Visualize house prefab house provider categories

Hi

I am planning to start a house project in a few months. I am new here (and also new to house construction). A few key data points:

[*]Plot is in prospect [*]Budget for the house: approx. 500-600k including basement [*]1.5 floors, knee wall about 1 meter, roof pitch 35-45 degrees [*]approx. 8.5 x 11.5 meter footprint [*]Living area 130-150 sqm [*]Location: Bavaria

We are currently favoring "timber frame" over brick by brick.

Before we go to the architect and buy the plot - three questions: 1. Do you have a tip on how I can better imagine the empty plot with a prototype house? Are there providers online or designers etc. who can visualize a few pictures of the plot with house, carport, driveway, hedge, etc.? Or is there software that can do this? It does not have to be perfect or to scale at all. Just so you can imagine it better. 2. I once visited a few prefab house providers in Poing. But I can’t tell the providers apart. Is there a good article or post here about this? I would like to better differentiate these providers (including differentiation criteria: industrial vs. artisanal, timber construction, price, style, finishing/turnkey, ...) 3. Which house providers can be recommended in my region? We are not fixed on timber yet either. ;-)

As software, I can recommend AllPlan, which is free to test for 14 days. There you can do everything to scale, and basically, there are almost no limits if you put in the corresponding effort. With the help of YT videos, it’s not that hard to understand most things, so even a beginner should be able to make a simple model over a weekend.

Regarding comparing house builders, maybe check out the site Fertighausexperte. There you can at least find some information and experiences about all well-known house builders. Otherwise, of course, there is a lot of information and experiences in general on the internet (forums, YT videos, etc.). Also, in new development areas from recent years near the property, it can be worthwhile to ask builders who they built with and how satisfied they are. There you can even directly check out the "work" of the house builders on site.

[*]1.5 stories, knee wall about 1 meter, 35-45 degree roof pitch
[*]approx. 8.5 x 11.5 meter footprint
[*]living area 130-150 sqm

I come rather to just under 120 sqm. Where do the "key data" come from: self-planning with paper wall thicknesses?

2. I once visited a few prefab house suppliers in Poing. But I can’t tell the builders apart. Is there a good post here or article about that? I would like to be able to distinguish these suppliers a bit better (among other distinguishing criteria: industrial vs. artisanal, wooden structure, price, style, turnkey/ready to finish, ...)

How did you manage not to distinguish them even though you saw them live in the same exhibition?

We currently favor "timber frame" over brick on brick. [...]
3. Which house suppliers can be recommended in my region? We are also not yet committed to wood. ;-)

Not being committed is actually good, but if you already find the market confusing with the timber frame builders alone and understand Bavarian dialect fluently, then you are even better off going to my colleague Andreas Zink in Münchsdorf (between Dingolfing and Passau). He seems exactly right for you.

1. Do you have a tip on how I can better imagine the empty plot with a prototype house? Are there providers online or designers etc. who can visualize a few pictures of the plot with house, carport, driveway, hedge etc.? Or is there software that can do that? It doesn’t have to be perfect or to scale at all. Just so that you can imagine it better.

Not perfect, but it must be to scale. Otherwise, you can imagine something but wrongly, and then it won’t fit. But I wouldn’t use software (whether freeware, shareware, runtime, or online), rather print out the plot exactly to scale from the cadastre map or development plan and then move a house dummy around with a protractor and scissors; that’s the best way to grasp it.

I come rather to just under 120 sqm. Where do the "key data" come from: self-planning with paper wall thicknesses?

-> a "house planner" (or rather one of the many prefab house sellers in Poing) showed me that on suitable floor plans

How did you manage not to be able to distinguish them, although you saw them live in the same exhibition?

-> Irony?

The non-commitment is actually good, but if you already find the market confusing just with the timber frame panel builders alone and understand Bavarian fluently, then you’ll do even better than with me by going to my colleague Andreas Zink in Münchsdorf (between Dingolfing and Passau). He seems exactly the right one for you.

-> Irony? or meant seriously?

Not perfect, but it must be to scale. Otherwise you can imagine something, but incorrectly, and then it doesn’t fit. However, I wouldn’t use any software (whether freeware, shareware, runtime, or online), but rather print out the property from the cadastral plan or development plan to scale and then move a house dummy around with a set square and scissors, that way you understand it best.

-> I could actually imagine sufficient detail on a photo (showing the entire property from the street) with the house, terrace, hedges, driveway, carport marked in, to be able to decide that the property fits. Do you really have to “educate” me otherwise?

-> I could actually imagine quite well from a photo (showing the entire property from the street) with the house, terrace, hedges, driveway, carport drawn in, to be able to decide that the property fits. Do you really have to "enlighten" me otherwise?

Nobody "enlightens" you. With an undistorted bird’s-eye view and hands-on playing analog cutouts, the insight effect actually internalizes best.

-> Irony?

No, that is really an impressive achievement, I am impressed. To walk through an entire exhibition of such houses in life size and to be able to compare them without time pressure without consciously experiencing their differences and being able to sort the exhibits, I cannot comprehend. Especially since in every show home there are salespeople who additionally point out the differences. Distorting, yes, but they do not negate them.

-> Irony? or serious?

Completely serious, and both: 1. if you a) find it already too difficult to distinguish/overview the different exhibits of this "prefab" house exhibition and b) like the construction method so much that you don’t miss anything in this part of the overall range, then the possible gain by including the masonry models is not in a convincing proportion to the growing confusion. 2. a) under these conditions, the aforementioned colleague will not help you any worse than I do (I have no specialization in construction methods, but am open to the full broad spectrum). But even better, because as a so-called "value added sales representative" for you, he is the more suitable advisor than me. And 2. b) I still recommend him limited to customers who are proficient in understanding fluent Bavarian, because he can explain well understandably for laypeople, but phonetically is quite weakly Prussian-compatible. If he tries to speak without dialect coloration, it rather backfires – try it out, there are videos where he demonstrates this. I also recommend other colleagues of this kind gladly to seekers with an affinity for "prefab" houses, such as colleagues Beuler ("Prefab house experts") or Freyermuth ("Prefab house Guido"). And specifically in and for Bavaria, the colleague Zink. I myself am construction-method neutral, working nationwide from northern RLP (also gladly from afar), but currently blessed with a very full waiting room and already "yearning for vacation before deep autumn comes" – besides, my feeling is that the profile of the mentioned colleagues would be more suitable for you.