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]
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]