Hello everyone!
We are currently considering three companies as potential builders. One of them is Laux Fertigbau from Saarland. They have offered to design our house according to our wishes (we sent them a list in text form). They have their own draftsmen but also work with architects.
The agreement would be that we pay €1500 (about $1600) for this planning work if we decide NOT to choose the company in the end. However, we would receive the plans and drawings and could have the house built by another company if we wanted to. If we decide in favor of Laux, then this planning is part of the project and costs nothing extra.
Overall, I find this arrangement fair, and I think it’s interesting to see what a local architect comes up with if given free rein. Still, I have some reservations about paying this money upfront because I worry it might create a sort of "pre-selection" for the builder and that we might then feel influenced to go with them, just so we don’t waste the €1500.
The second company (currently ranked third in my mind) is called DHI, and the third one is a very local provider with no website or brochures but has been building houses in the region for over 20 years and relies almost entirely on word-of-mouth recommendations. I had a long phone conversation with them, and it was all very likeable. However, I don’t have a price estimate yet, and their aversion to anything digital (no smartphone, no website) puts me off a bit. On the other hand, their workload despite having no advertising clearly speaks in favor of the builder.
Best regards,
Kati
We are currently considering three companies as potential builders. One of them is Laux Fertigbau from Saarland. They have offered to design our house according to our wishes (we sent them a list in text form). They have their own draftsmen but also work with architects.
The agreement would be that we pay €1500 (about $1600) for this planning work if we decide NOT to choose the company in the end. However, we would receive the plans and drawings and could have the house built by another company if we wanted to. If we decide in favor of Laux, then this planning is part of the project and costs nothing extra.
Overall, I find this arrangement fair, and I think it’s interesting to see what a local architect comes up with if given free rein. Still, I have some reservations about paying this money upfront because I worry it might create a sort of "pre-selection" for the builder and that we might then feel influenced to go with them, just so we don’t waste the €1500.
The second company (currently ranked third in my mind) is called DHI, and the third one is a very local provider with no website or brochures but has been building houses in the region for over 20 years and relies almost entirely on word-of-mouth recommendations. I had a long phone conversation with them, and it was all very likeable. However, I don’t have a price estimate yet, and their aversion to anything digital (no smartphone, no website) puts me off a bit. On the other hand, their workload despite having no advertising clearly speaks in favor of the builder.
Best regards,
Kati
W
WilderSueden19 Mar 2022 18:21That’s quite a palace. I don’t want to disappoint you, but with the current price surges, it probably won’t fit within the budget. Right now, I have 630,000 in mind, minus the land, landscaping for a sloped lot, and the garage, which roughly comes to well under 2,500 €/m² (about $230/sq ft).
kati1337 schrieb:
Location has a big impact on the price, so I wonder if we can even get this amount financed, being so far out in the middle of nowhere. There is a dry joke that goes, "Dad, the cars behind us aren't going any faster either." Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland are practically nowhere almost everywhere, and the local banks are also located right "in the middle" of it.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
11ant schrieb:
A really dry joke goes: "Dad, the cars behind us aren’t driving any faster either." Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland are almost entirely in the middle of nowhere, and the banks associated with them are, of course, located right there "in the thick of it."Should I interpret this as "getting a mortgage might be possible," or rather not?Why are these places called nowhere? They are actually full of people. Crowded, almost too crowded. Highways, railway lines with overhead wires, factories everywhere. Drive to East Vorpommern or to the Eider-Treene Depression, where the villages named Elend and Ekel are located, then you will understand what emptiness really is.
Nordlys schrieb:
Why is this considered nowhere? It’s actually full of people there. Crowded, almost too crowded. Highways, rail lines with overhead wires, full of factories. Take a trip to East Vorpommern or the Eider-Treene lowlands, where villages are named Elend and Ekel, then you’ll know what emptiness is. At least the pictures are beautiful. 🙂
Yes, that’s true, it is quite densely populated, but it’s mostly small villages next to each other, with few larger towns.
I think from the perspective of household management, it’s definitely suitable for us to build a larger house here. But I wonder if this is common in these small villages, and whether the bank would support such a loan. Because you can only get such a high loan with a mortgage, and if the bank believes they wouldn’t get back as much as we would need to borrow in a worst-case scenario, it might be difficult.
Although I was also surprised at how much our house was mortgaged for here.
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Reinhard84.219 Mar 2022 23:54Somewhere in the middle of nowhere can be nice, you’re not right on top of your neighbor, and there’s a bit of nature. The downside is less social interaction and more farmers 😉. If it’s not in the East, at least there are no Nazis. I would just think twice about taking out so much debt – it ties you to work. When I think about it, even with three or four people, a house doesn’t need to be 200m² (2,150 sq ft); what matters more is love, affection, and time.