Signing the contract on Friday, and then all I’ll have to do is arrange the mortgage, which shouldn’t be a problem, really, though it still makes me nervous.
Current mood: somewhere between :D:eek:
edit: because you may be wondering: it’s in Utrecht.
Congratulations!
(it’s on a hill so it won’t be underwater when the floodwalls give, right? ;))
Thanks.
according to this link, I’ll be dry up to a 2 meter rise 
Is that your house, in the picture on the Wiki link?
Congratulations!
Congratulations!
It’s scary as well as exciting, isn’t it? I found the mortgage paperwork especially scary, because the amount we owe was more money than I’d ever seriously thought about at one time before in my life.
It is scary. And I’m putting in over 1/3 of the total cost out of my savings, so I know I should be able to pay it back.
Is a 1/3 down payment standard there? We had a 20% down payment when we bought our house last year. That used to be standard in the US (and I bet it will be again), but the idea was kind of quaint then.
Do they do fixed-rate mortgages in Europe? I’m really glad, watching the whole housing mess, that we got a standard 30-year fixed instead of an adjustable or interest-only mortgage.
Not at all. 33% is bloody high. But I’m self-employed, which means mortgage brokers are shy, and I need to bring at least a bit of my own money in. But the big advantage for me is that it brings down the interest payments.
You can do 30-year fixed-rate over here. But I’m not sure that that is the best strategy right now - it’s quite possible for rates to go down in next 5 to 10 years. Anyway I haven’t decided yet (I’m leaning towards interest-only, though - since at current rates I can easily pay this off).
Woohoo! Wishing you joy in your new home! 
Superfluous Parentheses - Cangratulations on your new home! Do you have a nice yard or garden?
With a fixed rate mortgage you should still be able to refinance if the rates go down, but it locks you into a rate where you can accurately budget for the coming years, instead of not knowing what the future will bring.
StG
YES! It has a (smallish) yard with a tiny garden. I love gardens, and I’ll probably convert more of the yard to plants. I’d like some tomatoes and a couple of small trees.
That’s true. I’m just looking around right now to see the options (and the costs). As I said I’m self-employed, so I want some kind of deal that at least lets me change things when I want/need to (not least because it’s quite probable that I’ll be able to pay the whole thing off in less than 30 years, saving a lot of interest).
This is our plan if the rates keep going down.
Here, you can get a 30-year fixed with no prepayment penalty. That’s what we did. If we come into serious money (like winning the lottery, or a large inheritance- not that either is likely), the first thing we do with the money is pay off the mortgage. Because we’d save all that money in interest.
We have an herb garden just outside our kitchen door. It’s great. If we’re cooking and want some fresh herbs, we just step outside the door and get them. Herbs are pretty maintenance-free unless you’re in a dry climate or a climate where you only get rain part of the year, too.