House buying - No idea what one can afford

I’m going to ask a provocative question to the many homeowners who obviously exist here. With "all the stress" and things like "life changes completely, financially" and endless risk... why should anyone still buy a house at all, where there’s generally the fundamental debate about whether it’s even an advantage. Of course, compared to renting.

What are the advantages compared to so many negative things? That really makes me think now, since I especially never expected such reactions here.

A own house... some things cannot be explained.

I’ll pose a provocative question to the many homeowners who obviously are here. With "all the stress" and things like "life completely changes, financially" and endless risk... why would anyone still want to buy a house, when there is generally the fundamental debate about whether it’s even an advantage at all. Especially compared to renting, of course.

So what are the advantages compared to so many negative things? That really makes me think, since I especially here never expected such reactions.

Phew – about half a year ago there was a thread that dealt exactly with this topic. Maybe I can still find it among my > 1,000 posts.

Ha – that was faster than I thought. Have a look here:

This is a fundamental problem that many childless couples have: You often read that they think the partner can go back to full-time work at most one year after the birth - yeah, right .

But we waited for the second child and only started building afterwards. We were also aware that my wife would initially work part-time - but compared to the 450 Euro job, more net income was planned.

But once the 40 hours are reached/exceeded, you come under pressure from another side. At some point, the house should be paid off - ideally before retirement. I can’t leave everything to my (a few years younger) wife .

You have had to listen to a lot, and mostly with good reason.
What would I do in your place?
1. Make yourself aware of how much money you really need to live - I didn’t need a household budget for this, I just went through my bank statements. Whether the 100 € cash was spent on the canteen or the after-work beer didn’t matter - the money was gone.
2. What are the planned / upcoming expenses? - A second child reduces possible income and costs a lot of money (daycare spot, after-school care during school time, etc.)
3. What are the foreseeable incomes (parental allowance is not much - are there even daycare spots available?)
You need this for yourself and your bank appointment - with this, you can ask the bank how much credit you could get (maximum), then you yourself must be aware of how much comfort you have to give up for that (Italy instead of the Dominican Republic).

When you have your personal limit and your credit frame, you know how much house you can afford. The problem then becomes finding a property that meets your requirements and fits within the price limit, because nowadays there are far too few offers...
I arranged the financing with my wife while she was still working. Now my wife is at home with the 3rd child (at least 3 years). That means we have to cover our loan with 1 income and support 3 children. But we already had that in mind when we signed the loan contract. Users here in the forum want to make you aware of such small details. Whether you take them into account is entirely up to you.

Thank you, f-pNo - what stands out in the thread, however, is that it primarily talks about building yourself, so planning, building application, etc.. possibly even with architects? Are these always cases where you do a lot yourself or just the client and actually everything is done for you?

There are cases starting completely from scratch, so planning, design, building, etc.. or prefabricated houses where part is already approved and you can continue working on the interior yourself, and so on....

What I just want to say is - the thread refers more to doing everything yourself from scratch and not to buying an existing house compared to renting an existing house.