Buying a property part 3 – Purchasing Process, Thoughts and Action!

In this post I will share my thoughts during the purchasing process, how I acted and why.

Having found the house

We found a house (see picture below) with 3-4 bedrooms, nice dining area, great view, garage and sauna and the numbers made sense to me. In my head I was going through what we wanted to do to improve the property and how much that would cost and the time required as well as how fast we wanted access to the house. This was mid December and as the house would appeal to skiers (downhill slopes just a few minutes away) and winter break was coming up (mid February) I wanted a quick access, work fast and get it out on the market not to miss those important weeks.

I called the broker and asked about current interest in the property and got the reply that there was interest and they had already gotten an offer which was below asking price and therefore declined. There was going to be another viewing in the following days and luckily my father was able and willing to go and have a look at the house as he lives close by. The information I got from the broker was good, nothing alarming about the property and the seller seemed to be flexible in terms of when to move out as they had already begun that process.

Negotiation

When my father had taken a look at the property we had a chat and most things seemed to be in decent order, at least nothing major that the broker had not told me about. There had been one more family at the viewing and they were interested because of the number of bedrooms but they needed to sell their place prior to being able to buy. It was time to initiate the purchasing process!

I spoke with the broker the following day and knowing that there are very few houses coming to market in this particular town and with this low price tag, I wanted to act fast to eliminate any competition. I told the broker that I wanted to place a hidden offer (not to tell any other potential buyer) saying that I was a cash buyer (if I wanted financing I could sort that later but this normally gives you an advantage over other potential buyers as the process runs smoother) and I would pay their asking price but that my offer only was valid for the day.

I knew there was demand from other potential buyers, they had gotten a low ball offer which they declined and they were half way out so they were keen on selling.

The broker called back shortly and my offer was accepted!

Fast access!

These were the circumstances we found ourselves in: the house was located around 300km from where we live, my partner was at the end of our pregnancy, Christmas was coming up and I wanted the house on the market asap!

Initially we set the handover date to the 15th of January but we were going to be allowed access and start renovating from the 17th of December whilst the seller was still emptying the property. Our baby was due end of January and I knew I wanted to be around so time was tight. Luckily we got even earlier access as the seller moved out earlier so we got the keys on the 27th of December.

My plan was to work and do as much as we could until the 15th of January when we would have to go back home to be close to our local hospital and make some arrangements prior to becoming parents (for the first time!!).

I wanted to get the house out on the market asap to attract skiers but I wanted to do as much improvements as possible first so that I could show them some nice pictures of the newly renovated place. Time was tight! This was based on our situation and why and how we intend to use the house. Sometimes you want to access much later to have things in order etc. It completely depends on the situation but you have to know your situation!

If I wanted things to happen in this house, I would have approximately 20 days to completely renovate the interior to make it as attractive as possible as well as buying all the furniture, beds, kitchen equipment etc. which a guest would require. This would mean quite a bit of planning, purchasing and action!

Boy, this felt like me. Making things happen, making loads of decisions and making progress, I love it!

The planning and thought process had of course begun already the first time I saw the property. I have trained my brain to work like that. “What can I do to make this more attractive” is a thought that automatically pops up in my head when looking at investments (where I can have an impact).

Why we liked it

Who is my typical guest, what are they looking for and what are they willing to pay for? Those were my only thoughts (besides, what we like as we intend to spend time there as well) and that is how we acted. Had we intended to live there, we would have made different choices.

With that in mind I found this property really appealing.

Location: It is close to lots of outdoor activities like skiing slopes, mountain bike tracks, golf courses, running tracks, hiking paths, lakes for swimming, fishing, kayaking, canoeing, tennis courts etc.

Views: It was located on a hill with a nice view over town and you can see a lake a few hundred meters away and even the ski slope from the large terrace.

Interior: Large dining area with a great view and 3-4 bedrooms (so possibly two families could rent the house together), a sauna and a garage for either a car or for outdoor gears (bikes, skies etc).

Exterior: No major works were obvious even if there are things we will be doing as soon as the weather improves a bit. Limited maintenance required on the house but the garden and its +1000m2 will need some work and care.

The house needed some work but most of it was easily done and with limited amount of money we could achieve a lot to increase the attractiveness. The only question was how much and how fast and that you will find out in our next post. Below are a few pictures showing what it looked like to prior to renovation.