As an ordinary 3 times Danish homeowner, I think you really nailed the process! "Kurs" can be a bit complicated, I think you made a very fine explanation. If you can find someone professional who can explain it in ordinary terms, it would be great. And again, congrats with your new home!
Congratulations in regard to purchasing your home. I've been to Denmark quite a few times and have always wanted to live there, but never able to get that accomplished. Very happy for you folks. Greetings from Chicago, IL.
Before Corona, "open house" was usually a real open house, you just showed up (in a certain timeframe, usually a ½ or one hour). Some real estate agents also acts as buying agents, but it is not that common to use. You did exactly what most people do.
In Denmark you can also buy a house directly from the owner. But the bank probably want uh out to hire someone, who can validate the state of the house, which brings me to my next point. In Denmark, the ejendomsmægler works and is paid by the seller of the house, and ad the buyer of the house, you must always have this in mind. Therefore, it can be a good idea, to hire e.g. an architect or some kind of building constructor, to validate the house for you. Not that he can have a final say on the report of the state of the house, but he can tell you in person, whether he agrees or thinks the price is reasonable.
Great video, very interesting. Thank you for talking with me in Porto at the market. Yes I did complete the Camino, 180 miles, and just returned to the US last night. Looking forward to more videos.
"Skat" in danish can mean both "tax" and "treasure" but it can also mean "dear" or "darling". I work in an IT company and we had "Skat" (the danish tax authority) as one of our customers a few years back. I'm in the SPOC (single point of contact) department which is where our customers call if there is something wrong with their IT or if they have a request. One of my former colleagues, who had no "breaks" or sense of impropriety, saw on the phone it was "Skat" calling and he took the phone and said "Hej Skat!" meaning either "Hello darling" or "Hi Skat" (Hi Tax company). He said afterwards it was completely quiet on the line for several seconds until she continued with the call like nothing unusual happened... We usually answer the phone normally with ", this is speaking" or something similar.
Actually, The Danish Bond Financing System for houses is also, to my knowledge, among the best in the world! In my time as a house owner I had the ability to pay for my house in cash, with my sawed up and invested values, so I never had any loans, but only a few are able to do that.
You can actually have a buying agent which helps you with everything related to buying a specific house. Everything like legal, offers, contracts, house inspection, insurance etc etc are handled by a "køberrådgiver". But it is optional but recommended as they are professionals.
I should have been more clear in the “payment” part. But it is required regardless of who pays and a buyer has access to the information before they make an offer - which is different for sure from the places I purchased homes in the US.
Very interesting, as you probably noticed things normally is pretty similar in Sweden and Denmark (as well as in the other Nordics countries) but there where as expected a few minor differences, but also one major one so please tell us more of how this kurs/bond thing works since in Sweden we lend directly from the Bank.
I'm danish, living in florida and I didn't even know what kurs really was about.. very interesting. I think it would be interesting as well if you explained the us credit score system and how it works, pro and cons..
Good luck with your new home! It can be very fast in Denmark. Once bought an apartment in 5 days, from seeing it & signing Monday, paying & getting the deed Thursday and moving in Friday. (Cannot be done faster due to the 3 days opt-out holiday).
