Having just moved home, in what I can only call a very stressful way, I wanted to share the experience, as hope is not really a good strategy.
My wife and I had found an apartment that we liked, which was in a good area and met all of our requirements, especially ‘must have garden‘ as my wife is a very keen gardener and likes to be able to sit outside.
Having found the home, we next sought to arrange finance, which went well, and we agreed a purchase price with the owner, and a move in date of July 1st.
As the apartment was empty, financing was all arranged, everything seemed ideal and we organized the removal firm to come and transport our furniture on 1st of July as planned.
We were not only hopeful, but we clearly had a plan that told us everything was on track and would work out well.
What we didn’t know really was exactly how the process worked in Germany; and that having finances agreed with the bank, a purchase price agreed with the owner, was only part of the requirements.
What we also needed was the buildings owners approval that the the owner could sell the apartment and that we could take over ownership.
This approval became delayed and wasn’t available to us until Thursday, 4 days before our move in date, and the bank cannot transfer the monies until they have the approval and the transfer takes minimum two working days.
This meant that the funds would need to be transferred on the Monday, they day we were due to move, so things were going to be tight.
The owner, as is his right, refused to hand over the keys until the funds were transferred.
So now were dependent upon others, and had to hope everything worked out fine.
As we sat with our furniture in the removal vans at 1pm, no keys for the new apartment, the thought that we might have to find an alternative solution was very real.
To say stress levels were a bit high would be an understatement, the thought that maybe we should have planned to get the keys first and given ourselves a few days breathing space now seemed like a much better approach.
Fortunately we got a call at 1.20pm to say we could pick up the keys at 2pm arrived.
We were lucky, and I am still married 🙂 although that didn’t always look like the likely outcome.
Remember Hope is not a strategy?
We need to make ourselves aware of all the components and possible obstacles and then we need to plan accordingly, give ourselves a bit of breathing space.
Gordon (lucky) Tredgold
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