ᐅ Hire a contractor or manage the bidding yourself

Hello everyone,

We would like to build a detached single-family house (urban villa style) of about 160 to 180 square meters (1,722 to 1,937 square feet), including a full basement and a double garage, in Schwalmtal (near Mönchengladbach). The construction will be done using solid building methods.

We learned from the neighbors that they handled most of the building work themselves or managed the contracts directly. Only the shell construction was completed by a general contractor. According to one neighbor, this approach saved him around 80,000 euros compared to a prefabricated house provider.

What is the best way to approach this, and does it really save that much money?

Looking forward to your ideas and experiences.

Best regards,
Tobias

Hello Tobias,

ronin007 schrieb:
We learned from the neighbors of the property that they all either built the houses themselves or handled the contracting. Only the shell construction was carried out by a general contractor. According to one neighbor, he saved around 80,000 Euro compared to a prefabricated house provider. How can such an approach make sense, and does it really save that much money?

This sounds like a former colleague of mine that I know quite well...

It mainly depends on how the trades following the shell construction were contracted. I doubt that you can save €80,000 (around $86,000) – unless that amount is based on the fixed price of the former colleague; he has always had a tendency to aim high or the comparison was made between apples and oranges.

Apples/oranges: A solid masonry house should not be compared to a prefabricated house – a well-built prefabricated house is always more expensive than a masonry single-family home, assuming equal standards. When the homeowner chooses a building method, it is only fair to compare the usual prices within the respective construction types; ultimately, the building method is a decision made by the homeowner.

Back to your question – from my personal experience, it rarely works well if the homeowner alone awards the contracts for the trades following the shell construction. The minimum requirement is to have a competent site manager as well as someone experienced in awarding contracts who can prepare the specifications and evaluate the offers accordingly; someone who can intervene with a red pen before progress payments are made.

If my assumption is correct, a closer look at the statements from the future neighbors will probably reveal that the former colleague sold the shell construction and awarded the following trades to craftsmen he trusted.

To what extent this approach matches your expectations is something only you can decide, as it will involve a lot of homework on your part.

Best regards

Hello Tobias, personally I think the idea is great and don’t be put off by others here. Finding skilled tradespeople yourself and negotiating with them is definitely possible, especially since renovation doesn’t usually require a general contractor. Of course, renovation is not the same as new construction, but sometimes it can be just as demanding. We are also planning to build next year and want to have the contractor complete only the shell of the building. We will take care of everything else ourselves, which saves us a lot of money and lets us design our house according to our own preferences, not the vision of a construction company.

Hello mrt345,
can you already estimate in advance how much you will save with this? The risk, however, is that it’s quite easy to miscalculate, whereas with a general contractor you agree on a fixed price. If the prices for trades increase during that time, the general contractor is responsible for absorbing those costs, not you. In contrast, when awarding contracts yourself, the calculation can quickly become outdated.

Or am I wrong with this assumption?

To be honest, I’m glad I don’t have to specify everything myself. Just dealing with the topic of utility connections and the staircase we removed is enough. I also don’t think it really saves money. The house will probably just be a bit more high-quality.

I prefer to focus on work I understand and let people handle what they know best.

We are also building with a complete trade-by-trade contracting approach, and I can confirm the savings we achieved. We received the tender documents from the architect/site manager and have used them to approach various general contractors.
However, the effort and stress should not be underestimated! We are now almost finished with the shell construction, and it has been a very stressful period, despite professional support.