Part 1 of this series dealt with my personal search for a house in the Netherlands. After many visits and discussions and plans, Riccardo and I selected a house we liked, in a town we liked and in the neighborhood where he grew up. It is a beautiful house with enough space for a family, as well as with a tuin big enough for cookouts, growing veggies and for Mona, our cat, to explore.
The step after picking a home was to make an offer on the vraagprijs. The art of onderhandelen is in full swing when buying a home. We were successful in bringing down the price to what both parties considered fair for the house signed the koopcontract or purchase agreement.
After that came a crucial part of buying a home: financing. We researched different banks and lending institutions to find the lowest rente and the lowest advieskosten for an hypotheek. Once we were happy with our selection, we proceeded to apply for the hypotheek. Some of the documents we needed to provide were een identiteitskaart, een arbeidsovereenkomst, een loonstrook, and een bankafschrift. Because we are planning on renovating the house, we also had to provide a budget for the renovations. In this budget we listed what we would renovate (keuken, badkamer, vloer, stucwerk) as well as the estimated costs for labor.
The hypotheek adviseur guided us throughout the application process and explained our options. We could choose for the rente to be fixed 10, 20 or 30 years, and for the payments to be fixed or to change over time. We discussed levensverzekering to cover the hypotheek as well as options in case of werkeloosheid or ziekte. We also opted for de nationale hypotheek garantie, which is clearly explained in the following video.
http://youtu.be/v3iO9t7PeqE
Once everything was clear, the application was submitted. In about two weeks we received noticed that everything was approved and we were ready to buy the house. Riccardo called the makelaar to let him know everything was ready and we made an afspraak with the notaris to finalize the purchase.
After a final tour of the house with the former owner, we headed to the notaris and signed the purchase making the house ours. The notaris verified the information, made the transfer of money to the verkoper, de makelaar and himself, and made the purchase official. Now all that is left is to renovate and move in!
This video gives an overview of the entire financing process.
http://youtu.be/Edcxl-1eSqw
Useful Vocabulary
het koopcontract– the purchasing agreement/contract
de rente– the rent
de hypotheek– the mortgage
de arbeidsovereenkomst– the work contract
het bankafschrift- the bank statement
de adviseur– the advisor
de levensverzekering- the life insurance
werkeloosheid- unemployment
ziekte– illness
de notaris– the notary
