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Guide to home buying

When you have to buy a home, there are many emotions at play and at the same time it is a big financial decision that has to be made. This guide to buying a home helps to create an overview and provides tips and tricks for the housing market.

Also read our guide on the process in a property sale , so you have full control of what happens when.

Hjælp til huskøb helps you on your way

There are a lot of things you have to consider and decide on when you want to buy a new home. Either you are a first-time buyer or you have tried it before.

 

No matter how many times you have tried to buy a home, no one becomes an expert in an area that we only personally come into contact with a few times during our lives. Legislation within the area and customs change from time to time, just as the market and the relationship between buyers and sellers depend on the economy, interest rate fluctuations and social trends.

Home purchase - what is it?

A home purchase is many things, but is about a purchase of either a house, cottage, a condominium, a country estate etc..

 

There can be many reasons why you start looking for a new home. It could be that your life situation has changed, that you have to move to another part of the country, that you buy a summer house next to your year-round residence, etc. It could also be that you have simply outgrown the old one and need a change of air, to try something new.

 

Whatever the reason, the natural reaction for most people will be to start looking at Boligsiden.dk or Boliga.dk or on the estate agents' websites, in order to get an overview of the supply and the price level. These pages are a good place to start, as you can find all the homes that are for sale on the housing market. Which of the portals you prefer is a matter of temperament, taste and habit. They can do more or less the same thing.

 

Before you get too engrossed in sitting and browsing housing, it is a good idea to contact your bank to get an indication of how much you can borrow to buy a home.

The bank sets the financial framework

A lot is happening with the economy and therefore it is necessary for you to clarify with the bank how much you can borrow in the current market. Your bank always assumes that your financing will be carried out with the current lowest fixed-rate loan with installments.

 

If you already own a home that you need to sell in connection with your purchase of your new home, the bank will also include this in the prerequisites and include an expected proceeds from the sale of your current home.

 

It is a good idea to start by making a budget of your finances. The budget is the first thing the bank asks for from you. 

 

The bank also want to see your last 3 pay checks, your annual tax statement and an overview of your pensions. You can download the report on your pensions at pensionsinfo.dk (You must log in with NemId/MitId). If you are a couple, the bank will of course like to see the information from both of you.

When the bank advisor has assessed the situation, you will receive an indicative loan commitment that tells you in which price range you can buy a home. There is no exact formula for how this is calculated, but you can count on a maximum debt-to-income ratio of 3.5 – 4.5 (debt factor is how much you can borrow in relation to your household income. Remember that car loans etc. are also counted).

Wishes for your new home

In this phase of the home purchase, you must focus on what your new home should contain, how it should be built, the architecture, the plot and the location. You can probably come up with many other wishes or reasons for choosing a home.

 

However, it is important that you try to concentrate on what is most important to you. There will be some things which are indispensable requirements, others you can live with if other things are fulfilled and some which are "nice to have". Remember that finances are often a limiting factor as well.

 

You should sit down and formulate the most important 4-5 criteria that you want fulfilled with the purchase of a new home. If there are two of you who are going to buy a home together, take the time to determine what your common criteria are for your new home. It is important that you align your expectations so that you buy the right home for you.

Find the right home

There are many ways to search for the right accommodation. We recommend that you do what suits you best. You can use seveal online housing portals, where you have the option to filter your search so that you find homes that match your wishes. A good piece of advice is to start broad and see what comes up. Then try to narrow down the results using filters.

 

A completely different approach is to contact the local estate agents in the area you are looking for a home in. Have a chat with them about your wishes and requirements for your future home. In this way, they contact you when something comes up for sale that matches your criteria.

 

It may also be that the estate agent has a property for sale in a so-called "drawer sale" that suits your wishes. When the seller and the estate agent choose to put the property up for sale in this way, it is not advertised publicly. So it is therefore important to have contact with the local estate agents to gain knowledge about the homes in the "drawer".

See all the interesting homes

When you have found one or more homes that meet your wishes for a home, it is time to come out and see the home(s) in reality. You either have the option of booking a showing by contacting the seller's estate agent or by attending an open house.

 

I recommend that you set aside time to have a showing where only you and the estate agent are present. At the showing, you have the opportunity to have a thorough look at the home, and get answers to any questions you may have about the home. Of course, you also have the option of having your own construction expert out and assess the house's defects and damage.

