing.

So what I can advise you is to roughly compare the construction services, go into new development areas as Bauexperte said and talk to people, and then bother the sellers. You will quickly notice which seller is trying to provide you with prices and which one is wriggling.

In the end, we got a prefabricated house with KFW 55, living space ventilation with enthalpy exchanger and preheating coil, fireplace stove, soft water system, gas boiler, solar, 300l hot water, gas connection for the kitchen, about 150 sqm living space, base plaster, satellite, and complete Ethernet (CAT7) wiring, 2 bathrooms (ceramics from Renova) completely finished, 5-point locking of the front door + improved burglary protection for roller shutters and windows, about 80 sockets (cost per socket approx. €50, almost 40 were included), clay tiles, painted roof undersides, colored stripes outside on the plaster, entrance canopy, stainless steel standpipes for exactly €223,000. Everything that came around that was our problem. Incidental construction costs were extremely high for us, but the house provider is not responsible for that. That is solely due to the plot of land.

I am sure, if you negotiate well with the seller, you can get the same house for the same price. However, my seller really had to phone the provider quite often in the end to get even more discounts approved.
You have to be a little tough there. After all, it’s a lot of money.

Hello again,
Sorry for bumping the post again. But still better and clearer than opening a new one ;o)

So, this is how it looks for us now:
The plot will be around 140-145 sqm - alternatively a semi-detached house, then about 100.
Budget: 430 euros
Minus the incidental costs for land and house estimated at 40, there should be about 250 left just for the house, right??
Well, the garden should be included in that.
The whole thing turnkey. Alternatively almost finished (except for floor and walls), then the total sum should also be right in the end and not exceeded!

We have already looked around the market a bit and are going around in circles and not getting any further. The sellers don’t always make it easy either... some lack honesty...

Our wish: At least (!) 145 sqm, due to costs without basement, but with a large storage room on the ground floor (either the technology also goes there or another room is needed). Preferably a small pantry.
Upstairs: large bedroom, children’s room, bathroom and a small office.
Since we are tall, as few sloping ceilings as possible – either very high knee walls or shed/flat roof.
Unfortunately, a hip roof is not allowed for us (a pity, because that would give us ceiling height plus storage space).

Because we want to have the house up quickly, prefab house providers have the advantage.
Since we want to build turnkey and without time, hassle and cost surprises, we are currently looking at the somewhat higher-end providers (although I don’t even really know if they are really higher-end): Büdenbender, Schwörerhaus, Weberhaus, Rensch-Haus. Rensch-Haus probably still the cheapest? It can also be a promotional house!

But unfortunately, hardly any manage to fulfill our wishes. That’s why we also sometimes check out Elk...

And now first talks show that solid constructions are significantly cheaper... hmm.. financially definitely interesting! But what about the completion time on site? And: How can I be sure it won’t end up being more expensive?
One provider that would fit in this range, but from whom we have no offer yet: Viebrockhaus.

My question: Is what I wrote so far correct? Is our budget definitely enough? (We absolutely do not want to go over, rather still keep something left over).

Do you have any other tips?

And: Sorry for going around in circles/discussing... maybe someone can show us the way out ;o)

Your budget will already become tight.

Whether a prefabricated house or a solid house, it does not matter; both are completed in the same amount of time. The prefabricated house is not produced immediately after the planning phase but also has certain waiting times.

So I would get one or two offers from a solid construction company in your region. In terms of price, it should be doable for about 150 sqm, I think. Of course, this varies from region to region.

The construction time should actually not be an argument for or against solid construction or prefab house, as already mentioned. The prefab house is also only produced after ordering, with some waiting time. Therefore, in the end, it should be completed at the same time as a solid house.