ᐅ Prefabricated House or Traditional Solid Construction Companies – Budget
Created on: 13 May 2020 12:56
C
Cary2020
Hello everyone. As you can see, I am new here and looking for advice. We are 25 and 27 years old, both employed, and our monthly net income is 3100 € (approximately $3,400). We have no equity saved up (we are already aware of the risks). Now, by coincidence, we have found a plot of land. It’s the only one in the area that meets our expectations (small, no more than 500 m² (6000 sq ft)). It was more or less a “random find.” Although we had agreed that we wanted to build a house someday, we hadn’t expected it to happen so soon. We want to build at the edge of the Harz mountains, in Lower Saxony. That’s the basic info.
Over the past few days, we have spent a lot of time researching the topic but have not reached any concrete conclusions yet. We have had initial phone appointments with banks; even without equity, it’s not impossible, and some very reputable, well-known banks were involved. We have further appointments with first companies and additional banks planned for next week. However, I would also like to connect with “regular” homeowners to get realistic assessments because we probably belong to this group ourselves.
Does anyone have experience with building a house at our income level? Is it feasible not only on paper but also in reality?
Then the big question arises: do we want a traditional solid house (brick and mortar) or a prefab house? Twenty years ago, when my parents built their home, prefab houses had a bad reputation. Nowadays, that seems to have improved significantly. Basically, we are still undecided. We see major advantages with prefab houses in the absence of moisture problems, clearly the price (is that really the case?), and according to experience reports, there is less shoddy workmanship. I’m hoping to learn from your experiences here.
The last point, of course, will be contacting companies. I am a bit hesitant about regional developers and would prefer to get in touch with larger firms like Viebrockhaus (probably quite expensive), Massa Haus, Arge, etc. Here too, I hope to have an initial exchange with you.
As you can see, we are just starting out and would like to bring some orientation to our confusion of thoughts. Thanks in advance for your help.
Over the past few days, we have spent a lot of time researching the topic but have not reached any concrete conclusions yet. We have had initial phone appointments with banks; even without equity, it’s not impossible, and some very reputable, well-known banks were involved. We have further appointments with first companies and additional banks planned for next week. However, I would also like to connect with “regular” homeowners to get realistic assessments because we probably belong to this group ourselves.
Does anyone have experience with building a house at our income level? Is it feasible not only on paper but also in reality?
Then the big question arises: do we want a traditional solid house (brick and mortar) or a prefab house? Twenty years ago, when my parents built their home, prefab houses had a bad reputation. Nowadays, that seems to have improved significantly. Basically, we are still undecided. We see major advantages with prefab houses in the absence of moisture problems, clearly the price (is that really the case?), and according to experience reports, there is less shoddy workmanship. I’m hoping to learn from your experiences here.
The last point, of course, will be contacting companies. I am a bit hesitant about regional developers and would prefer to get in touch with larger firms like Viebrockhaus (probably quite expensive), Massa Haus, Arge, etc. Here too, I hope to have an initial exchange with you.
As you can see, we are just starting out and would like to bring some orientation to our confusion of thoughts. Thanks in advance for your help.
M
Matthew0314 May 2020 16:38Cary2020 schrieb:
I only just now have time to respond again.Have you had a chance to do some research in the meantime?
You go on to list how you/we can practically do almost everything yourselves, how every trade is supposedly handled in EL, and more, but in your first post you said you are just starting out, asking beginner questions (this is not meant negatively, just an observation, we’ve all been beginners!) like the one about prefab houses being cheaper... to me, that doesn’t really add up. If you are skilled enough and can handle everything in EL, saving costs that way, it’s well known that this usually isn’t possible with a prefab house. Manual skills and multiple helping hands are much better combined with a solid, traditional house using a local general contractor, for example.
That’s why I asked the question above.
Your parents certainly didn’t build in 2020 with an income of 2800 euros. A loan of 230,000 euros won’t get you very far when building a house; your home will probably cost around 300,000 euros including additional costs—it’s unlikely to be much cheaper. For a 300,000 euro loan, you’ll likely be paying around 1000 euros every month. You just need to consider whether you can manage that.
Best regards,
Sabine
Best regards,
Sabine
Curly schrieb:
But your parents definitely didn’t build in 2020 with an income of 2800 euros. A loan of 230,000 euros won’t get you very far for building a house; your house will probably cost around 300,000 euros including additional costs, it won’t be much cheaper. For a 300,000 euro loan, you’ll likely have to pay about 1000 euros per month; you need to consider if you can manage that.
Regards
Sabine Especially if you also have monthly additional costs of at least 400 euros waiting for you.
H
HilfeHilfe14 May 2020 16:44saralina87 schrieb:
The original poster already mentioned that no children are planned, so that’s not a factor.
Currently, there are just two of us, and our fixed monthly expenses (retirement savings, insurance, car, etc.) total about 700 euros, of which 200 are simply discretionary ("because we can") and definitely not essential (Sky, charity lottery ticket, DAZN, etc.). For food, fuel, toiletries, and so on, we currently spend around 700 euros, and there’s definitely room to save there as well. So we could manage quite easily on 1,200 euros per month without living poorly or being overly frugal.
That theoretically leaves 300 euros extra each month!
Personally, I might find the project a bit too uncertain, but I don’t think it’s as dramatic as you do.Yes, that’s how those guys who start threads are—never wanting childrensaralina87 schrieb:
The original poster already mentioned that no children are planned. So that’s not a factor.
Currently, there are just two of us, and our fixed monthly expenses (retirement savings, insurance, car, etc.) amount to 700 euros (approximately $750), of which 200 euros (about $215) are just because “we can” and definitely not necessary (Sky, charity lottery ticket, DAZN, etc.). For food, fuel, toiletries, and so on, we currently spend around 700 euros (about $750), and we could certainly be more economical there as well. So we could easily manage with 1,200 euros (about $1,285) per month without having to live poorly or overly frugally.
That means there would theoretically be 300 euros (about $320) left over!
Personally, I would probably find the plan too risky, but I don’t think it’s as dramatic as you do. In my opinion, 1,200 euros ($1,285) per month for two people is very, very frugal. We are three. After deducting all expenses like rent, our daughter’s music school, retirement savings, Netflix (we also set aside money every month for car insurance, vehicle tax, Amazon Prime, basically everything not charged monthly), we have about 2,200 euros (approximately $2,350) left for the three of us, plus we save 2,000 euros (about $2,135). We are still waiting to start building the house until at least the land is paid off and we have built some equity.
S
saralina8714 May 2020 16:50HilfeHilfe schrieb:
Yes, that’s how those who start threads are—never having children. Often, I don’t even know how to respond to your answers because they are so off... I just shake my head virtually.
Ybias78 schrieb:
I personally find €1,200 per month very, very frugal for two people. There are three of us. After deducting all expenses like rent, our daughter’s music school, retirement savings, Netflix (we also set aside money every month for car insurance, vehicle tax, Amazon Prime—in other words, everything that isn’t charged monthly), we have about €2,200 left for the three of us, and we save an additional €2,000. We are still waiting to start building the house until we have at least paid off the land and built some equity. The rent is of course separate and not part of the fixed costs I listed. That cost will also disappear once we move into the house.
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