How to find a house?

Hello everyone,

how did you actually find your house and how long did the search take? I am looking for a single-family house or [RH] or semi-detached house about 30 km around Münster. Unfortunately, I have a limited budget of about 200 - 250,000. I have been looking online for a while now, for example on Immobilienscout. I have also sent several inquiries, but the response is really disappointing. Either you don't get any answer at all, or there are already numerous interested parties, or it is already gone. The market is really swept clean at the moment.

Do you have any tips for me on the best way to proceed or where to look best? I am slowly running out of ideas. Would a real estate agent be an alternative for you?

How long have you been searching before it feels too long to you?

But basically I have to ask: why show interest by email when in most cases the phone number is provided?

People who are very busy rarely or not regularly check their mailbox.
And if they do, do you exchange emails for days?

When I was looking for a house back then, I learned that it wasn’t fast enough for me to see the house ;)

When I eventually bought my house, I realized that the incoming emails were actually not really of interest.
Sometimes the number for a callback was missing, or I called and first had to explain which house it was about. I became the petitioner as a seller...

Regards

React quickly to new listings on Immonet or Immoscout and write a short, nice message about who you are and what you are looking for, for example, and don't just send the standard text 'I am interested in your offer. Please contact me.' This way you at least stand out. Nowadays, properties are not sold to the person willing to put the money on the table, but to the buyer who seems most likeable and financially reliable among all interested parties.

Nowadays, it is not sold to the one who is willing to put the money on the table, but among all potential buyers who is the most likable and who appears solvent.

For a small part, that may be true, e.g. if family still lives next door or something similar. But (felt) for the majority, who then move further away and have no connection to the house/environment, actually only the price counts. I myself would not give up, for example, 10k just because the other seems more likable to me. Why should I? If your region is rather buyer-friendly (there is more demand than supply, as it seems), a real estate agent will not bring you much either, as they cannot conjure a property out of a hat. At most, you could register with agents; some larger ones have a list to which they send offers in advance. But for me personally, that did not bring much; relatively little came of it.

I found my apartment in the newspaper back then. The apartment was never listed on any online portal.

I have been keeping an eye on real estate portals on the side for a long time and intensively for 2 years, setting up search filters accordingly. In addition, I looked at what was being auctioned.
In the desired region and with our targeted budget of around €230K for buying a house in good condition, the offerings were very limited, so we had relatively few viewings.
By chance, I then got in touch at a trade fair with a seller from a house building company and learned about a newly developing residential area. That’s how we ended up with a new build, even though we never intended to build ourselves. It turned out to be somewhat more expensive overall, but considering the low-interest KFW70 loan, lower additional costs, and a bit more peace from major repairs, the monthly expenses were only marginally higher than with the young used property we initially wanted.