Help with planning/strategy development - ideas, suggestions, and advice

  • Erstellt am 2016-04-19 21:02:31

ArthurDent

2016-04-19 21:02:31
  • #1
Hello everyone,

I have only been dealing with the topic of home ownership for a relatively short time and over the past few weeks have gathered an enormous amount of information, looked at apartments, houses, and plots of land, as well as spoken with a financial broker to even get an overview and be able to define my budget. What has emerged in the meantime: everyone wants to make money, some in a brazen way, others in a more honest way. So I have taken my foot off the gas for now and thought that perhaps I could get some valuable ideas and comments here, since many of you probably either are already building or have built and faced similar questions.

What do I hope for? To find the most suitable path for me to be able to move into my own four walls in the foreseeable future without breaking my financial limits or making too many compromises that I might later regret.

Since I probably don’t have the profile of a "typical" home builder, I think my circumstances might allow for an approach that deviates from the probably often recurring "young family needs space quickly for children and wants a house now" story and thus maybe more unconventional paths might be interesting for me.

Wishes:

I thought I’d specify right at the beginning, without holding back, the things that are important to me. So initially completely independently of whether it is compatible with the following facts or not.

I basically have only one point that I would really like to include in the "must-have" list. This self-imposed condition is not necessarily reasonable or justifiable otherwise, but is simply based on my gut feeling and previous experiences: it should be a detached house, no apartment or semi-detached house.

The "would be important to me" list looks like this: classic gable roof, living space at least 150m², at least KfW55 classification, floor plan on the ground floor very open with kitchen-living area and as few walls as possible.

The "if it still fits" list: basement (of course unlikely), underfloor heating.

About my starting position:

I have a fairly well-paid permanent job with a 35-hour week (thus quite a lot of time in the afternoons/evenings) and free weekends, currently live in a very cheap rental apartment (€290 warm, the house belongs to the parents of a friend) and would have around €1000 per month available for a loan payment without it getting tight or reserves or other expenses needing to be cut. Since I am not married / have no family, I am very flexible time-wise, i.e. I have no problem if the house building project stretches over one or two years. Of course, I don't want to take longer than necessary, but I have no time pressure, since on the one hand my current rent is so low and I also would have no problem at all living in a construction site for some time while the house is completed bit by bit. I know many will now think I underestimate the topic of "living in dust-chaos," but on this last point I am actually very sure.

Likewise, I do not need the complete big furnishing package, meaning new furniture for the whole house, new kitchen, complete garden, and terrace. I would gradually acquire all that over time and it does not have to be there two weeks after completion. As far as furniture is concerned, I am not starting from scratch, same with the kitchen.

Plot of land:

I have not yet found a plot, so I still need one. I prefer a purchase rather than a leasehold, but again I cannot rationally justify this; it is based on a gut feeling (I like to get things done decisively; with a leasehold from today’s perspective, I would always somehow feel exposed to the "arbitrariness" of the lessor). But maybe there are very good reasons that in my case speak FOR a leasehold? I am by no means fixed on this.

Apart from that, at most it should be noted that I would be reluctant to go into one of those typical house-on-top-of-house newly-built developments if it can be avoided. Of course, it always depends and I don’t want to completely rule it out. But I have lived right in the middle of the gray city for the last 15 years and would have absolutely no problem having few or no neighbors and living rurally to very rurally.

Budget:

Since I currently have quite contradictory information, my budget is still a variable figure. The budget below is always understood as the total amount for house including materials and services, plot of land, and all ancillary costs. An independent financial advisor gave me the green light for €280,000 - €300,000, an Allkauf Haus consultant came up with a similar number, whereas a sales consultant from Fingerhaus openly told me that this number was unrealistic, which I found quite remarkable since the gentleman should be about the last person in the world to deter me from transferring an unhealthy amount of money to his company. According to his calculation, a budget of €200,000 would be a "healthy" figure, as this includes an interest rate increase towards the end of the term to (from today’s pessimistic point of view) 6%. Although in my research I had already read many laudatory words about the transparency of this company in various builders' blogs and forums, after the conversation I was really a bit stunned. On the same day and two hours earlier, I had a conversation with a man from Massa Haus, who presented me with an offer of €320,000 and said that with HIS financing (BHW) it would "definitely be doable."

The last thing I need is sugarcoating or window dressing. I want to spend what can be done in good conscience and with sufficient reserves, not a cent more. For this reason, I have now scheduled some more appointments with financiers to get a realistic picture. I will probably also consult a fee-based advisor to eliminate distortions caused by commission haste between banks and brokers.

According to my own calculations and comparisons, €200,000 has always been the lower limit, so I will definitely not exceed this without good and convincing reasons, even if that certainly does not make my project any easier or causes it to be unfeasible. Period.

About my skills:

I am not a craftsman but an IT specialist. Nevertheless, I am not all thumbs and I won’t kill myself doing tougher work. Of course, I know that I should definitely leave certain jobs to people who deal with them every day. Drywall, for example, I can do myself with a clear conscience, heating installation and electrics I would rather have done by professionals or "appropriate friends" (see below) for insurance reasons. I think I could also manage sanitary work, since I can also rely on the expertise and support of some people. I have no fear and would just try certain things if in doubt and then see whether I can cope or not. Of course, only if one can’t irrevocably ruin something with the first attempt.

