Hello.
In my considerations and planning phase, I am currently discussing with several providers (general contractors, prefab house companies, etc.) in the early planning stage.
So far, I have not signed any contracts.
All the companies are more or less diligent in preparing proposals, quotes, and cost estimates.
At some point, you have to choose one and turn down the others.
Those who are not selected are probably not happy that you decided to buy elsewhere.
Can they charge you for consultations or design drafts?
Do contractors expect that potential clients request multiple offers and drafts, or am I mistaken in doing it this way?
Are planners used to only selling three houses out of ten offers, or is the success rate even lower?
For such a major investment, you naturally don’t want to accept just any offer without having comparisons.
How did you handle it when choosing your house?
Of course, you have to make sure you can compare the offers yourself in terms of features and size.
Thank you very much.
Best regards
In my considerations and planning phase, I am currently discussing with several providers (general contractors, prefab house companies, etc.) in the early planning stage.
So far, I have not signed any contracts.
All the companies are more or less diligent in preparing proposals, quotes, and cost estimates.
At some point, you have to choose one and turn down the others.
Those who are not selected are probably not happy that you decided to buy elsewhere.
Can they charge you for consultations or design drafts?
Do contractors expect that potential clients request multiple offers and drafts, or am I mistaken in doing it this way?
Are planners used to only selling three houses out of ten offers, or is the success rate even lower?
For such a major investment, you naturally don’t want to accept just any offer without having comparisons.
How did you handle it when choosing your house?
Of course, you have to make sure you can compare the offers yourself in terms of features and size.
Thank you very much.
Best regards
Ralf1980 schrieb:
The contractors are all more or less diligent when preparing proposals, offers, and cost estimates. [...]
However, those who don’t get the contract are probably not pleased that the purchase goes elsewhere. Can they charge you for consultations or designs?
Do contractors expect that multiple offers and designs will be requested, or am I mistaken in doing it this way?
Are planners used to selling only three houses out of ten offers, or is the success rate even lower?
With such a large investment, you wouldn’t want to accept any offer without having comparisons. Oh dear, I just noticed that you have already started a new (fifth?) thread about the same building project again (and I don’t have time right now to link all the previous threads).
Your post here could almost answer itself – basically, you only need to read it from the “other side”: with such a large investment (including the costly time of skilled cost estimators), contractors often don’t even bother responding to requests from unknown people who, as you put it, are “misguided” because the bidder cannot even glean the most basic information about the likelihood of winning the contract. Consequently, a provider might have to prepare one hundred offers to sell three houses, because many people inquire just for fun. That means some people don’t have the necessary funds and/or don’t want a real offer but only a comparison offer (which is as different as a friend and a party friend). That’s why the reputable providers often ignore such cold requests sent to possibly ten competitors. The inquirer doesn’t learn anything from this, but instead “learns” to send twenty instead of ten requests. And so the endless cycle of “lessons learned” from one’s own poor judgment keeps going. By 2030, we may see that the reputable providers still in the market will only respond to existing or referral clients or to consultants like me, who act as trusted intermediaries for pre-verified genuine interest and financial capability. Especially in times of a slowing construction market, a company facing insolvency might still take a step further ;-) and prepare offers for unknown cold inquiries. “Designs” can only come from the drawer under uncertain conditions at best.
There is literally a flood of people in your situation whose development plan allows a two-family house. But many of these people are unrealistic dreamers who imagine that a second dwelling will pay off the house on its own (sometimes they have zero remaining capital right after purchasing the land while building their financing model on this). The professionals working overtime to prepare offers for such clients earning six thousand plus a company car and other asset-building benefits are mostly those who need the work or who aren’t the types whose business you want to pursue.
So if you are not the nuisance described above but the Ralf who went to school with the builder’s brother-in-arms Bernd and lived next to his cousin Frank, then that’s a completely different matter. In this case, your request is understood correctly and it’s clear that you are not inquiring due to credit-related stinginess or relying on the practical skills of a Polish brother-in-law for a shell construction. There’s a world of difference, really.
There will always be some fresh salespeople to show interest. But if you want to be a serious and solvent client and not waste other people’s or your own time, you arrange offers in a professional way (delegating this is fine). There are people like me (and some competitors) or also independent consultants tied to building science but otherwise without vendor affiliations*, and – my usual point – classic architects as well (who, another usual point from me, earn their fees for much more than just original floor plan designs). Efficiency doesn’t “cost” anything!
In this sense: fees for independent consultants are an investment with good returns. However, it doesn’t hurt to wait until after the turn of the year, as we’re already in the holiday season – keep that in mind regarding your (im)patience with responses to your already sent inquiries.
*) I mentioned several of them just the day before yesterday in https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/kataloghaus-oder-freie-planung-mit-architekten.46350/post-645948
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
11ant schrieb:
The inquiries don’t really learn from this; rather, they "learn" to broadcast twenty requests instead of ten. And so the cycle at the local pub table of self-taught clumsiness keeps turning. By 2030, we will have reached a point where the reputable providers still active on the market will only respond to inquiries coming from existing customers and referrals or from advisors like me, who are then regarded as a kind of trustee for pre-verified genuine interest and financial capacity. It should of course say: "The inquiryr don’t learn from this" and "By 2030, we will have reached a point where the reputable providers still active on the market will only respond to inquiries originating from existing customers and referrals or from advisors like me, who are then regarded as a kind of trustee for pre-verified genuine interest and financial capacity."
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/