Early repayment after the fixed interest period expires

The independent advisor is just as much a salesperson! Therefore, always proceed in parallel: house bank, independent advisor, and own research.

I have had a different experience. Recently, an advisor from a building society and VR Bank tried to push a follow-up financing at 1.2% on me as well as the continuation of the useless Wohnriester. It’s possible that there are honest advisors, but I am firmly convinced that they are salespeople and tell you nice stories. I have now taken the route via an independent financial advisor and regret somewhat that I hadn’t done that 10 years ago.

yes please do not take such advisors hostage. That is quite normal. They want to sell, they have to. Out of 10 people, 2 will sign because they don’t inform themselves well.

I have a different experience.

With a bank? And from that, you conclude that EVERYONE is advised that way? And the independent financial advisor works for free and only has your best interests in mind? Well then...

With a bank? And from that you conclude that EVERYONE advises like that?

Of course, you can waste your time looking for the unicorn. Or use modern, fast methods and just get the stuff done, often at top conditions.

For our financing, I was very active and also focused on Volksbanken and Sparkassen. One Volksbank even got back to me, I went there, two hours of talking. It was nice, but no offer because financing over 300k (lol) and they then calculate a safety discount of 30% if it goes over that. I had 20% equity in my pocket, so that wasn’t enough, they wanted me to include a useless and expensive KFW tranche. No, thank you. I also had two Sparkassen. First lesson: Both only finance in their "territory". Figuring out which one in my case (confusion between current residence and construction site) already took two weeks. When that was settled, the appointment (also on site, how annoying!) didn’t happen. Advisor was sick or something else. I didn’t ask anymore after that.

They are just doing themselves out of business. I need banking, but not a bank.

I have had similar experience. Personal consultation was time-consuming, a lot of stuff was told and junk like [KFW] or building society contract or even worse [Wohnriester] was offered. Asked an online broker then received an offer, then exchanged a few emails to clarify questions and done. Broker has better conditions since he doesn't have to finance expensive buildings and expensive employees and department heads. A banker also gets pressure from above to generate sales and sell contracts that are profitable.

Personal consultation was time-consuming,

That is how consultation should be! A broker can easily just slap together an offer that exactly matches the customer's request. But that is not consultation - there are more than enough customers who actually need advice. If you know exactly what you want (and are not interested in other alternatives that might possibly be better), then the broker is the right contact person. However, he cannot work miracles with conditions either. I know enough local banks that are absolutely TOP in terms of conditions comparison (also with Dr. K. etc.), but they are only, for example, passed on to us in exchange for a commission payment. Oh yes, the broker only earns a measly 1 - 4% on your financing. I find that very much for very little effort.