Buying a house, how does one go about it?

Hello

I, 28, single, finally want to move out of the rental apartment and into a home of my own. Currently, I have something nice in sight but many problems. The main problem is I want to live in a small town where there is rarely anything and everything is relatively expensive. At the moment, a two-family house is for sale that I quite like.

Basic data:
Fixed income: 2000 net/month + Christmas/vacation bonus (permanent employment, company is doing well, everything OK) but no drastic increases expected
Variable income (part-time): approx. 500€/month, relatively uncertain income, can also disappear very quickly but can also increase, some months it is even four-digit. Hard for me to rely on.
There are 2 building savings contracts (not yet ready for allocation) with a total credit balance of 25,000€, as well as a savings amount of ~6000€ that is available at any time but I do not want to use for the purchase, rather keep as a reserve (these are the obligatory 3 net incomes that one should have).
The house is listed at 400,000€ (+broker fee, etc. to be added). 2 completely separate apartments with 3.5 rooms each, fully basement. New oil heating installed a few years ago, etc. sounds good and the property looks very(!) well maintained, interior inspection is still pending.
Area with high rent, the 2nd apartment could presumably be rented out well (I estimate about 800€ cold rent easily depending on condition inside). Possibly also an acquaintance or sister who would take this apartment, currently still relatively uncertain what will/should happen with it.
I will get help from my parents, we haven’t discussed any amounts yet but have a good relationship and there are reasons why they would help (I don’t want to go into details here).

So my problems:
- I am with big Bank X, the house is sold through a broker from big Bank Y. How do I approach this correctly? So far I have asked for the address, looked at the house from the outside and would like to take a look inside soon without obligation. Since it has only been on the market for about a week, I have not yet talked to my bank.
- House built around 1970, solid construction, what should I pay attention to when viewing? Does it make sense to have an appraisal?
- Can financing work somehow? I simply have no idea.
- How is such financing usually approached? Before I talk to my bank advisor completely clueless, I would like to have some "prior knowledge." For example, what do you do with the building savings contracts? Do you top them up fairly quickly and then use them to pay off parts of a loan? As I said, I really have little knowledge here and a bit of prior knowledge probably won’t hurt when I talk to my bank.

What else do I need to pay attention to that I might have completely forgotten here? I google a lot but somehow none of it really helps me.

Greetings from Bavaria

It all read quite well until I got to the part about the 400,000 Euro purchase costs. :cool: With the available salary, you won’t be able to handle this volume. On top of the negotiable purchase price, there would also be the broker fee and the property transfer tax; this is 3.5% in Bavaria, so for 400 K Euro that would be a quick 14,000 Euros (and you’ll get the notice in your mailbox faster than you can blink). You want to rent out one of the two apartments in the future... somehow... to someone... o_O What happens if you don’t have/find a tenant for 6 months? Such periods need to be bridged. In addition to the pure financing costs, there are various other costs when acquiring and owning a house, e.g. trash, electricity, (waste) water, etc. The attractive bait offers on the internet and in print media, where buying a house looks insanely cheap, have brought many back down to earth later. I would recommend starting at least 2 steps smaller, for example with a condominium.

Hello

thanks for your answer. I am aware that the 400,000 is not manageable. I just calculated it simply because there are 2 apartments, so it is divided by 2. Accordingly, 200,000 (+ broker, property transfer tax, of course %tual from the 400k etc.) remain for me.
If you just calculate with the 200,000€ + 14,000€ tax + 14,000€ broker, would that be manageable? Assuming the rest for the 2nd apartment comes from parents who later give it to the sister (pure assumption just like that), how would that work out? The house is not supposed to be only for me, but to be shared.
Or to ask in a completely different way, what can be managed from my income?

I already pay for electricity now. Trash/water & co is also included in my additional costs, through a more efficient heating system in the house (oil central heating) it would even be cheaper than renting here (rent: hot water via electric boiler, oil stove in the living room, etc...). It is clear that at some point you have to think about renovation.

I wouldn’t mind a condominium, etc., but unfortunately you can hardly find anything in this town. I have been observing for 1 year now, there was once a mid-terrace house for sale that I did not like, and now this two-family house which looks really great from the outside and I think it is simply cheaper if you share a two-family house than if everyone buys/builds their own little house.

Greetings from Bavaria

Do you currently have the impression that you can afford an apartment with a basic rent of 800€? If that works from your perspective and your parents are possibly willing to provide the missing capital for the second residential unit or act as an additional borrower, then that could work. Your parents would then basically be the security for the basic rent of the second residential unit, which is needed for the repayment.

Or put differently: You take out a loan of 4XX,000€, can afford an annuity of 800€ per month yourself, and your parents (or later your sister or some tenant) also provide 800€ (your parents cover the times when there is no tenant in the apartment), then the whole thing would take 28-30 years without special repayments, so it is still relatively tight in terms of calculation.

I think that will be difficult given your income situation because more than half of your net income will go toward the fictitious total rent. Many banks will already consider that too tight.

Can your parents buy the house and you repay half of the loan directly to them?

A different question: What do you want to do in the next 10 years? Looking for a partner? Possibly starting a family? Maybe changing jobs? Perhaps moving to another city? And then you have to consider that initially at least 10% additional acquisition costs (property transfer tax, realtor, notary, probably renovations as well) are gone, which is the equivalent of maybe 3 years of cold rent. It could be that property prices rise by 10% in one year, but it could also be that they don't (interest rates are rising again).

Another problem is that the property is probably not a WEG. You probably can't sell the apartments separately. That makes the whole thing even more complicated.

I would at most look out for a small individual ETW, and if there isn't one, wait until I have a firm life plan. It should also be noted that the market in a small town is not so easy if you want to sell the property. It could be that no buyer is found for months (who is willing to pay the market value).

hi

The "problem" has just been resolved anyway, I just got an email that there was a binding purchase commitment :(

The future is open, but no relocation planned, I want to live exactly there and (forever) stay ;) If partner & family, then exactly there.

800€ rent would be possible if the current 300€ I pay into the building society saved are dropped, but as I said, it has unfortunately been resolved anyway and I'll keep looking.

Greetings from Bavaria