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You pay for the land and all that other blah-blah-blah aside: Having grown up in the United States and lived over a decade in various parts of Europe, I find U

You pay for the land and all that other blah-blah-blah aside: Having grown up in the United States and lived over a decade in various parts of Europe, I find U.S. construction quality and expectations (esp. modern) absolutely dismal. It’s truly in the space of relative deprivation. In no way are most of the property structures worth their market prices (pre-bubble). I spoke to a Swiss colleague who lives part time in the States recently about this. He attempted to have a house built to modern Swiss design spec. where he was living (climatically similar to the Schweizer Mittelland) and gave up due to infeasibility. Money was not the problem; knowledge, at-grade quality inputs, etc. are all lacking in the United States. And I’d believe it being in CH now and today. I’ve kept an eye open for quality execution on all of my return trips (various parts of the country), and I just don’t see anything that can hold a candle to modern construction in DACH. Simple quality of life improvement for many buildings Stateside would be retrofitting these onto more doors: https://planet.ag/produkte/produkteuebersicht/ https://planet.ag/produkte/produkteuebersicht/. Folks deserve noise, smell, and climatic isolation. You don’t know what you are missing. I’d easily spend $50 a night more for hotels that’d use these. I don’t want to be able to hear a mouse fart from a room down the hall unattenuated at perfect fidelity.

manmal 5y ago
To add to that - it’s a totally different industry, but Tesla cars made in China are known to be superior in quality compared to the US produced one‘s.
oblio 5y ago
What's that thing in your link?
yourapostasy 5y ago
> ...and I just don’t see anything that can hold a candle to modern construction in DACH. You say "Money was not the problem". I take that to mean your friend was reasonably not willing to pay as much as an order of magnitude more in the US than average (say a range of $300-1K psf for just the improvement and not including the dirt). Generally, if he went to high-end commercial builders, opened a checkbook, and said, "use these materials and parts, build to these specs and tolerances", he'll get whatever he wants in the US. Compare average US tract residential SFH construction build quality to what you find in private venture companies that builds and operate their own MFH's. While the interiors are similar, the private venture companies are staffed by people who know what will and will not work in the bones of the structure over the investment payoff timeline. They won't care about insulation for the tenants' benefit, but they will make very certain for example that the walls, roof and foundation stand for as long as they project to hold the investment. The US aggressively min-maxes for the wealthy capital-holding class. It is no accident that if you want something done right and will last, you will avail yourself of the same kinds of resources that class will use themselves.

manmal 5y ago

To add to that - it’s a totally different industry, but Tesla cars made in China are known to be superior in quality compared to the US produced one‘s.

oblio 5y ago

What's that thing in your link?

yourapostasy 5y ago

> ...and I just don’t see anything that can hold a candle to modern construction in DACH. You say "Money was not the problem". I take that to mean your friend was reasonably not willing to pay as much as an order of magnitude more in the US than average (say a range of $300-1K psf for just the improvement and not including the dirt). Generally, if he went to high-end commercial builders, opened a checkbook, and said, "use these materials and parts, build to these specs and tolerances", he'll get whatever he wants in the US. Compare average US tract residential SFH construction build quality to what you find in private venture companies that builds and operate their own MFH's. While the interiors are similar, the private venture companies are staffed by people who know what will and will not work in the bones of the structure over the investment payoff timeline. They won't care about insulation for the tenants' benefit, but they will make very certain for example that the walls, roof and foundation stand for as long as they project to hold the investment. The US aggressively min-maxes for the wealthy capital-holding class. It is no accident that if you want something done right and will last, you will avail yourself of the same kinds of resources that class will use themselves.