ᐅ Homebuilding Forum – Would You Choose to Buy or Build a House Again?
Created on: 11 Dec 2015 11:09
X
xycrazy
Hello,
we are about to sign the contract with the developer but have started seriously reconsidering whether we should go through with it.
We negotiated for 8 months and were quite sure about it. However, towards the end, some issues arose regarding the contract and other matters, which we managed to resolve.
It now looks like we would be paying a third of our net income to the bank for 22 years. I think we can afford it. But when you are used to paying monthly rent of about €800-900 (divided by 2), this is quite a different level.
With a house, it’s not just the loan payments; there are ongoing maintenance costs as well. From what we’ve read, this is roughly €2-3 per m² (about 0.2-0.3 per sq ft) per month. So that’s another €400-500 per month. And, of course, there is much more work involved too.
Admittedly, this is stressing us out quite a bit, especially my partner. She is worried about the heavy financial burden each month. Is that justified?
We don’t want to live just for the house; we want to go on vacations, avoid problems with children, and so on. As I said, the current situation is manageable, but we wonder if we might be underestimating the costs.
So here’s my question to the community: looking back at everything you know now about loans, maintenance costs, upkeep, and so forth, would you buy or build a house again?
If yes, why? If not, why not? I’m really interested to hear your thoughts! And were there any surprises—positive or negative—that you didn’t expect?
Regards
we are about to sign the contract with the developer but have started seriously reconsidering whether we should go through with it.
We negotiated for 8 months and were quite sure about it. However, towards the end, some issues arose regarding the contract and other matters, which we managed to resolve.
It now looks like we would be paying a third of our net income to the bank for 22 years. I think we can afford it. But when you are used to paying monthly rent of about €800-900 (divided by 2), this is quite a different level.
With a house, it’s not just the loan payments; there are ongoing maintenance costs as well. From what we’ve read, this is roughly €2-3 per m² (about 0.2-0.3 per sq ft) per month. So that’s another €400-500 per month. And, of course, there is much more work involved too.
Admittedly, this is stressing us out quite a bit, especially my partner. She is worried about the heavy financial burden each month. Is that justified?
We don’t want to live just for the house; we want to go on vacations, avoid problems with children, and so on. As I said, the current situation is manageable, but we wonder if we might be underestimating the costs.
So here’s my question to the community: looking back at everything you know now about loans, maintenance costs, upkeep, and so forth, would you buy or build a house again?
If yes, why? If not, why not? I’m really interested to hear your thoughts! And were there any surprises—positive or negative—that you didn’t expect?
Regards
ypg schrieb:
You don’t need to feel sorry about that—a forum thrives on exchanging opinions and experiences. I just believe that some posts shouldn’t be left unchallenged.That is very well expressed. Thank you.
Regarding renting, we both had—apparently very opposite—experiences. Of course, mine are not statistically significant. I’m glad to hear there are also positive experiences with renting and people who can speak to that. At this point, I probably reflected my negative experiences in an exaggerated way. Especially in our situation, we didn’t necessarily have to build. We could have had more money (but, as I said, emotionally… less quality of life). The emotional aspect of “I just like it that way” has often been mentioned here. Such a statement can never be quantified financially.
You made a very good point in criticizing my post. If you spend 20–30% of your net income on housing costs and your income suddenly drops unexpectedly and significantly: yes, then you definitely have a problem—whether renting or owning. For buying a house, of course, it’s visibly more serious. No one is immune to major life risks. And of course, when building or buying a house, you should plan so that a temporary loss of income or a long illness will not force an (emergency) sale of the property. Thank you for your comment. That was not the impression I wanted to give, but upon reflection, I recognize my mistake.
My emotional post was like throwing a number into the ring. A number that is not unrealistic, because, as I said, I know it from many other building families—including mine.
By no means (!) did I intend to start such a negatively tinted discussion, but a much more positive one. Sorry. In the future, I will be much more careful about what I write when posting.
Best regards
Thorsten
A case occurred within my close circle of acquaintances:
A couple purchased a condominium through the introduction of an insurance advisor. At the time of contract signing, there was a guaranteed rental subsidy (since the tenants had been living in the apartment for 30 years and were paying a correspondingly low rent)! As it happened, the company that guaranteed this rental subsidy went bankrupt two years after the purchase... What was once a lucrative property purchase turned into an expensive legal dispute with no prospect of compensation!
Of course, the tenants suffered no disadvantages; they continue to live in the apartment and are unaware of all these issues!
