ᐅ Looking for a construction company in the Greater Stuttgart area!

ms-t-89 schrieb:

May I ask why Schwabenhaus was excluded or the process was stopped, and which consultant you spoke with? Were there any issues? I’m very interested for reasons related to our own building project.

Unfortunately, I can only confirm the experience with Schwabenhaus. They were one of two providers who stopped responding entirely. We had a promising initial meeting in Fellbach (without going into much detail yet) and then contacted Schwabenhaus again two weeks later with our specific plans and requirements. There was no response whatsoever. Even after following up twice, they completely ignored us—not even a standard rejection.

Therefore, we immediately ruled them out, although we actually liked their concept and building method.

ms-t-89 schrieb:

Oh dear, that matches our experience exactly, except we made the mistake of taking it one step further.

I’m really sorry for you. Building a house should be one of the most wonderful experiences in life, not the worst.

ms-t-89 schrieb:

In our case, the interest in our area was sparked by what I am now convinced was not a 100% accurate listing on ImmoScout. It worked on at least us. But then the plot was suddenly sold very quickly, and we were supposed to be directed to a new plot via the so-called fabulous land service, since supposedly there’s a person in nearly every municipal office you can contact (Well, we didn’t really believe that immediately, but that’s how they approach it).

Unfortunately, this is a common trick. Just look at the many Al*ka*f listings on ImmoScout; they do the same thing. The provider searches the internet for land offers and then posts their own listing including a house. At that point, they don’t own the land but will broker it to you if you respond. In most cases, the plot is already sold by then, and you are promised another plot through their land service. But for that, you need a preliminary contract, and then they have you. The listings always include a note that if the plot is already taken, they will certainly find another one.

I find the claim about contacts in the municipal office borderline. What exactly do they want to do? Municipal land can no longer be handed out informally like that. There are points systems and application processes the provider cannot influence. The only possibility would be knowing a landowner who actually wants to sell—but how often does that happen?

We know someone in real estate, and we talked to him about land options back then. He said the situation in the greater Stuttgart area is very difficult, and he couldn’t give us any advantage.

ms-t-89 schrieb:

The financing service, which claimed decades of experience and promised us wonderful terms, turned out to be a complete nightmare. No clear answers to direct questions, always lots of back and forth, and eventually something came out that was absolutely unacceptable. Several times they implied that an internal financing pre-approval existed, but the final processing would take a month due to the interest-free drawdown period, and we could definitely already go to the notary and waive the withdrawal clauses so we could start planning the free-form house with the architect...

I would never go to the notary appointment without a confirmed financing approval. Surely someone will finance your land since it is usually a smaller amount, but what if not? For example, if you have bad credit (just as an example) and no one wants to finance you? Then you end up with a land plot and commitments—and you can’t pay. Interest rates change daily, so if the financing comes a month later, who knows what the rates will be? And whether they don’t just present you with a bad offer that brings them high commissions.

ms-t-89 schrieb:

Basically, I believe Schwabenhaus itself isn’t a bad company and builds good houses. We were impressed by the model home in Fellbach. I am convinced that it is the sales department causing the problem here. Our sales contact from Heilbronn is a separate company that exclusively brokers for Schwabenhaus, so their offices are clearly branded with Schwabenhaus colors and logos, but the door clearly shows the company name with the salesperson’s surname.

Our contact person wasn’t from Heilbronn. So it seems to be more or less a standard system.

ms-t-89 schrieb:

Fun fact: I showed Schwabenhaus’ floor plan and house to my bank; they said they wouldn’t finance it, and the bank’s internally calculated value was lower than what the sales team had as the listed price.

I don’t know your house prices, but I have to put some blame on the banks as well. They valued our land at half the purchase price. I asked them where I could find such land in the Stuttgart area at that price; then I would buy it immediately. Their answer was just the official land value, but these are outdated nowadays, and banks are lagging behind a bit.

ms-t-89 schrieb:

As of now, the lawyer is handling the case. From Schwabenhaus headquarters’ perspective, it looks as if we arbitrarily canceled everything and are the ones at fault. They are not interested in the sales problem since it’s not their employee, and now they are demanding damages from us… Yes, we are partly to blame for letting ourselves be dazzled and deceived. But we avoid them like the plague and strongly advise everyone in our circle who wants to build—and even those considering Schwabenhaus—not to go there at the moment.

That’s why I was interested in your experience; our lawyer already asked whether there are similar reports online. At least the initial part aligns.

I read several negative reports about this method on the internet back then. I don’t recall where exactly, but with some googling you might find them and possibly get in touch with those people.

I wish you the best of luck moving forward and hope you get out of this mess. Have you found a new provider for your house yet?

PS: There will be another update about Hauser, U-Haus, and AWS at the end of the week.

We have a new contractor; the land was provided to us by the city. Based on a point system, we were even directly assigned our preferred choice. That wasn’t a problem.

I should have gone directly to the local VR Bank for financing. After filling out the contact form online and explaining the situation, the head of the real estate financing department contacted me and said one of his employees would get in touch within five minutes. That actually happened, and the employee was willing to receive everything by email first for internal preparation. This sped up the process, and a week later we received approval. The paperwork arrived a few weeks after that.

This was then approved for a solidly built house from a local provider, which offers a full 70sqm (750 sq ft) more living space for only a slightly higher price compared to SCHWABENHAUS. Out of curiosity, I explained the dilemma with Schwabenhaus and the other prices to the bank. They also found it very questionable, and based on their assessment, it probably would not have been approved.

As things stand, Schwabenhaus headquarters insists on a 10% compensation claim, and the lawyer is currently negotiating to reduce the damages. What annoys us is that, on one hand, we were too inexperienced to see through it, and on the other, the sales team didn’t act fairly. The sales representative from HN simply should have admitted that he made two or three very critical, misleading statements (the lawyer calls it fraudulent misrepresentation) that influenced our decision. But apparently, he doesn’t have the integrity to admit his mistake. So he positions himself as the innocent party, and we’re the fools.

By the way, the new provider is not a general contractor but a planning office. They approach everything completely differently, which initially confused me, but basically, they are very transparent and have already admitted one or two errors in the offer, taking responsibility for them themselves.

We spoke with Schwabenhaus in 2014, and even after four meetings, they were unable to provide us with a price or create a design as a basis. At every appointment we had, they tried to pressure us into signing. We then canceled; their response was that no matter what price we received from competitors, they would undercut it by 5%.

tomtom79 schrieb:

We talked to Schwabenhaus in 2014

... and in the end, you ended up with Schwörerhaus, if I remember correctly (?)

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https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/

This is what it’s like when you compare both directly in the preliminary discussions—you realize how differently things can go. We were even allowed to visit the factory and do a small preliminary sample selection.