The Danish Obligationer (State guaranteed bonds) are issued by the Danish government to reduce the money flow in Denmark. Instead of the money circulating around in the Danish society, which potentially could create a minus on the international trade balance (because some of the money are spent on foreign goods paid in foreign currency), the money is absorbed by the government, who pays an interest rate to the bond investors. The value of the bonds are determined by the interest rate printed on the bond in comparison with the current interest rate. Let’s say the rate on your bond is high compared to the current rate, then you are not likely sell your bond, and the value of your bond (The kurs) will be high. On the contrary, if the current interest rate is high, the value of the bond will be low. In years with high export and low import, there’s a surplus on the international trade balance, and the government typically issues less statsobligationer (State guaranteed bonds). The bonds are running for a specific number of years parallel with your house payments, which are linked to the bonds. However, if you want to buy out your house loan immediately or change your loan, you will have to pay the value of the bond (kursen), which could be high or low depending on the current interest rate and of course the demands on buying bonds 😮 something your bank advisor should know about
Honestly, i feel like it was way less stressful to buy a house here because everything was done up front. We werent trying to manage financial and legal stuff while in the final throws of packing like we would have been in the US. I REALLY appreciated that this move - Miranda
When you get a loan in a credit union, you actually get the loan as bonds. So if you need to loan 1.000.000 kr., you will receive bonds worth of 1.000.000,-. But you need real money to pay the seller. So you need to sell your bonds. The price of the bond is "kurs", so if the Kurs is 98, you will get 980.000,- that you can give to the seller, but if the interestrate is 4%, you pay 4% of the 1.000.0000 kr, and NOT the 980.000,-. So you need the kurs to be as high as possible. Since you originally got the bonds as a loan, you will need to return the bonds. So if the kurs has fallen to 80, because the interes rate has gone up, you can buy bonds that is nominally worth 1.000.000,- for 800.000,- hence saving 200.000.
Congrats with your new house Josh. There are some buying agents to negotiate in Denmark as well. They take some percentage based on how much they decrease the price. We are in the same process rn, and I think your video is very beneficial for all home buyers, thx for that.
Kurs is quite simple. You have a loan of 100 kr and get 98 kr to buy your house. And you are right. It is possible to play with the loan. If the interest is increasing then you can pay the old loan which will have a low Kurs, and your debt will decrease. When the interest decrease you can pay out the old loan at Kurs 100 and will have a lower monthly payment.
There is also the concept of negative interest rates on bond mortgages. I pay minus 0.2845% on my loan which has to be refinanced in 3 years. This means that I still has to pay administration cost, fees and everything else for that debt, but the negative interest rate is deducted from those costs. So every three months I pay 8323 kroner and 7500+ of that goes directly to reducing the principal. In three years time who knows what the interest rate will be, but I can with almost certainty claim it will not be negative interest rate again.
Back in the day, only credit unions could finance house/property in Denmark, since the duration of the financing was typically 25 - 30 years. Since bonds were less volatile, actually quite stable, and mostly guaranteed by the state, they were used for the financing to secure the sellers their money. Anyway, that's what they taught us in high school... Congratulations on your new home, may it suit you well for the future.
Actually, the bonds are guaranteed by all the other borrowers who have loans financed by that particular tranche of bonds. Everyone pays into a shared account, administrated by the bond issuer, to cover the risk of defaults. That’s the part of the monthly payments that’s called “bidrag” (which also contains the fee paid to the issuer for handling payments to the bond owners). It’s not interest but still tax deductible.
So… basically you’re “selling” bonds in your house via the realkredit, to whoever wants to buy those bonds. This can be big or small-time investors. The percentage of interest they get with your bonds (what you pay to the realkredit), and market developments determine how much they are willing to pay - and, thus, how many bonds you have to sell to get the money you need. If you later wants to sell your house, you essentially buy back your bonds - and their market value then determines how much you have to pay to get the people who own the bonds to give them up. So as an investor, you can invest in stocks or in bonds. The profit bonds give isn’t as large, but also not as risky as stocks. A friend of mine once said; “you buy bonds to eat bread. You buy stocks if you want to butter the bread.” As an investor bonds are fun; you want to get as high an interest rate as possible for as low a “kurs” as possible. It’s a long-term investment, usually 10, 20 and 30 years. Once or twice a year some of the bonds pay out; essentially you get the full price of them (100 kr.), but they’re gone - people paying off their loans, refinancing, going broke. And you can sell them if you want to, at the day-to-day ‘kurs”.
Thanks for the video! There's very little info in English about the whole mortgage process in Denmark. Would love to hear more! 😊 I am definitely in the boat of wanting to buy but the mortgages also seem expensive right now compared to just 1.5 years ago.