 

Open houses are often hectic, and in some cases many other interested parties come. When there are several interested home buyers at an open house, an atmosphere can easily arise that the home is more desirable and interesting than it actually is. The estate agent plays on this, as he wants you as a buyer to feel pressured to bid faster and more than you had planned.

 

The seller's real estate agent often uses the possibilities of bringing together several interested home buyers at the same time. The idea behind it is that you unconsciously raise your limit for what you think the home is worth and thus what you want to pay for the home. So be realistic about what you think the home is worth to you before you go to open houses.

When do you need help buying a house?

When you have gone through the above process and you have found a home that you can see yourself in, it is time to get professional help for the further process. Today, you can get expert assistance to complete the transaction on the best possible terms.

 

The experienced buyer advisers (mostly real estate agents) who are on the market today can help you with the process towards buying your dream home. See more about what a buyer's adviser can offer in our guide entitled "What is a buying advisor". You can also read: "That's why you need a buyer's advisor".

A buyer's advisor can help you with many things. It can either be a negotiation about price and, not least, terms for the deal. Your advisor looks after your interests and ensures that you get the best possible deal. If you have a professional adviser who is experienced in home buying, the probability that you will achieve significantly better terms is much greater than if you negotiate the agreement yourself. Remember that your adviser does not involve emotions in the home purchase, and thus we can maintain a cool overview.

 

The place where you get the most value from your buyer's adviser is before you sign a purchase agreement. Most buying advisors offer to negotiate the price for you. As professional dealers, I can often obtain a discount in relation to the asking price.

 

Most often, it is not the decisive factor for a property transaction, but it still means a lot for your future housing finance.Contact Nicolai Vinum for a non-binding conversation about what I can help you with.

Signature of the purchase agreement

The purchase agreement is the agreement entered into between the seller of the home and you as the buyer of the home. It is the seller's estate agent who must draw up the purchase agreement and ensure that the parties sign the agreement. As a buyer, it is important to ensure that reservations have been made for your buyer's adviser's approval of the purchase agreement. The estate agent should have entered this in section 11.

 

In the past, the buyer and seller met at the estate agent's office and the parties signed the purchase agreement. Today, most estate agents sign the purchase agreement digitally. As a buyer, it is free to do so, as long as you have ensured that a reservation has been inserted for your adviser's approval of the agreement.

 

I offer a free and non-binding screening of the purchase agreement before purchase.Simply send me the purchase agreement via this form. Then I will clarify for you whether it is OK to sign the purchase agreement. I usually get back within 2 hours.

 

If you and your buyer's adviser have agreed with the seller on the price and terms for purchasing the home, a purchase agreement must be drawn up. As long as your buyer's adviser has negotiated the price and terms on your behalf, he will be the one who will make further arrangements with the seller's estate agent about signing the purchase agreement. If you yourself have negotiated terms with the seller's estate agent, it is the estate agent with whom you must agree to sign the purchase agreement.

 

When the purchase agreement is signed by both parties, the home is yours. So it is important that it happens as quickly as possible, as the seller's estate agent (according to the law) must continue the sales work until there is a signed purchase agreement. You should therefore push to get the seller's signature as soon as possible, so that you don't run the risk of the property being sold to the other side.

 

When both you and the seller have signed, your statutory cancellation period starts. The cancellation period is 6 working days after both parties have signed the purchase agreement. Reversal of a house purchase costs 1% of the purchase price in compensation to the seller. You can read more aboutregret when buying a home.

 

Most often, the estate agent sets a deadline for the buyer's adviser and the bank's approval of a number of working days. We do not believe that this period should be shorter than 6 working days, because it is important that your buyer's adviser has time to review the transaction's documents and time to meet and explain the content to you. It is also important that you can review the finances with the bank, so that you know how the home purchase will affect your finances in the future.

Advising you and approving the transaction

When your buyer's advisor has received the signed purchase agreement and all the transaction documents, you will have to hold a meeting where you will be advised about the transaction. The buyer's advisor goes through the property with you and answers questions that you are unsure about. It could be that the seller's estate agent has "forgotten" to tell you important facts about the homes, it could be that there are inconsistencies in the material or it could be terms in the purchase agreement that are not reasonable for you as a buyer.

 

Your buyer's adviser is a professional and should be able to explain what you need to pay attention to when it comes to the property.

