ᐅ Land purchase > Architectural design > Tendering (or bidding) > Construction

Yesterday, we visited the prefabricated house exhibition in Poing. I was faced with around 100 floor plans, construction methods, and prices—but none of the offers seemed truly comparable to me. I also don’t see a way to make such a wide range of proposals comparable.

That’s why I’m considering having a soil survey conducted after purchasing the plot, and then hiring an architect to handle the preliminary and design planning according to HOAI. With the tender documents, I would then like to look for a construction company (possibly with the architect’s support). (I have professional experience with tenders, bid comparisons, and price negotiations, so I feel confident handling that.)

I would prefer not to split the individual trades. The only exception might be to contract the basement separately. Otherwise, the house should be delivered more or less turnkey (except for flooring installation and painting).

Has anyone here done it this way, and what were your experiences?

Hello ROLi,

If transparency during the construction process is important to you—as it is to us—and you want to be involved on an equal footing at all times, in my opinion, you should directly contract the individual trades yourself. Good architects know reliable, reasonably priced craftsmen who are also familiar with each other. Usually, these relationships develop over many years and work well (reference construction sites have been visited, and their reputation often precedes them).

So far, we haven’t been able to negotiate large discounts on the price, which I think is because the offers were already very competitive. Usually, negotiations centered around cash discounts of 2 to 3 percent.

We have tendered about 25% of the total construction costs so far and are currently well below the prices quoted by turnkey contractors (compared to the construction progress this is about 20%).

Hi merlin83 – thanks for your assessment. Assigning everything separately would also be an option that I will consider in more detail.

May I ask roughly what budget you are planning with (house starting from the top edge of the basement or the slab)?
And how did you start planning – did you also begin directly with an architect?

If you are fortunate enough to have the choice between different plots of land, you should involve the architect before making the purchase.

They can then provide advice on which plot is best suited to realize your ideas for the house.

We have more or less already chosen the plot. However, there is a building area of about 18.5 x 16 meters (61 x 52 feet). The building plan is also quite flexible, so we are not very restricted there. Involving the architect before the purchase would probably not be possible...

I find this approach optimal; we did it the same way (we also have a construction blog: Google search: Baublog Budenheim).

Only if you present the same architectural plans and detailed specifications for fixtures and fittings to the builders can you get comparable offers.

Ideally, you have already specified as much as possible and included it in the price comparison:

Heating (gas, geothermal, solar thermal, photovoltaic), ventilation (central, decentralized), staircase (open/closed, wood/concrete), sliding doors, windows (RC-2, French balconies, mullions), front door (automatic locking, motorized lock, fingerprint), shading options (electric shutters, venetian blinds, Somfy), entrance canopy, terrace finish (paving, Bangkirai), parking spaces, floor and wall coverings (tiles, parquet, vinyl, wallpaper, washable fleece), electrical (number of outlets, e.g. 80 pieces), additional features (laundry chute, cistern),...

This also applies to secondary construction costs, which must be included in the offer comparison:

Architect, structural engineering, soil survey, earthworks, construction electricity/water, construction waste disposal, utility connections, surveying, energy certificate,...