First Meeting with Viebrockhaus

Today we had our first meeting with our local Viebrockhaus sales office.

On the drive there, we made a list of our main changes, and how much extra we thought they were worth (our maximum price that we would pay for those changes).

We went through all of the questions that we had prepared and discussed the various changes and additions that we had considered.

The sales agent was extremely helpful, and very patiently and clearly explained answers to all of our questions.

At this point, we were not sure whether to build a cellar or not and also there were a couple of other changes which were ‘maybes'.

About three hours later, we left the meeting, again very happy with how it had gone, knowing much much more than we had when we arrived and with a huge amount of paperwork to read:

  • Draft contract
  • Description of what is included in the price (in full detail)
  • Draft time plan
  • Draft payment plan
  • Fixed price offer with all of our changes incorporated (and the ‘maybes' as maybes.
  • Detailed estimate of all the other costs (for example legal costs for buying the land, taxes, groundwork costs specific to our building plot (not included in the standard house price), utility connections, landscaping etc. etc.)
    These costs are of course (mostly) not paid to Viebrockhaus, but are important to include in the overall budget, and we were thankful that our sales agent had gone so thoroughly through it all with us.

We were extremely happy that the price offer is done in a completely transparent way so that the effects of individual changes can be seen (and taken out again if necessary).

When we looked at the prices for the extras, it confirmed what we had learned earlier about changes from the standard house being expensive.

Additionally, the ‘other costs' estimate came out a little higher than we had originally calculated ourselves, so the end result was a much higher total cost that we had in mind.

Initial ideas were to take some of our options back out, not to have a cellar, or just not to proceed.

It needs thinking about. We will see…

Construction Dates

Begin (Groundwork)7th November 2016
End (Handover)19th April 2017