cloudwalker
2019-11-11 21:07:06
- #1
Hello everyone,
first of all, forgive my long post. Maybe someone will read it. I just wanted to get my frustration off my chest and ask whether this is actually normal at the moment or if we are somehow "strange."
We have been looking for a property for about a year. Initially in the used house market. However, the prices, even for houses in need of major renovation, are unaffordably high for us. Sometimes brokers lure you to viewings with the promise of a reasonable price and then ask you to submit a bid for a bidding process, which had not been mentioned anywhere beforehand.
Believing that we could build with a budget of just under €400,000, we registered as searching for a building plot with the surrounding communities. But there, we are sometimes placed on waiting list number 500. In small communities, years can still pass. So we now wanted to get directly in contact with house construction companies, as some claim to have plots or offer to assist in the search.
House construction company 1: A local company offered a new build on Immoscout in a gap site. We arranged to visit the site in person (by phone and unambiguously by email) and for the first meeting. The employee did not show up. After a call from their side: "Oh yes, sorry, I must have misunderstood. But we can gladly do the viewing that way. I will guide you around by phone." We were already annoyed but still let ourselves be persuaded to go to the show home. There, there was only a boastful (not related to the matter) "yes, and I also had an incredibly great project here and there...". By the way, the offered house is not even allowed on the plot according to the development plan. An offer for an alternative house never came, despite repeated requests.
House construction company 2: Initially easy to reach by phone, and so we quickly had a consultation appointment at their show home. We were upfront on the call. We do not yet have a building plot but are searching intensively and hope for the support that was also explicitly mentioned on the homepage. Here the same game. One hour consultation. Much more pleasant than with company 1. But even here, the promised offer never came. Despite multiple enquiries, we never received one.
Semi-finished semi-detached house: A semi-detached house offered through a broker for a construction company. The shell is almost completed with so far very decent fittings but priced ambitiously. The first viewing was promising. We really wanted to buy the house. However, many questions remained open. A meeting with the broker and construction company at the broker’s office took place but was short because the broker and builder were late and then had little time. For the financing, we had to request numerous documents which were delivered only very slowly. Another problem: there is no building specification. To this day. We even considered writing a building specification ourselves from our experience and sending it to the construction company for coordination/completion. Buying a new build without such a document is simply impossible from our point of view. Furthermore, the exposé advertised a daylight bathroom with high-quality fittings. We were given a budget with which we were supposed to choose something at the bathroom showroom of the wholesaler. The budget is barely enough for the cheapest from the hardware store. Not even for the wholesaler’s house brand.
The feeling remains everywhere that we are only supplicants. Every enquiry is a nuisance and can lead to the counterpart no longer responding or playing dead. If this continues, we will bury the dream of our own home.
first of all, forgive my long post. Maybe someone will read it. I just wanted to get my frustration off my chest and ask whether this is actually normal at the moment or if we are somehow "strange."
We have been looking for a property for about a year. Initially in the used house market. However, the prices, even for houses in need of major renovation, are unaffordably high for us. Sometimes brokers lure you to viewings with the promise of a reasonable price and then ask you to submit a bid for a bidding process, which had not been mentioned anywhere beforehand.
Believing that we could build with a budget of just under €400,000, we registered as searching for a building plot with the surrounding communities. But there, we are sometimes placed on waiting list number 500. In small communities, years can still pass. So we now wanted to get directly in contact with house construction companies, as some claim to have plots or offer to assist in the search.
House construction company 1: A local company offered a new build on Immoscout in a gap site. We arranged to visit the site in person (by phone and unambiguously by email) and for the first meeting. The employee did not show up. After a call from their side: "Oh yes, sorry, I must have misunderstood. But we can gladly do the viewing that way. I will guide you around by phone." We were already annoyed but still let ourselves be persuaded to go to the show home. There, there was only a boastful (not related to the matter) "yes, and I also had an incredibly great project here and there...". By the way, the offered house is not even allowed on the plot according to the development plan. An offer for an alternative house never came, despite repeated requests.
House construction company 2: Initially easy to reach by phone, and so we quickly had a consultation appointment at their show home. We were upfront on the call. We do not yet have a building plot but are searching intensively and hope for the support that was also explicitly mentioned on the homepage. Here the same game. One hour consultation. Much more pleasant than with company 1. But even here, the promised offer never came. Despite multiple enquiries, we never received one.
Semi-finished semi-detached house: A semi-detached house offered through a broker for a construction company. The shell is almost completed with so far very decent fittings but priced ambitiously. The first viewing was promising. We really wanted to buy the house. However, many questions remained open. A meeting with the broker and construction company at the broker’s office took place but was short because the broker and builder were late and then had little time. For the financing, we had to request numerous documents which were delivered only very slowly. Another problem: there is no building specification. To this day. We even considered writing a building specification ourselves from our experience and sending it to the construction company for coordination/completion. Buying a new build without such a document is simply impossible from our point of view. Furthermore, the exposé advertised a daylight bathroom with high-quality fittings. We were given a budget with which we were supposed to choose something at the bathroom showroom of the wholesaler. The budget is barely enough for the cheapest from the hardware store. Not even for the wholesaler’s house brand.
The feeling remains everywhere that we are only supplicants. Every enquiry is a nuisance and can lead to the counterpart no longer responding or playing dead. If this continues, we will bury the dream of our own home.