Experiences with independent financial advisors?

I don't have a direct comparison, but I think it strongly depends on the financial advisor's personality, not on which institution they work for; with us, an advisor from Dr.K. took many, many hours for us. There are also many review portals on the internet where you can get information about specific advisors. Otherwise, the best would be someone in your area (friends, relatives, etc.) who can give you a recommendation.

Hello,

What does an independent financial advisor do differently than the big financing agents Dr. K. and Interhyp?

We have been working with an independent financing broker for many years. Unlike several of the aforementioned and many others, he does not limit himself to 2 or 3 bank programs, is not afraid to consider KFW funds or ÖMI’s (there is no commission for that), does not sugarcoat the incidental construction costs, visits the client, does not focus solely on the last percentage point (sometimes something else is more important), and above all: he has time, analyses the individual situation of each person and does not work according to the clock. A reasonable initial consultation takes a good 2 to 2.5 hours.

The most important thing for us is that in almost 17 years of our cooperation, no client has ever "fallen victim," because he is also not afraid to advise a prospective buyer against the construction project due to their personal life circumstances.

Kind regards

So at Dr.K, just to respond to that, KfW and ÖMI were also considered for us, and we were also advised regarding "not too little money", ancillary construction costs, and everything else. More than 3 hours during the initial consultation, and that was by no means the only one. As I said, I think it depends on the person. We were also allowed to take a look at the software, and there were not just 2-3 banks, but countless included (definitely >20).

We have already received a breakdown from our construction company regarding the price of the construction company and everything else that comes with it. It was already not bad. Then we adjusted the list upward a bit thanks to the construction expert’s breakdown and went to the bank with it. The guy looked at it and found it plausible. It was all entered into the program with our preferences ([Sondertilgung], preferably 20 years interest rate security, etc.) and then we were able to look into the calculator and see the individual conditions at various banks. There were already significant differences. Since then, we have been regularly kept up to date on interest rate changes of the most favorable offers. Including [KfW] is also possible. The offers What surprised me a bit was that behind the best offers were mainly insurance companies. According to the advisor, this is normal for long-term investments >= 20 years.