Opinion/Advice on Financing a Single-Family House

Hello everyone,

we (couple "around 40" + 5-year-old son) have bought a plot of land (Stuttgart area) and were fortunate enough to be able to pay for everything already with equity, including real estate transfer tax, water/sewage/gas charges, and notary fees. A construction contract with a house builder is signed, the fixed price offer is 510k EUR excl. outdoor facilities and incidental costs. The equipment/sampling is largely done, only the additional costs for larger tiles (standard are max. 60x30) on the ground floor (hallway, kitchen, and shower toilet with about 40sqm) and upstairs bathroom (~30sqm) are still missing. For this, we have budgeted about 100 EUR/sqm. Due to the hillside location, hardly any soil removal is expected.

For financing, I would intuitively take out an annuity loan; combinations of 2-4 products with graduations/replacements/mixes are suspicious to me. Net-wise we are okay, no more children are coming. I don’t want to overdo it with monthly installments and want to work with special repayments. Quarterly bonuses of 10k-15k net are available. Besides that, it is currently unclear to me whether I should go through a broker or directly to the bank. What are the advantages/disadvantages? From when does an inquiry affect the Schufa history?

Planning in brief
Currently available equity: 70k EUR
House costs (fixed price offer): 510k EUR
Additional costs (tiles, installation): 15k EUR
Outdoor facilities (yard, terrace, slope): 25k EUR
Incidental construction costs: 30k EUR
Loan amount: ~510k EUR
Term with fixed interest rate: 15 years
Special repayment up to 10%
Monthly installment: 2000 EUR
Monthly net income (both): 6500 EUR
Rental income (net): 500 EUR

I would appreciate opinions and advice, for example what other costs might come? What have we forgotten? You always overlook something, especially in such a large project certainly quite a bit...

Hello, simply visit your regular bank and simultaneously a broker. With that income, a short term with special repayments is advisable, provided you are convinced that the income will continue to flow in that form in the future.

Hello

What about kitchen/furniture/buffer/miscellaneous (lamps, lawnmower, etc.)? Depending on the requirements, this can add up to €40,000 and more.

Are painters and non-tiled floors included in the offer? That can be another €15,000 and more.

If you run your financing through a mortgage calculator and assume an annual special repayment of €13,000, there will be a residual debt of about €15,000 after 15 years. Probably not a problem with your income. But one should ask whether one can really manage the special repayment every year.

If you include the items mentioned above, a residual debt of about €90,000 remains after 15 years.

What about kitchen/furniture/buffer/miscellaneous (lamps, lawnmower, etc.)? Depending on the requirements, that can add up to €40,000 and more.

Are painters and non-tiled floors included in the offer? That can be another €15,000 and more.

If you run your financing through, for example, Baufi24 and assume an annual special repayment of €13,000, the residual debt after 15 years is about €15,000. With your income, that should probably not be a problem. You should only ask yourself if you can really manage the special repayments every year.

If you include the aforementioned items, a residual debt of about €90,000 remains after 15 years.

Good point. We will mostly take the kitchen with us, but there are still two or three cabinets and new countertops to be added. The estimate for this is a maximum of €5k. Not much changes with the furniture, maybe a new dining table and a bench – perhaps another €5k max? I'll add €20k to be on the safe side.

Painters and non-tiled floors are included; our offer is turnkey with relatively standard equipment (everyone will see that a bit differently):
- Wood/aluminum windows RC2 all around, living room & kitchen with external venetian blinds, the rest with shutters (electric)
- Ground floor: country house floorboards 250x30 in living/dining + tiles in hallway/WC/kitchen
- Upper floor: parquet 150x20 in bedroom, child’s room, office + tiles in the bathroom
- Basement: vinyl in hallway, guest room & workshop (both with underfloor heating, usable as living space on the hillside side)
- Detached garage 6.5m x 4m, basement (hill side as garden room for lawnmower etc.)
- Bathroom upstairs and shower/WC on the ground floor with walk-in shower and nice equipment from Laufen/Duravit
- Double stringer steel stairs with oak tread steps
- Interior doors 2.11m (hollow core)
- Installation without BUS and fancy stuff, but with 5x2.5 cable, Cat7 LAN for several rooms, photovoltaic pre-wiring and built-in spotlights in the kitchen
- Heating: air-water heat pump with underfloor heating

In my most conservative model, I even calculated annual special repayments of €10k, which still results in a manageable residual debt. From a sporty perspective, considerably more should be possible. The equity capital did not come out of nowhere; we don’t lead a lavish lifestyle. Short version: no SUV, no iPhone, no vacation in the Maldives. I’ve even thought about selling my apartment instead of continuing to rent it out so that the mountain can be paid off faster. The timing would be good for that...

Sorry for the rambling thought flow, but what just came to mind: what is the situation roughly like with fiber optic connections? We would even have two providers (Telekom and Unity) available. I want to have both laid into the house to keep flexibility for later switches.