ᐅ Differences Between General Contractor and Project Developer
Created on: 18 Feb 2019 08:03
M
Markuss85
Hello everyone,
as silent readers, we have already learned a lot from the forum, but now we have a question we haven’t been able to find an answer to yet. Please feel free to link the appropriate thread if this has already been discussed.
We originally planned to build with a general contractor (single-family home, about 140sqm (1506 sqft), solid construction, 2 full floors, basement, turnkey), since we wanted to have only ONE contact person and contractual partner. I often spend weeks abroad, so we can’t manage the construction full-time. However, during our discussions, we met a so-called "building project developer," who is about 10-15% cheaper than the other general contractor offers and leaves a very professional impression.
The "building project developer" also offers us the house turnkey at a fixed price (according to the construction and service specifications) and takes on the construction management role plus planning/coordination, but we would have individual contracts with the separate trades and pay the companies directly. Are you familiar with this arrangement? Is this "normal," or are there any significant disadvantages we might not have considered? Especially regarding a higher "supervision effort" on our part?
We somehow can’t really find anything about this kind of setup, or are we just looking in the wrong places? 😉
THANKS to all of you!
as silent readers, we have already learned a lot from the forum, but now we have a question we haven’t been able to find an answer to yet. Please feel free to link the appropriate thread if this has already been discussed.
We originally planned to build with a general contractor (single-family home, about 140sqm (1506 sqft), solid construction, 2 full floors, basement, turnkey), since we wanted to have only ONE contact person and contractual partner. I often spend weeks abroad, so we can’t manage the construction full-time. However, during our discussions, we met a so-called "building project developer," who is about 10-15% cheaper than the other general contractor offers and leaves a very professional impression.
The "building project developer" also offers us the house turnkey at a fixed price (according to the construction and service specifications) and takes on the construction management role plus planning/coordination, but we would have individual contracts with the separate trades and pay the companies directly. Are you familiar with this arrangement? Is this "normal," or are there any significant disadvantages we might not have considered? Especially regarding a higher "supervision effort" on our part?
We somehow can’t really find anything about this kind of setup, or are we just looking in the wrong places? 😉
THANKS to all of you!
Markuss85 schrieb:
Oh no, that worries me. That’s exactly what we wanted to avoid 🙁 At least regarding the building/performance specification, it’s basically the same with the general contractor and the developer… If you choose a standard house with a standard performance specification, you won’t have to do anything with a general contractor. A construction coordinator doesn’t have anything like that at all. Also, I can hardly imagine that you would only have minor changes with a construction coordinator, because there has to be something to decide on. They wouldn’t even know what you want—such a performance specification is far too vague to build something customized based on it.
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nordanney18 Feb 2019 15:12Markuss85 schrieb:
Oh dear, that scares me; that’s exactly what we wanted to avoid 🙁 At least regarding the construction/performance specification, it’s practically the same with both the general contractor and the building developer The performance specification is the final outcome.
Think of building a house like buying a car. You can go to VW and buy a car. You have one contact person with whom you configure the car, and eventually, it gets delivered. The car dealer is also your contact if the transmission malfunctions.
Your building developer is more like an engineer who connects you to Bosch, Conti, ZF, and so on. You order the individual components from them and have to coordinate the assembly yourself.
If the transmission is faulty here, you don’t deal with the building developer but directly with ZF.
In both cases, you end up with a finished product—a car—but the process is different. If anything, so is the price.
But once again, the question: why not build with an architect? You’ll pay one anyway, and you’ll be much more flexible that way.
We are currently building with a construction coordinator.
It has definitely become more affordable and of higher quality than building with a general contractor (GC). I can guarantee that.
I also really appreciated being able to discuss every detail directly with each tradesperson to make sure everything turned out exactly as I wanted. For example, with the natural stone flooring, we carefully selected which slab would go where. Many things wouldn’t have even been offered by a GC. For instance, I have a built-in brick shelf in the bathroom with LED lighting and solid wood boards—something a GC usually wouldn’t do. Or LED strips along the stair handrail. But we were very involved and always on top of things...
If you’re not interested in these details and just want a standard house, I would recommend going with a GC.
However, if you want a custom home and a smoother process, I recommend having an architect guide you from start to finish. It saves a lot of stress, and the architect handles the inevitable issues because they don’t mind if the tradespeople get upset afterwards. Unfortunately, that’s not the case with a construction coordinator, who has to continue working with the same people for years to come...
It has definitely become more affordable and of higher quality than building with a general contractor (GC). I can guarantee that.
I also really appreciated being able to discuss every detail directly with each tradesperson to make sure everything turned out exactly as I wanted. For example, with the natural stone flooring, we carefully selected which slab would go where. Many things wouldn’t have even been offered by a GC. For instance, I have a built-in brick shelf in the bathroom with LED lighting and solid wood boards—something a GC usually wouldn’t do. Or LED strips along the stair handrail. But we were very involved and always on top of things...
If you’re not interested in these details and just want a standard house, I would recommend going with a GC.
However, if you want a custom home and a smoother process, I recommend having an architect guide you from start to finish. It saves a lot of stress, and the architect handles the inevitable issues because they don’t mind if the tradespeople get upset afterwards. Unfortunately, that’s not the case with a construction coordinator, who has to continue working with the same people for years to come...
Snowy36 schrieb:
He doesn’t care if the tradesperson is upset afterward... but unfortunately the construction coordinator does, because they want to keep working with the same people for the next few years...Apart from the quoted text, I completely agree with you. But the architect also needs to maintain good relationships with the trades, otherwise soon no one will be willing to provide them with bids. :-p
There isn’t nearly as much choice for architects as there used to be. Nowadays, most architects receive only 1 or 2 bids, and that’s it.
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boxandroof18 Feb 2019 18:12I would decide whether to build with a general contractor or to manage individual contracts myself, regardless of the price ranges involved.
By far, we eliminated the most affordable provider first.
By far, we eliminated the most affordable provider first.
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