Purchase opportunity for an old building from 1953, assistance with evaluation

Hello everyone,

We have a specific house in sight and since we tend to sugarcoat things, we hope for an open exchange here, where we can hopefully also get an unemotional view of the situation. Many thanks for any responses.

About us:
Man, 30 years old, full-time,
net salary €3800 + 13th-month salary.

Woman, 28 years old, 60%,
net salary €1200 + 13th-month salary.

Two children, 5 and 3 years old

Equity: ~€170,000, of which €20,000 Riester and €15,000 stock portfolio that shall be liquidated for the house purchase.

Solvent father who would “invest” €150,000-170,000, or give it as a gift.

About the house:

Year built: 1953
Plot size: 1300 m²
Living area: 100 m² plus two extensions on the ground floor and a spacious entrance area.

Fully basemented with garden exit.

The house needs a complete renovation; the last renovation work was in 1990, when the slate roof was completely redone. That looks good and only the insulation would be needed. Otherwise, everything is from 1953.

Otherwise, the house is truly a dream, with a high ceiling height that we will measure later, a great wide staircase, and a bat dormer. The garden is also a dream with paving mosaic, sandstone wall, and is secluded. However, the driveway in front needs to be redone.

The house was originally built by a doctor in solid construction, and you can tell it was rather upscale (despite the small living space).

Purchase price: €300,000. At the beginning of the year, I was still very enthusiastic and thought the price was too low, but the current interest rate situation unsettles us. (We would have liked to have bought the house already in March, but the owner still lives there and there was a lot to clarify. He has no need to sell but liked the idea. That’s why it took so long.)

We would buy it in the next few months, but the gentleman is allowed to stay until the end of December 2023. The contract still needs to be notarized, also regarding liability and ongoing costs.

The location
The town is a larger small town with several companies. We both also work locally and would have a walk to work. The city center can be reached in 5 minutes on foot, including Edeka and drugstore, the train station in 10 minutes, swimming pool and forest in 15 minutes on foot.

Surrounding houses are from a similar construction year in upscale and medium construction styles, and at the back of the property there is a field parcel with a few beehives.

The location is considered C-location with €135 per sqm. New buildings are in A-location with an official land value of €200, but there the land is sold for €400. (No further sales since the interest rate hike).

We have an appointment later where we will take some photos.

A long text and a very heartfelt thank you to everyone who takes the time.

Sounds great. Are the square meters enough for you? You can practically pay for the house entirely with your equity, or am I reading that wrong? High ceilings usually also mean high heating costs. Is the facade going to be insulated as well?

This thread is either in the wrong section (if you want to assess your financial capacity in relation to the house) or says too little about the object (if it is about a technical assessment of the effort). Otherwise, you should have referred to each other's threads, here to

Thank you for the quick response. Yes, we could theoretically finance the house from our own funds and would then need a loan for the renovation. The question would be whether we should rather take out a loan for the house and then use the equity for the renovation. Although we would lose potential subsidies, since we mainly want to renovate ourselves, it would probably be easier, right?

Basically, we want to get an overview of the entire project. Therefore, it is mainly about whether the house is reasonably priced. I wrote the information about our financial situation because such questions often came up in the other topics.

What information about the house is missing? Since everything is outdated, I found it irrelevant to provide information about it, as replacement is necessary anyway (pipes, heating, water, electricity, asbestos facade, windows, doors…)

I did not make any reference to the other topic because one does not relate to the other. Sorry.

I think you should have the house inspected by an expert. Given your financial situation, that should certainly not be a problem, and it will give you a bit more certainty about what to expect and how good the actual condition really is. Then you will also roughly know what needs renovating and can get an overview of the renovation costs through offers/research and accordingly decide on credit/equity.

The location seems to be great for you, I haven’t heard anything negative about it. Regarding the living space, it would be interesting to know how much it actually is and whether, for example, the children's rooms are where you imagine them to be. For instance, we once looked at a house where one child would have to sleep on the ground floor while the rest slept upstairs – we wouldn’t have liked that.

I did not make any reference to the other topic because one does not relate to the other. Sorry.

Unfortunately, many questioners hold this mistaken view, and then you have to ask them about basics in their other thread that they have already explained in their one thread long ago. After all, it is ultimately about the same house dream.

What information about the house is missing? Since everything is outdated, I found it irrelevant to provide information about it as replacement is necessary anyway (pipes, heating, water, electricity, asbestos facade, windows, doors…)

The information that is missing is "hardly less than all." The year of construction 1953 – by the way: a existing building, not an "old building" – alone says almost nothing. With the attitude to replace everything, the measure will only be a fraction of a jot cheaper than a complete new build. It is by no means all junk that is this old, often quite the opposite. "Asbestos facade" – by the way with Bäddabeh, not Paulapeh – sounds quite strange in this respect, since you mentioned that the house was built by a doctor. 1. take pictures of the house, at least from the outside – keep in mind, we have zero idea about the specific property here; 2. best show floor plans and sections as well – you should be able to get access to the building file as serious prospective buyers; 3. express your remodeling ideas regarding the actual floor plans, possibly changes to the roof structure (although with a bat dormer probably a sacrilege) and the like. At the moment, I would not even be able to specifically link reading tips to similar projects for you, solely because of the still too extensive ignorance about the property. There are plenty of regular participants here who can be of much more help – but for that, we have to know where to start.