Celtic Princess

If you had asked me this a few weeks ago I wouldn't have had a clue, but now that we've gone through it all I'm more knowledgeable. When we first came over my husbands employer did most of the work for us, this time we did it ourselves.

Basically the buying process is:

1. You see a house you like and contact the estate agent to tell them you are interested and arrange a viewing, if necessary. We bought this house just from the pictures! But I think we were very lucky.

2. You put in an offer. Like in the UK this can be any amount you want, bearing in mind what the asking price is. If you are the only person who has shown an interest your offer will be passed on to the buyer who can either accept it, reject it or wait to see if there is any further interest.

If there is someone else interested, the estate agent will then inform them of the amount you have offered. They can then put in a higher offer. If they do the estate agent will then come back to you to see if you want to raise your offer. And so on. This usually takes the price over the asking price and the seller will then accept the highest bid, although legally they can sell it to whoever they like for however much they like.

Bidding like this is normal in the bigger towns or the more popular areas and, on average can increase the house price by around 20%, although you never can tell. In the smaller towns and more rural areas it doesn't seem to happen. With both of our houses our offers, a little below asking price, were accepted straight off. No bidding. We tried to buy a house in Trollhattan and put in bid a couple of times but for each house the price went up beyond our means, so we looked a other areas and now have a new lovely house in a little town 40 minutes from Trollhattan.

Once your offer has been accepted you have to sign a contract. This is usually with a week or two. At this point you have to pay a 10% deposit. The contract will contain the agreed date for the sale, usually 3-4 weeks later. At that point you pay the balance and get the keys. This is all handled by the estate agent and the fees for this are paid by the seller. There are no lawyers involved. Although you should have a survey done once your offer is accepted, before signing the contract. Our recent survey cost 5000 kr.

As for the mortgage, we did ours with Swedbank which is the one tied to one of the main estate agents. I don't know if there are cheaper ones available, I didn't really look. For us it was the easiest option. They were great and took the time out to explain the whole process, in English, to us. Our first mortgage was with SEB, another bank, and they explained nothing and were really unhelpful. But I guess this can depend on the person you deal with. Although I got the impression that SEB made a judgement about whether they wanted to lend you money or not, whereas with Swedbank it was all sort of automated, ie if you income is X kr you can borrow upto y kr, much more like my kind of thinking.

Finally, one thing I forgot to mention about the houses websit which you may find useful. When you click on a specific house and it brings up all the house details and pictures, you will see 4 buttons. The bottom 2 may help you. The first 'visa pa karta' will bring up it's location on a map. The second one 'gjorda kop i narheten' is more interesting, click on it and it brings up the most recently sold houses in the neighbourhood of the house you are looking at. In the top right corner you will see 3 prices snittpris = the average price these houses have sold for, billigast = the cheapest one of them sold for and dyrast = the most one of them sold for.

And here's a link to one of the main estate agent's website. It has more info on the buying process, in English. See, they're so helpful.

http://www.fastighetsbyran.se/se/Eng...h_for_estates/

Good luck.

Katamoungdapidgeons

Thank you so much Celtic Princess.

nikki78

hmmm, all the prices in that site comes in milions kr

Drosera

Jut a couple of things to add to the answer above. Viewings (in Stockholm anyway) tend to be at a specific time (usually Sunday afternoon) with a second viewing on Monday or Tuesday evening. Special viewings can be arranged by agreement with the owner but are not the norm. The viewings can be quite crowded with individuals, couples and families trailing around the house with the estate agent present but not the owners (they stay away!). The bidding will then start almost immediately - certainly no later than the next day at 09.00 - and can be followed on the agents website and via sms/texting - to your mobile. It is usual too for potential buyers to go with a "loan promise" which states that bank x will allow you to go up to a certain price.

Bidding can be fierce! I have been in situations where the price has doubled within 24 hours. That was about 3 years ago - so it may be better in the present economic climate.

The system where the agent is also your conveyancing solicitor is much better I think and things tend to move along quite quickly - as long as both buyer and seller are in agreement. Bridging loans are very much the norm here too.

hockeyhairdo

For that price in Sweden you would have to live in a place that would make Aylesbury appear as hip and happening as New York

For Gothenburg you are looking at a minimum of £125,000 (which is still cheap) with 2500 Euros a month you are better off renting until your wife gets a job

YYZlover

A friend of mine in Sweden just bought a large house for just under £40k outside gothenburg in commutable distance. Him and his wife nets around SEK26k pm.

I am Swedish, born and raised in Gothenburg. I have never owned and nor do I desire to do so for the foreseeable future. I have always rented apartments. Depending on where you live, what area, etc. You could get away with a fairly good deal in comparison to UK. My 1bed in UK cost more per month than the mortgage on my parents small farm just north of it. That's not including council tax, gas, electricity and water. Add it all up and I could have paid two months of their mortgage with one month accomodation cost in UK and have money to spend.

Renting an apartment hot and cold running water, heating and all appliances are included! all you pay is cable, internet, phone and electricity.

I find food prices cheaper in Sweden than UK and gas is slightly cheaper. Car tax and insurance as too.

Schools are free, yes.

Local transportation (monthly bus passes, trains etc) cheaper as well. Helathcare is not free. You pay anything between SEK 100-300 to see the doctor and you pay for prescriptions. Not massive amounts but it adds up. A stay in hospital cost as well, based on your annual income. Once you reach a certain level of cost for doctors visits and medicines you get the rest of the year free. But you have to register for that.

Katamoungdapidgeons

Hi, Just to say we are now resident in the land of the midnight sun & the £4 cucumber!
The kinda blunt dishonesty & down right lazy slow caoach-ness of my new subordinates is taking some getting used to!
& fortum & Masons or Harrods food Hall could give Co-Op konsume or ICA a run for their money!
Its fine here Really! Just culture shock & expense. Beware if given a management job there is a reason they draft you in! Property in places you would realistically wish to live in is hugely expensive, dont doubt it! thanks to everyone who responded to this thread.thanks to everyone who responded to this thread.

Celtic Princess

Congratulations and welcome. Have you discovered what a squeeze day is yet, as a manager you will need to know?

jdr

Must be growing cucumbers in Sweden according to Kat. ;-))

Drosera

Don't underestimate the power of coffee breaks (fika paus) either - almost like a religion here. It is where information is spread and often where decisions are made.

Kynk

*agrees with derbyflan*

I also moved from Aylesbury (to The Netherlands) and there's no going back for me...