Preliminary contract for land due to soil survey

Hello everyone,

I want to buy a property privately. However, before the purchase, I want to have a soil survey done. The seller wants to sell the property promptly, and I have offered to make a preliminary contract whereby the purchase will proceed if the survey results are positive.

Now the question arises for me: which criteria should lead to the purchase in the contract? Ideally, I can start building a single-family house without further measures. Also, is there another way so that I don't have to pay double notary fees? The property costs 40,000€.

If the soil survey is available within 1-2 weeks, it should work without any problems, but I am still waiting for offers.

Now the question for me is which criteria should lead to the contract for purchase

You must know under which conditions you want to acquire the property.

Also, is there another way so that I don't have to pay double notary fees?

No. Bindingly it only works with a notary. Everything else is trust.

Property costs €40,000

At that price it is at the very end of the world. What happens if you don't conclude a preliminary contract (or notary purchase option)? Are other buyers lining up?

positiv ausfallenden Gutachten

What do you define as positive? Or negative?

You can also have an expert report created on granite ground or total swamp. It will turn out positive in the sense that the expert comes to a result. More interesting is the question of what you want to build and how the soil report affects the construction costs regarding basement, slab, etc. But the path from the report to concrete numbers is still a long way that takes time.

Or are you concerned with other things, such as former landfill sites, former industrial sites with contamination, World War II munitions, or other risks?

Isn't there a contract structure where the contract only comes into effect upon the fulfillment of the expert report?

My concern is to avoid additional costs from pile foundations or similar. The property is located in the town center, so less landfill or something like that.

The demand in our rural region in Saarland is gigantic. We have been searching for a year, and this is the first time we have the opportunity. Similar properties in the past have already had over 30 interested parties within 2 days. We rang on a whim, and the elderly lady wanted to put the property on the market soon because a private buyer had backed out at the notary a few weeks ago due to supposedly poor soil.

If the location is right and the price is that low, I would buy immediately. There is a difference whether you do one or two excavations/drillings or dig up half the property. Even in this case, you have no 100% certainty. Experienced it myself. A large-scale soil survey easily costs almost 1/4 of the property price...

Sounds like "lucky you."
Buying without much back and forth...