What I want to point out is that as an owner you face very different problems compared to a tenant and take on significantly greater risks because you invest your capital without knowing exactly when it will become profitable for you.
A couple purchased a condominium through the introduction of an insurance advisor. At the time of contract signing, there was a guaranteed rental subsidy (since the tenants had been living in the apartment for 30 years and were paying a correspondingly low rent)! As it happened, the company that guaranteed this rental subsidy went bankrupt two years after the purchase... What was once a lucrative property purchase turned into an expensive legal dispute with no prospect of compensation!
Of course, the tenants suffered no disadvantages; they continue to live in the apartment and are unaware of all these issues!
What I want to point out is that as an owner you face very different problems compared to a tenant and take on significantly greater risks because you invest your capital without knowing exactly when it will become profitable for you.
off topic:
In this house building forum, we do not expect submissive behavior or weakening. Nobody bites (except for a very few) or demands perfection. This is not a competition either.
Everyone is welcome to express their opinion here – just be prepared that someone might see it differently, that other opinions exist, and that these may be expressed in words you yourself might not use.
It is also perfectly okay to be wrong sometimes, whether because of hearsay or changes over time.
That’s not a problem; someone else will correct it. So: keep going!
T21150 schrieb:
In the future, I will be much more careful about what I write when posting.
In this house building forum, we do not expect submissive behavior or weakening. Nobody bites (except for a very few) or demands perfection. This is not a competition either.
Everyone is welcome to express their opinion here – just be prepared that someone might see it differently, that other opinions exist, and that these may be expressed in words you yourself might not use.
It is also perfectly okay to be wrong sometimes, whether because of hearsay or changes over time.
That’s not a problem; someone else will correct it. So: keep going!
A brief update on our house building project:
Yesterday, during the final contract meeting and right before signing, we decided not to proceed.
Why? Because our gut feeling about the whole project was negative. Some of the additional costs that had gradually appeared over the past eight weeks could no longer be transparently explained. In the end, it was about a total amount of €10,000 (approximately $11,000) that we had to speculate about regarding its exact origin. When our contact person then became irritated and showed a sour expression, making us feel as if we should be ashamed for questioning certain items so close to signing the contract, we decided to back out.
We had started to sign the offer and the description of construction services, but when it came to signing the actual construction contract, we just couldn’t overcome our bad gut feeling. We felt really uncomfortable... so we took 20 minutes to discuss and ultimately decided against it. What we had to listen to afterward only confirmed our decision. Apparently, internally they had already bet on us not signing and made a lot of remarks like that.
My conclusion: Building with a general contractor / main contractor? No thanks! If we take up this topic again, we will go the architect route. I am really fed up with conversations like these, bargaining over every euro like at a market, and being faced with attitudes of blame. We have now looked at nine different general contractors, talked to them, negotiated, hoped, worried, got frustrated, and so on. We have already spent 14 months on this... I’ve had enough for now! And unfortunately, I have to say that all salespeople in this industry seem the same. You can’t trust anyone in this business. I say this deliberately, even if it might cause some debate. This is not just my experience; it was told to us by everyone beforehand, and we only smiled and thought... oh well, we just met the wrong people... no, no...
Yesterday, during the final contract meeting and right before signing, we decided not to proceed.
Why? Because our gut feeling about the whole project was negative. Some of the additional costs that had gradually appeared over the past eight weeks could no longer be transparently explained. In the end, it was about a total amount of €10,000 (approximately $11,000) that we had to speculate about regarding its exact origin. When our contact person then became irritated and showed a sour expression, making us feel as if we should be ashamed for questioning certain items so close to signing the contract, we decided to back out.
We had started to sign the offer and the description of construction services, but when it came to signing the actual construction contract, we just couldn’t overcome our bad gut feeling. We felt really uncomfortable... so we took 20 minutes to discuss and ultimately decided against it. What we had to listen to afterward only confirmed our decision. Apparently, internally they had already bet on us not signing and made a lot of remarks like that.
My conclusion: Building with a general contractor / main contractor? No thanks! If we take up this topic again, we will go the architect route. I am really fed up with conversations like these, bargaining over every euro like at a market, and being faced with attitudes of blame. We have now looked at nine different general contractors, talked to them, negotiated, hoped, worried, got frustrated, and so on. We have already spent 14 months on this... I’ve had enough for now! And unfortunately, I have to say that all salespeople in this industry seem the same. You can’t trust anyone in this business. I say this deliberately, even if it might cause some debate. This is not just my experience; it was told to us by everyone beforehand, and we only smiled and thought... oh well, we just met the wrong people... no, no...
Similar topics