Who has built with an architect? Experiences??

Hello everyone,

we were actually agreed (until yesterday) that it should be a good and locally well-known developer with whom we want to build a turnkey house. However, after receiving the new price yesterday, we are shocked. It is 30-40k€ above what was promised to us in the last conversation. Although we now save many thousands of € on other costs such as excavation, disposal, and basement due to new circumstances. We are at costs of about 1782€ per sqm of heated living space, including basement and all additional construction costs, but excluding house connection costs and a double garage for 25,000€ (with roof terrace). That seems high to me. Of course, the developer has an excellent reputation, which we have also verified, but I fear we are paying for that as well.

That said, we are now so frustrated that we are wondering whether it might be better to build with an architect. The advantages for us are full cost transparency of the offers, more flexibility, and a better design of the house regarding our wishes concerning the appearance. The disadvantage for us is the fee and the lack of security regarding a fixed price, though associated with the hope that it will be cheaper – or at least that we get a better standard for the same money and, for example, not just a partial basement but a full basement, etc.

Therefore, I would appreciate some experiences from you with architects. Have you built with them, and if so, how did it go? Were you within budget? And if not, what was the reason? And if you decided against an architect, what was the reason? Maybe you had contact with architects but certain things bothered you? I am open to any feedback.

Thank you!

Best regards

Hello xycrazy,

we are currently in the workshop planning phase with our architect and what can I say? It is taking a very long time. The specialist planners and involved craftsmen have taken their time, now it is holiday season and it continues like this. Actually, we wanted to get our house done this year (roof, windows). But judging by how things stand now, it’s going to be tight. Paper is very patient at the moment and the interfaces are too sluggish.

Among other things, the costs have become a significant problem. Not that they have become much higher than expected. No, the planning security with a fixed price is certainly comfortable. When we talk to a financier right now, we can still only give so-so estimated costs from the architect. That’s not ideal.

Our pro architect was, as you already wrote, the flexibility and the hoped-for better standard. Currently, we are paying for this with the above-mentioned cons.

Regards!

We are currently starting with the factory planning as well. I am curious whether it will all work out cost-wise. So far, there is only the estimate: 1600 EUR x sqm plus additional costs as well as all architectural and engineering services.

Hello,
we have built with an architect and construction engineer for service phases 6-9. I don’t think it will get cheaper. But it depends entirely on the cost calculation, which ideally is not done simply by price per sqm. If that’s correct, you can also stay within the budget, and if you allow a little buffer for one or the other extra, it worked very well for us. The billing of additional services was also not difficult thanks to unit price contracts and was very transparent with incidents. The costs for the architectural and engineering services are there anyway. Only that the developers or general contractors spread them across all costs. The projects I know all had to go through very tedious discussions about additional and reduced prices that were very nerve-wracking and did not advance the planning at all.
Personally, I also believe that one cannot name a fixed price for such a complex building as a single-family house. Because at the time of signing the contract, so many factors are still unknown. And some general contractors are no longer willing from a certain point onwards to include the color of the last molding or dowel in the construction service description.
Regards Ronny

Thanks for your reports. Doesn't sound very great. After I spoke with 3 architects yesterday and all of them were significantly over budget, we decided to give up on the idea. With an architect, you simply can't get under €500,000 for our house size. That doesn't make sense for us. No matter how flexible we are with the choice of building materials. We'll rather reconsider our requirements and possibly make the house a bit smaller.

The best architect was the one who said he only builds Kfw40, because that definitely pays off.. but of course only with wood, because that's the best material and totally healthy... when asked about the exterior wall construction regarding insulation, he said he fully relies on polystyrene... ah yes.... so totally healthy My impression is that many architects are simply out of touch with reality. Most are some kind of eco-idealists who want to realize themselves in the project, but completely plan past the customer. Too bad

Regards

We built with an architect and were satisfied. I think it always strongly depends on who you get. We also had some that you just didn’t get along with.

We held talks with general contractors after the building applications, and not a single one was cheaper than the architect’s cost estimate.

Or do you think a general contractor can work magic? They also have to buy their services somewhere.

In this respect, I find it confusing that architects and general contractors differ so much in their cost estimates/offers.

In the end, everyone builds with the same building materials and the same people and ends up with the same price. Everything else should and must make you suspicious.

But do you really believe