I really never thought that Househunting can be so stressful.
Nicke and I have been seriously looking for a new home. It has been a month since we arrived at Stockholm and our search for our new home has been only stressful.
It is not difficult to find nice looking houses but it is the bidding that is really difficult. Nice looking houses usually have loads of bidders and the bids can be up to Swedish kroner 1 million more than the seller’s asking price.
The last time, we managed to afford the highest bid for a house we really like but the seller turned us down and went with the second highest because they cannot release their house in October to us. So, we thought we will change our strategy by bidding for a house that has ugly interior, requires 100% makeover but the house is in a great location (next to a lake) and is available immediately. But the bidders went crazy in the last 2 days, we saw the price jumped from 3.495m to 4.25m. We love the house but this would mean we would have no money to hire a contractor to renovate the house. Actually, it was a bad strategy as Swedes love to renovate their houses themselves. The house is a gem to the typical handy swede and with such an excellent location, they will jump at this opportunity.
No wonder my sister in law, Sofia told us that buying a house is such a pain.
the system is the same in the US which was also alien to us then. I think I prefer the Singaporean way for seller to quote a high price and buyer who’s able (& willing to pay) will just make the offer. Otherwise the seller gets the upper hand to choose the buyer, wait for the buyers to stress themselves over the bidding etc. But mind you this was not the case during the financial meltdown. If your selling price was set at x amount of dollars and no sale was done within a certain time, any price adjustments by the seller downwards and also the longer the property stays unsold on the market, buyers will stay far far away. So stress is very much on the seller then. I guess the property market must really be picking up in Stockholm then…
The closest thing we have here in S’pore is bidding for license plate numbers!
my dear, buying a house is a pain around the world. U will find your dream home soon:)