The buyer's advisor's advice to you as a buyer results in you agreeing together on whether the home should be purchased on the current terms of the agreement or whether it is necessary to change them. Your buyer's adviser provides highly specialized legal advice, which is based on many years of experience and specialized training in the field. Therefore, it is important that you must not attempt to carry out this work yourself.

This letter your buyer's adviser prepares and sends to the seller's estate agent is called the letter of approval. The letter of approval describes which terms are to be changed or added to the deal before the deal can be declared final.

 

Just as your buyer's advisor must approve the transaction, your bank must also approve the transaction. Your bank usually invites you to a meeting where you review the home's finances in relation to the budget you have for your expenses. It may also be that the bank would like to have an appraiser come out and assess the property's value before the bank can give a final commitment on the financing.

The process after the transaction has been approved

The deal is final when your buyer's adviser's approval letter with any reservations is accepted by the seller and when your bank has given a financing commitment. When the deal is final, neither you nor the seller will be able to withdraw from the deal. You have now finally bought the home, and will be notified of this, either by the seller's estate agent or by your buyer's adviser.

 

The next step in the process of buying a home is to create a deed. The deed is drawn up on the basis of the agreements in the purchase agreement. The deed must be registered in order for the home to change owners. It is usually the seller's estate agent who prepares and registers the deed. Today, this takes place digitally, so you are asked to log on to tinglysning.dk with your NemID to sign. You can get information about this from your buyer's adviser.

 

At the same time as signing the deed, you must also pay the registration fee to the seller's estate agent. There are no rules in this area, but it is usually agreed that the seller pays to have the deed drawn up and then the buyer pays for the registration of the deed. The land registration tax is calculated in the sales statement under the item cash requirements.

 

When the registration of the deed has been completed, you are officially the owner of your new home.

Remember this before taking over the home

Before you get the keys to your new home, there are some points that you need to remember (and don't worry, your buyer's advisor will probably remember this for you).

 

  • Take out home insurance

  • Take out change of ownership insurance

  • Choose electricity supply company

  • Schedule when you will get the keyes. 

 

As a buyer, you assume the risk for the property on the day of acquisition or on the disposition date, if this is earlier than the acquisition date. It is therefore important that you take out home insurance before you get the keys to the house.

 

The change of ownership insurance covers hidden faults and defects in the home. It is the seller who decides whether the House Inspection scheme is to be used. If the seller has chosen to use the scheme, you will have received a condition report and an electrical installation report before you bought the house. We always recommend taking out the change of ownership insurance when buying real estate. The change of ownership insurance protects you against large, costly expenses should there be faults and defects with the property.

As a buyer, you must ensure that you notify the supply companies you wish to use of the move and meter readings. Otherwise, you will receive supplies from the companies subject to public utility obligations.

If you do not agree otherwise with the seller's estate agent or the seller, you will receive the keys to the house on the day of takeover at 12.00. However, you can easily contact the seller's estate agent well in advance and ask if you can agree on another time. However, you must remember that you must have taken out insurance and chosen utility companies before you get the keys.

After handing over the keys

Once you have been handed the keys, the house is yours and the responsibility for the house is also yours. So if something breaks it is your responsibility. It is also your responsibility to maintain the house.

 

On the day of collection, it is also a really good idea to check whether the included white goods are working. Feel free to try them out and let me know as soon as possible if they don't work. You assumed the risk for the house on the day of takeover at 12.00 (unless otherwise agreed) and you usually have 24 hours to complain about defective white goods included.

 

After the takeover date, a reimbursement statement must be prepared. The reimbursement statement is an overview of what expenses the parties have had on the home, which covers the other's ownership period. The principle is that each party pays for its own ownership period.

 

When the refund balance has been paid, the process of buying a new home is finally complete. Then all that's left is to enjoy the new home.

Get help with your house purchase

At Hjælptilhuskøb.dk, we can help with everything to do with trading in housing.

Contact me to clarify what and how we can help you. You can also see the most common services we offer andthe price of buyer advice.

 

Help for buying a house is locally based on the Juelsminde peninsula, but I help home buyers all over Denmark.

Got a question?

Then you have landed in the right place

With over 20 years of experience under my belt, I can guarantee you a safe and easy home purchase.

 

Contact me for a non-binding chat about what I can help you with.

Call 9393 0678

Portræt af Nicolai Vinum
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