Bought a house cheaply. What now?

[A QUOTE="11ant, post: 419946, member: 32750"]
Buying a plot contaminated with a building, "only" for the price of the bare land, is already a knee-slapper par excellence, but then topped off with a vacant gastronomy space inside, even that is outdone. Here's to a Dujardin, then I "must" probably go to bed now, this day can hardly get any better. Thanks for the bedtime treat to cheer me up!
So all that remains for me is to quote the late Uli Wickert: the weather.
[/QUOTE]
For me, your humor is too sophisticated. Can you explain why it is a bad idea to buy an already developed plot very cheaply? Is a possible demolition, which in the case of the questioner will not be necessary, so expensive that it is not worthwhile?

So, take it slow. There is no hurry at all. The first thing that needs to happen is an honest assessment. What was done when, what needs to be done?
What are properties in the town worth?
Do you want to live there or not?
Think about how to proceed. If the house was bought with equity, you have more time.

I’m also just an amateur. But I have bought and renovated two houses in old condition. Mostly in low energy standard.
So, think it over.
Take photos and post them here. Photos of heating, water, sewage, roof, windows. Often, there is a date stamped between the panes in the window showing the manufacturing date.
There used to be a pub inside? Inquire with the municipality about the cost of a change of use.
Draw floor plans and post them.

That is pretty much the most constructive thing I have read in this thread so far. I completely agree. Don’t let yourselves be unsettled, post photos and more information, and ignore the naysayers. There are enough people here who want to seriously support you without discussing your private life.

But if so, they are actually always old houses with an abandoned pub inside. They are even slow sellers here.

Can you explain that in more detail? As I mentioned above, I can imagine an old pub/old inn, with large rooms, high ceilings, windows almost all around, a professional kitchen, maybe even a real vaulted cellar, as a great living space. At least it is original.

For me, your humor is too sophisticated. Can you explain why it is a bad idea to buy a already developed property very cheaply? Is a possible demolition, which in the case of the questioner will not be necessary, so expensive that it is not worth it?

If you buy a property with a house (without value) at the market value of the land (without house), you have to consider the demolition, which will certainly cost around +/- €50,000 somewhere. Therefore, by definition, it is a bad deal if you interpret the market value as the "market price." However, price formation in real estate is something completely different and not comparable to well-functioning markets with more transparency, etc. Nevertheless, it would only be a bargain if the price + demolition costs <= the market value of the land. Hence "contaminated," a good term.

Can you explain that in more detail? As I already mentioned above, I can well imagine an old pub/old inn, with large rooms, high ceilings, almost all around windows, a professional kitchen, maybe even a real vaulted cellar as a great living space. At least it is original.

It has already been mentioned that this is associated with permits, procedures, and partly not insignificant costs. Fire protection, parking space, energy adaptation, etc. You show the "rose-colored glasses" side, while others here are the pessimists. The fact that nowadays no one is interested in the project already suggests to me how the situation is.

It may be that some forum members, for whatever reasons, (currently) have a lot of money to spare. They are likely the absolute minority, but they do exist.

And yet it takes an extremely vivid imagination to conceive that there could be an overlap >0 between "people who must already have handled money well enough to have plenty of it" and "people who handle money like Hans-guck-in-die-Luft". A Fantastilliardaire might be more relaxed but does not specifically look for opportunities to burn money.

why is it a bad idea to buy an already developed property very cheaply?

I did not claim that and confuse two things: 1. buying a developed property is not a "bad idea". 2. buying developed at raw price is not necessarily cheap. The error in thinking is to see the price as the sum of "land" and "development with worst-case value 0". Because that ignores that the clearance costs can exceed the value of the development. Regarding a tenantless gastronomy property, the current utility value is already 0 and after deducting maintenance costs already negative; and even for own residential use of the remaining areas, time would be pressing to bring the fulfillment of current technical standards after the change of ownership. All this clearly points to a greenhorn, whereby I – also working voluntarily at a debt counseling service – would advise the OP not to make the "friend" a "husband" – at least not with community of property.