[Continues one post below, apparently a maximum of 10,000 characters is allowed]
 

ArthurDent

2016-04-19 21:03:40
  • #2
[Hier die Fortsetzung:]

Support:

I have a wood engineer, an architect (although for larger commercial buildings, not for single-family homes), a landscaper, an electrical engineer, a carpenter, and a locksmith among my friends and acquaintances. In my family, there is also a former homeowner who, in recent years, has completely renovated a house and later basically built a zero-energy house from scratch himself. I am fully aware that these guys and gals obviously cannot and do not want to be present every day, but they would support me enough so that I could cover large parts through their assistance and guidance.

For work that I cannot in good conscience do myself or with friends, I would always let someone who knows what he/she is doing take care of it. I learn quickly, but there are simply things where it is not just about understanding but about experience—and before I cause any long-term damage and problems through overestimating myself and false frugality, I would rather entrust certain things to professionals and pay for it.

Ideas so far:

At first, I came across the concept of a shell construction house, which naturally seemed quite attractive due to the quick erection of the shell and the selectable finishing stages. However, the concrete offers I have seen so far deviate so much from the marketing bait prices that it will probably be tight with my budget anyway. Besides, the quick erection is not necessarily required since I am not under time pressure.

An interesting topic was then a kit house or shell construction house from a company that builds the shell with EUROMAC2 building blocks, which apparently are quite common in France and are slowly gaining popularity here as well. These houses are offered as kits and also as shell construction houses, and the prices for these are amazingly low. Unfortunately, there are only few tests and/or useful experience reports. Besides, there seem to be comparable systems such as Ytong and others. As far as I can tell, such a construction method would probably be the only feasible one, I suppose? I would not be afraid to build the shell myself, provided there are no compelling reasons against it. An overall cost and time breakdown from someone who has built this way would be interesting—just to get an idea of what we are talking about here. This option would also have the (not very important, but nice) advantage that during the construction phase, I could install networks and sensors (this would finally be MY area of expertise ;) ) throughout the entire house since you really have access everywhere.

A completely neglected variant up to now is the suggestion of an architect with whom I recently had a site visit: he told me that it is quite doable with a small budget to build a house in solid construction according to your own wishes. This option admittedly had not even come close to my radar so far, as I always considered it unaffordable, and I still don’t know the details. Maybe someone has experience in this direction and can provide an assessment here.

Conclusion:

I am at the very beginning and hope to find here what I always do when I dive into a new topic for me: gather knowledge, read experiences, heed tips and advice, and read between the lines. It would be great if one or the other feels like helping me find my strategy. If you have any questions or if important information is missing, I will of course add it. I thank you in advance and look forward to what happens!
 

Bauexperte

2016-04-20 10:20:35
  • #3
Hello,


Now NRW is not small, where do you want to live in the future, because it decisively depends on that whether your dream can even be realized to some extent or not.

For me, living in the countryside means at first that foxes and hares will say good night to each other; that results solely from your budget. Assuming you find something in the area of 40,000€, there remain 120,000€ (budget - plot - incidental building costs) for the pure house construction. Even with the help of all your friends, that is not enough to prepare the house in such a way that you could move in under construction site conditions and gradually complete the rest; especially not for 150 sqm or a single-family house according to KFW 55. Materials have to be paid for ;)


How _far_ are the friends/acquaintances willing to travel to help you?


Then I would like to recommend you to consider a condominium; these can also be bought cheaply in rural areas; sometimes with more, sometimes with less renovation backlog. Alternatively, an old single-family house usually with greater renovation effort to "learn". A good friend was able to make such a bargain 2 years ago. With only the help of his brother, the deal cost him no more than 60,000€. But the little house has nothing more than a 60 sqm ground floor and a staircase to the sleeping place under the roof, zero garden; sufficient for him as a single. Better small and yours than big and a bottomless barrel ;)

If your demands on life change in a few years—who knows what will come—you can always consider taking the next step... with significantly more capital at your back.

Rhenish regards
 

MarcWen

2016-04-20 17:51:47
  • #4
So generally, I do like a lot of text, plenty of input, so that you don't have to pull everything out of the OP. Still, everyone probably has a virtual pain threshold for what they sacrifice their precious time reading such posts. Helpful, at least for me, would be a brief summary, so short and snappy 10-12 points summarized, helpful. PS: Not everyone has as much time as Bauexperte. :cool:
 

DragonyxXL

2016-04-20 18:40:39
  • #5
What exactly makes you doubt your calculations? Basically, you can calculate quite precisely on various bank/financing websites how much credit you can get with a €1000 payment and when the thing will be paid off. Likewise, you can see the terms for 10, 15, 20, 25 years fixed interest rates. For the "What can I afford?" question, you don’t initially need to go to a financing advisor. However, the latter can well explain which costs besides the pure house construction costs will come at you. Consider under which conditions the €1000 is still valid. Your house will have higher additional costs than your €290 warm rent. If you are planning a family, costs are associated with that, too. The loss of premiums/bonuses could lead to lower income. In a household, you constantly have to replace things, be it the washing machine, the fridge, a new car, a heating repair, etc. Have you taken that into account?
 

ypg

2016-04-20 22:33:49
  • #6
I also read it yesterday, three quarters through ;) And I have to say: You have no different ideas than everyone else here. Nobody has money to give away, and the times when only families build a house because the apartment has become too small due to growth are long gone. In this respect, other topic-related threads here in the forum might be interesting for you, just browse through them, sit back and read.

A neighbor of mine has been building his Ytong house for the fourth year. However, I haven't seen him for the last six months, although there's still a lot of work to be done. I think he's lost his strength :(

However, to me it also reads as if you want to slowly build your hermit life stone by stone ;)
 

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