Multi-family house as a capital investment in an aging city

First of all, I wish you a good evening.

My name is Nicole and I happened to come across this discussion during my research on planning our future family house.
I felt immediately addressed, along with my earlier naive innocence.
Because I did exactly what Christian intends to do back in 2005 in Dortmund.
Unfortunately, I also have a low affinity for mathematics.
Facts: purchase of a multi-family house (457m²) in foreclosure proceedings for €190,001 + incidental costs.
Immediate termination (special termination after foreclosure) of one of the 8 residential units for personal use, after I noticed that this tenant wanted to claim rent reduction.
An old lady (93) was also purchased together (had a right of residence – however, this became invalid through the foreclosure).
Furthermore, there was another tenant who later became a rent dodger. The stories with this person are endless and worse than what has been shown on TV so far.
Nobody can imagine clearing out the apartment! I myself could not get rid of the smell even after long bathing!
The apartment we moved into needed a complete renovation (finished for one year now).
However, I did not benefit from it myself anymore because I left Dortmund's Nordstadt because of the children and moved to the countryside with the family.
In the 11 years, we have almost completely renovated the house with a lot of own work and long vacancies.
7 out of 8 residential units are rented (mainly students / doctoral candidates / trainees). The clientele was always carefully selected (Schufa and compatible with each other).
The work with the annual incidental and heating costs must not be underestimated!! and the tax return has caused more than a little trouble.
Conclusion after 11 years:
Net rent €2444, a now new loan of €215,000 (fully amortized in 20 years) for €1078 monthly.
Value of the property despite Nordstadt according to my statement at the bank: estimated €350,000, maybe even more.
Tax-wise the house (according to my tax advisor) was already a tax saving model.
Question: would I do it again?
Not in my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I should have rather invested the money in a stock portfolio.
Oh yes, I had just €26,000 in equity back then for the foreclosure security.
Since I am a civil servant, I got the loan at that time. However, those were already sleepless nights. I was so naive that I first bid for the house and then applied for the loan – which is solely in my name.
I was just young, stupid and no, not blonde.
Hope everyone will still take me seriously with my future house construction...
Best regards from the Lower Rhine

Hope everyone will still take me seriously with my future house construction now....

Now more than ever.

Best regards
Dirk Grafe

Unfortunately, I also have a low affinity for mathematics.

Hey, that's not very nice ; )

Great that you had the courage back then to go through with it all. And it seems that in the end, despite the annoyance and time investment, it financially pays off for you, which I think is what it's really about. And good that you now have decent tenants in there. Finding those in the Nordstadt certainly requires patience.

I have changed my plan a bit by now. I first want to buy a small single-family house in Dortmund's commuter belt for my girlfriend and me and then an apartment in Dortmund's city center as a capital investment. I mainly decided on this because I would like to have something of my own with a garage and couldn't afford a multi-family house for renting. And with an apartment, the risk that you suddenly have to invest 20,000 € unexpectedly is not as high as with a multi-family house, even though, of course, not as much comes in. And with a home of your own, you can't deduct anything from taxes, but you also have no risk of rental default. All a matter of calculation ; )

I would think carefully about individual rentals. Unexpected costs can also arise here that affect the entire WEG (heating, windows, roof to name the 3 expensive ones).

I would think twice about individual rentals. Unexpected costs can also arise here that affect the entire owners' association (heating, windows, roof to name the three expensive ones).

You are right about that, but I can roughly foresee that before buying the condominium. And I can also see what is in the maintenance reserve. And if there is a special assessment, it only affects me proportionally.

Of course, it only affects you proportionally, how many units is the house supposed to have? With us, having 3 units can quickly lead to high costs, I would just keep that in mind.

And you might end up paying the maintenance reserve with