Financing confirmation and conditions - experiences?

Even in a purely informative conversation, the bank is actually required to provide you with pre-contractual information and usually also the Esis leaflet, because some kind of offer was clearly made here. Strictly speaking, the bank is therefore clearly violating applicable law, and you could certainly file a complaint with the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority here.
In any case, do not conclude a loan agreement with this bank; the other bank will surely assist you with financing as well.
Just as a side note, the notary appointment is usually arranged by the bank, so you don’t need to worry about that.

Best regards

No, that is incorrect. An informative conversation will in the future always take place on the basis of a non-binding offer. And thus the advisor operates outside the legal regulations.

Only when there is an individual, personal advisory conversation (offer, recommendation, commitment, etc.) does the new law apply.

We will definitely not schedule a notary appointment before the complete financing is clarified and fixed in writing.

Oh man, this is really getting to me. Last year we already had such problems because at the beginning we had no idea at all and first approached a financing broker who kept requesting new documents for over two months, sometimes even documents we had already submitted were requested again, etc. At some point, we then turned to our house bank and everything started all over again. Back then it took 4 (!) months.

And now it looks like this time it won’t be quick either because with the broker bank we are starting from "zero" and have to resubmit all documents for the creditworthiness check. I just hope the seller is patient....

Well, after what Haustraum said, that he had to submit income proof to the bank, among other things, in my opinion it is clearly a consultation that falls under the mortgage credit directive. It was not a conversation that was just held at the counter (to put it exaggeratedly) on the fly, but really a consultation.

Yes, it was a proper consultation. We had already submitted all the documents for the house by email in advance, the banker had our BWAs etc. from last year on file, and we brought the BWAs etc. up to date to the appointment. We went through everything – he used a computer program for this and explained beforehand that the guidelines had changed and that he has to keep a consultation protocol which will also be handed to us.

We first went through our financial situation and then how the financing should look.

He also orally gave us the initial conditions. We were there for almost two hours.

Since printing the consultation protocol did not work and it was already late, the consultant said he would print it out later and we would receive it afterwards. On Tuesday, we went to the bank again and were handed the consultation protocol. We also signed the copy for the bank. On Wednesday, we then received a detailed financing plan with the conditions, the repayment schedule, etc. However, it says at the bottom that it is non-binding and without obligation.

Since we wanted a slightly higher repayment rate, we called the consultant again on Thursday and asked in this phone call how things would proceed.

He then said we should commission the notary. But everything was too vague for me, so I called again on Friday and asked him again how things would proceed and that the real estate agent’s bank wanted a written financing commitment.

He then said, "I will send you the commitment by email on Monday", then you can arrange the notary appointment, and once you have signed the purchase contract at the notary, you come back the next day to sign the loan agreement. We will also agree on the conditions then."

To my surprised question why the conditions would only be agreed upon later, he said literally: "If I already finalize everything now and the purchase contract does not take place, you are stuck with the loan agreement and the bank will get a prepayment penalty."

I think quite a few things went "wrong" here...

Yes, I also believe that quite a few things went wrong there. Of course, you can make a [Konditionszusage] without immediately drawing up a loan agreement; I would almost say that this is the rule. Besides, interest rates are changing so little in the short term right now that the bank practically takes no risk when it gives you a [Konditionszusage]. In any case, you should get advice from another bank again, just bring all the required documents with you directly, then it should actually be possible to review everything and make an offer within one or two weeks.