Please provide assessments and tips for buying a house

If the granny flat is already rented out and you can already get to know the tenants, that is certainly a big advantage. Otherwise, you have to be aware that strangers live in the house and it may sometimes happen that you have no rental income. But I think you have already considered that. The size seems enormous, yet from my own experience, even large houses can sometimes feel cramped. If you really need 2 offices, I currently don’t see any free children's room; have you considered that or does the child have to go to the basement :-) ? The house is (as always) a matter of taste. Personally, it has too many corners and too little usable surface for me. The country house style is just not my thing, but I can certainly understand people who like exactly that. The staircase makes a very high-quality impression.

Based on the pictures, I find it solid and wouldn’t know why major repairs would be needed after 10 years. A roof should generally last at least 40 years, a bathroom 25 years. Sure, maybe it needs painting from the outside sometimes, but those are not unmanageable sums. The electrical system and heating also have to serve at least another 10-15 years. I would also take an expert with me, but basically, I don’t see any technical reason against the house from a construction perspective.

Regarding financing: It is a significant amount, but from my point of view, it is somewhat offset by the rental income. We financed €350k under similar conditions (partly through the parents, but that also has to be paid back). That brings us to a monthly rate of €1500, and that’s doable, even though we now have to budget somewhat tighter than before, when you didn’t have to think too much about what you buy and what not. Regarding equity, I think your savings are quite okay considering that you will have been fully employed for a maximum of 2-3 years. I also find the financing term rather long, but you are also a few years younger than we are, so it might fit. However, I would also calculate whether you wouldn't be better off with a shorter fixed-interest period and higher repayment. Given your financing situation, I don’t think you’ll get significantly below 2% interest even with a 15-year fixed interest period. We had a very interesting financing offer from a well-known BSK through a home savings contract. Ultimately, the effective interest rate would have been under 2% despite the home savings contract, but the monthly rate was too aggressive for us and we had no option to reduce the repayment in an “emergency,” so unfortunately we had to decline. I would simply have all options calculated because even 2.5% interest is already a significant amount.

Please talk to a tax advisor again before finalizing the financing to ensure that the interest for the rented apartment is truly deductible. The loan should be divided according to the m² (own/use by others).

First of all, thank you very much for the answers and suggestions.

We have only been working as civil servants in permanent employment since August last year, so our savings are still quite limited. Originally, the purchase of a property was planned for 2-3 years from now, but the construction and housing situation in our preferred locations is very difficult. We do not want a leasehold, preferably a plot of land with 700-900m², and no existing property that requires major renovation work.
Thus, the described property quite corresponds to our ideas.

In the long term and with 2 children, we would combine our offices and relocate the bedrooms. Possibly the children would have to share a room for sleeping for a few years. For playing or doing homework, there would also be enough space elsewhere in the house.

An expert will also take a look at the house, but the existing appraisal is already a good first indication, and things like the heating and roof should last a bit longer than 10 years. Overall, only high-quality items have been installed in the property, which, however, do not please everyone. In this case, they please us.

Regarding the purchase price negotiation: Overall, it is a high-quality property, which clearly does not please everyone/many.
Even if not everyone is familiar with the market situation in this region, I ask for assessments of the price. Is it market-appropriate? Is it too high or too low?

Last year we viewed a property at the same location, with the following data:

[*]Year of construction 1978

[*]180m² living space (80m² rented for 450€ cold)
[*]720m² plot
[*]Upper floor completely renovated, new roof, well-maintained condition

[*]Ground floor partly renovated (bathrooms from 1978), oil heating
[*]Final selling price 350,000€ (in small towns, one hears such things)

Compared to this, the current property seems at least reasonable in price.

Regarding financing: So you think that we should rather choose a shorter fixed interest period? However, we do not necessarily want to pay more than 1,800€ monthly and a fairly long interest rate security would also be good. A small buffer for possible purchases (car, painting) could still be included in the stated rate.
We have actually given up on building savings contracts.
A visit to the tax advisor would of course be arranged.

Overall, our project would be realistic and possible for us!?

I am curious about further opinions.

Overall, our plan would be realistic and possible for us!?

I am looking forward to more opinions

Sounds fundamentally feasible to me. Clarify for yourselves – preferably before committing to a house in this way – how you want to handle the child situation: who stays at home how long, how much income you would have, childcare, etc.; as civil servants, you have the part of estimating income comparatively easy in relation to "normal" employees. ;-)

In your place, I would also keep the targeted term as it is and instead arrange an option with the bank to change the repayment rate (in addition to the usually included special repayment option). That way you can vary the repayment during the term. In our own construction financing for example (Commerzbank in cooperation with Axa), we can change the repayment rate freely once a year between 1% and 5% of the original amount at no cost. This gives us a lot of flexibility, for example, if one of us earns more or less, to apply salary increases directly to the repayment, or if another child is expected. Especially when the children leave the house or at least start earning money themselves, you could easily increase the rate. At the low interest rate level, just a few extra euros per month have a big leverage effect on the annuity and save many years of the term. This should enable you to finish faster than the targeted 30 years without contractually binding yourselves to a higher and inflexible rate beforehand.

It is definitely feasible if you do not count the 600€ rent as the full amount for repayment. Only an expert can assess the condition of the house. He should also be able to estimate how much it is worth. The location relative to Osnabrück is good. Unfortunately, I cannot assess the real estate prices there, and often it also depends on the place itself. The location within the town always plays a role (for example, who wants to live directly behind the football or tennis field?). If there is a major federal road or motorcycle route nearby, something like that can significantly lower the price. If the dream garden is on the north side of the house, that is also not exactly value-enhancing. Just look at what properties cost in the surrounding area; in my opinion, as a layperson, you can still get the best overview of the rough price range. Whether it is ultimately 30,000€ more or less also depends on the buyer pool and, of course, luck. The more specific the offer, the smaller the buyer pool and the more compromises the buyer has to make. Therefore, the price will probably be somewhat lower if you do not find exactly the one buyer who has always dreamed of this particular house.

Thank you again for the food for thought and tips. The house is registered as a two-family house, but we always thought that in a two-family house the two apartments must be roughly the same size. That is not the case here: on the ground floor 144 m2, on the upper floor 96 m2 and 44 m2 (the latter m2 do not have a high-voltage connection and we want to use them as an office). In the past, only the 96 m2 were rented out. Is it a two-family house or a single-family house with a granny flat? Does anyone perhaps have tax tips regarding this?