Buy land first, then build - experiences / tips?

n.... Suggest how you would do it or have done it?

Hello Sturkopf I am not the right example here. I had a condominium that was financed through a home savings contract. I sold it, canceled the home savings contract, and got financing at 1.19% from a bank (with which I had already done several financings). This was 2 years ago. The previous loan was also only 3.4%. And it had been running since 2006. And honestly, if I have business relationships with a bank that I trust and that gives me good conditions (1.19% I consider a very good rate) then I will not switch banks because of one-tenth of a percent. Steven

Hello Steven, I agree with you, for a 10th I wouldn't switch either, or rather I wouldn't go out of my way. I also started with property in 2006, but my experience is that there are different financing options that do not always cover one's own needs. For example, the financing for my current single-family house I took out with Signal Iduna, why? They offer an option after 6 years to repay as much as I want! Free of charge. I already knew in 2014 that I wanted to build at some point, so I chose this loan. The regional providers where I, for example, financed a capital investment, do not have such constructs. They offer 5-20 year classic loans.

What I want to say is, different situations also bring different solutions and not every bank can cover everything, or rather I haven't found that bank yet, unfortunately. That’s why I want to be flexible, but I can understand you, if you have a bank that covers all your needs, then you can really be satisfied.

Thanks for explaining your point of view, I just want to proceed as flexibly as possible with my house construction and I think there is no right or wrong anyway, everyone has different circumstances.

Best regards and have a nice weekend

Hello everyone,

It is done, we have now purchased the plot of land in our dream location.

Now we want to get started and have tons of questions, I spend hours upon hours reading.

What have we done so far?

- Completed variable financing
- Land notarized
- Held intensive discussions with 3 builders
- Obtained an offer ( Fingerhaus ) single-family house with basement 275,000 euros

We realize that we don’t even know what we want to build?! Sounds crazy, but it’s true.

Of course, we have a good starting position: We have no time pressure, there is no building obligation, the monthly costs are ok for us and do not burden our normal life.

We have 3 good acquaintances who have already built and have openly shared their costs with us!

1. Built with Fingerhaus single-family house 120 sqm everything went smoothly – living there for 2 years

2. Built with Favorithaus single-family house 147 sqm, not everything went smoothly – living there for 3 years

3. Built with Gussek Haus two-family house 175 sqm a dream everything went perfectly – living there for 2 years.

I personally questioned our building window because not all measurements are included in the documents, according to Fingerhaus 8.25 x 16 m

According to my measurements 9 m x 16 m but could also be 9.xx meters, however marginal deviation, maybe 8.90 m or 9.10 m

Measured in the geoportal online.

The site plan and the documents provided to me do not show it 100%, is the surveyor responsible for determining my exact building window? Or does the building authority help with that?

Let’s say it’s 9x16 m:

1st idea: Single-family house, 120 sqm with basement.
Classic 2 children’s rooms, 2 bathrooms, standard.

2nd idea: Two-family house with 175 sqm without basement
Parents have an apartment downstairs
Children have an apartment upstairs
Everything open designed, saw it with acquaintances wow.

3rd idea: Duplex, 1 living/1 renting
We are unsure if it would be approved and whether it’s not too small? Would be ProHaus approx. 9x8 base area, 2 floors with basement. We read about this in another thread and I found it very interesting.

We would get the financing!
I already have experience with renting.

4th idea: Bungalow without basement,
Thought the idea of fully utilizing 9x16 m is not wrong.

We don’t need luxury!
Kfw 70 standard so that the minimum requirements are met, we don’t need a ventilation system or heat pump etc. I have an opinion about that: The saved energy through energy-saving houses etc I have to pay dearly for. Gas boiler with hot water is enough for us and maybe solar for hot water because we shower a lot. We like to ventilate regularly and well, maybe window frame vents and that’s it, hopefully, I won’t get torn apart for that, but I just see the costs and when I think about how many years I can heat with that......

I just had to get my ideas off my chest, thanks for reading I am grateful for every tip

Congratulations on the property
The option of having it alone or with a granny flat is a topic for excellent debate and should be weighed meticulously. Tenants in the house should be avoided if possible.

Congratulations on your decision. From my own recent experience with a sloping site: There is a reason why you don't get a fixed price for the earthworks. Plan generous reserves to prepare the plot for house construction. A retaining wall quickly costs five figures. The amount of earthmoving can be surprising, as can soil classes. Request a complete price from the house providers and not just from the floor slab. We commissioned local craftsmen instead of a prefabricated house manufacturer. An architect was able to implement our wishes in building form on the plot. The carpenter coordinates the construction site – and is experienced in this. The involved craftsmen like to work together and often do. Maybe this is also an alternative for you. Among the prefabricated house manufacturers, Gussek Haus Finger and Baufritz made a particularly good impression on us.

Hello Sturkopf

I am not the right example here. I had a condominium that was tied to a building savings contract. I sold it, terminated the building savings contract, and got financing from a bank (with which I had already done several financings) at 1.19%. This was 2 years ago. The previous loan was only 3.4%. And it had been running since 2006. And honestly, if I have business relationships with a bank that I trust and that gives me good conditions (1.19% I consider a very good rate), then I will not switch banks over a tenth of a percent.

Steven

We also financed the land with a variable rate, namely with the DKB. In my financial planning, it was never considered that the land or partial financing would be incorporated into the overall loan volume (we were just lucky to pay off the land before taking out the house financing), but if we had not been able to pay off the land, we would not have financed with the bank financing the land because the conditions really were not good.

I like to compare this to mobile phone tariffs. Once you are a "existing customer" with them, you will never get "new customer rates," because the bank already has you hooked. Definitely not without a variable loan. With variable loans, I could imagine that your bank "plays poker" with the effort you have to make.

If I were a banker, I would at least try it.