ᐅ "Traditional" Approach to Selecting a Contractor – To-Do List

Dear Forum,

Now that the ink on the notarized contract for the land purchase (in 64625 Bensheim) has dried, we visited the prefabricated house center in Mannheim for the first time and feel overwhelmed by all the options.

At first glance, we don’t see major differences between the providers—promotional videos and catalogs, of course, only show the positive aspects. On the other hand, you can find some negative comments and reviews online about almost every provider. Moreover, I find it risky to choose a supplier solely based on one consultant.

Without solid reasons, there were still a few prefabricated house manufacturers we felt “sympathetic” towards. These are Bien-Zenker, Weiss, Schwabenhaus, Bittermann and Weiss, Fingerhaus, Hanse, and Weberhaus.

In addition, there are two regional concrete (or masonry) builders we had good initial contact with.

The question we’re asking ourselves is: what is the best way to proceed now?

Should we narrow down our selection or even widen the circle? Should we have a consultation with every company? Should each company plan a house based on our wishes so we can make a meaningful price comparison?

We are at a loss.

Therefore, I hope to receive some tips from you. Is there an approach that has proven effective? How did you proceed?

I look forward to your input.

Best regards and have a pleasant evening

We also visited two prefab home show villages. But basically, we already knew that we wanted a house in the Swedish style. Unfortunately, no representatives from the so-called Swedish houses were present. However, the show villages did provide us with quite a bit of inspiration for the floor plan design.

So how did we find our supplier? We used Google and contacted all the companies that could potentially realize our Swedish house dream.

In the end, there weren’t that many options left. We wanted a maximum living area of 110 m² (1,184 sq ft), and only a few had something like that in their offerings.

After this initial selection, we sent them concrete floor plan ideas and general requirements and waited for their responses.

Some suppliers were very transparent and readily sent us their construction service specifications, while others were evasive and just gave us plain advertising brochures.

In the end, two favorites remained in the final selection. We were able to visit one of the houses, which was privately occupied. That’s when we made our decision. A lot of it was based on gut feeling as well.

This may sound like a long process, but I believe it took about six weeks from the first visit to a prefab home park until the construction contract. This was because we quickly reached agreements on all matters without having to make compromises in favor of the other party.

Grillhendl schrieb:

It was because we quickly reached agreement on everything without needing to make compromises in favor of the other.

That is one of the key conditions that significantly simplifies the building process.
Maybe first try to find YOUR floor plan, either online or through home construction companies. Often you think you have few requirements or are flexible, but then you realize the opposite—which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
If you find one with a prefabricated house company that you barely need to modify, prefab might be an option. However, if you want more individuality, a smaller general contractor or one of the smaller providers might be more suitable.
For me, prefab was quickly ruled out, partly due to generally higher costs.
Of course, it also depends on whether you plan to do more than the usual amount of work yourself. Personally, I would lean toward a local masonry builder or general contractor; sometimes a general contractor also offers timber frame construction. In our case, this depended on our planned project, and it will now be built with solid construction.
If you come across a trustworthy and competent person with a good reputation on this path, then things should soon start falling into place.

Well, first of all, I think it’s good that you are not fixed on one construction method and don’t exclude any, or consider one as the only true way. Avoid the temptation to get closer to the truth by collecting as many providers as possible for a broad comparison: the more inexperienced you are, the easier it is to drown in an information overload. Especially comparisons of apples and oranges are pointless – so much for the idea

Mlt1402 schrieb:

Should a house be designed by each company according to our wishes

– no, better take one house design per construction method and let the other providers give their price quotes on these. So from the “masonry builders” A/B/C, respondent C replies first, and from the “prefabricated house builders” E/F/G, respondent F replies first: then have A and B also calculate “house C,” and E and G “house F.” The providers already know this game and expect you to distribute your favor based on prices. But now you change the rules: whoever can badmouth their competitors the most scores the most negative points (for example). Think about your own tactics – the main thing is: either you make the rules, or you are the ball; with that in mind, you have to pull together.

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Define your must-haves. For us, it was a passive house, for @Grillhendl it was the Swedish style and size.
What do you want?

You need a provider whose scope of services overlaps the most with your wishes – detailed description of construction services.
The provider has to fit you, and you need to feel well taken care of there.
I would choose a provider with a dedicated site manager.

haydee schrieb:

I would choose a provider with a dedicated site manager.

I can’t imagine a contract including provisions about when a general contractor assigns which of their site managers where – that seems like an unrealistic expectation to me.

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