The kurs can not go above 100. There is not a rule that you always will be able to pay back your loan cheaper than you got it. You could for example get a loan in kurs 98 and then need to pay it back in kurs 99,50. But not above 100! And it possible to finance your home with bonds that are not close to 100. You could in theory get a 1% loan with kurs 67 if you wanted it. Usual is that you loan in bonds close to 100. In today's market that would be a 5% bond. But it IS possible to finance your home with a 1% loan. The Danish bond system is regarded as a very safe and efficient. Japanese investors used to like Danish bonds. So many homes bonds are owned by Japanese investors :-)
16:30 You are wrong, the "kurs" is what you get when you issue the bond, when you buy it back it is always at 100, so the 2% loss at kurs 98 is at the beginning of the loan, not a the end!!! When you make a 1M dkk loan in bonds you get 980000 dkk if the "kurs" is 98. BTW. you can get a preaproval from the bank before you go out looking at houses, just so you know what price range to look at...
Wrong, the rate of your backing bonds may drop significantly if the rates increase. It's not something one should speculate in but these days with extreme volatility in the bonds market, it's not uncommon that bonds purchased a couple of years ago can lead to a significant savings as the rates have increased since your financing.
See the bond as a partial value of your house or like a pawn. and the trading of bonds as dealing your old watch with a pawn shop. When you hand in the watch you want as much as possible for it (high "kurs"), but when you return to buy it back you want to pay as little as possible (low "kurs"). So the "Kurs" is the value of the bond - just like the value of a share. Talking shares you would aim to "buy low and sell high". Talking bonds you are on the other side of the table as you are actually selling bonds representing partial value of your house, so the aim is to "sell high and buy low".
Yes, hard walls and floors on their own with little damping will sustain standing waves ( eigenmodes ) for much longer - it's quite fascinating to experience 😉
Of course - my degree is in sound engineering :). So my issues last video plagued me and was something I had to figure out. There are some issues with the camera I need to work through. There is also a firmware update so I’ll go through that this weekend and fine tune it all long term :).
The kurs is basically the price of the bond. A bond has "printed" a value on it. For example 1000 kr and an interest rate. If the market interest rate is higher than the interest rate on the bond, the kurs (price/value) of the bond goes below 100 (percent). Equally if the interest of the market is lower than the bond, the kurs (price/value) goes above 100 (percent). As a homeowner, you are usually alllowed to pay you mortage by buying similar bonds in the market and "delivering" them to the mortage company (in practice you just pay them the money it), which cancels out your bonds. Which means if you bought your house at kurs 97 (so you got 97 kroners everytime you signed for 100 kroners of debt - all due to different interest rate) and the price later goes down to 70, you can pay 70% on the principal of the loan by swapping equal bonds instead of paying it out. Also all loans (I think) can be repaid by paying back the principal - i.e. the amount of debt you signed for (not the amount you received which was the kurs (percentage) of the amount you signed for). That means that in a market with falling interest you can pay out you loan to around (slightly above) kurs 100 (even though the kurs is 120+), and in a market with rising interest (like now) the fixed interest long term bonds' kurs (price/value) goes down and you can pay the kurs times the principal. So either way interest movement is an advantage to the issuer of the bonds (i.e. the home owner) except in the buy situation.... This mechanism is basic bond pricing (like in the rest of the world), but the different part in Denmark is that the homeowner is exposed directly to the bonds themselves (where in the US you are only indirectly involved in them through a financial firm)....
I think it was not clear enough, so a short addendum. When you take out the loan you ISSUE the bonds (i.e. signs the obligation to pay) with a given principal. Due to the price correction (kurs) the buyer of the bonds (i.e. the lender of the money) pays a slightly lower amount for the principal... I.e. you buy a house that costs 2 million, so if the course is 95% you need to take out a loan of 2M/ 0.95 .. which you then owe (legally) unless you are lucky enough to do the bond swap later
Gratz, great stuff. I miss my house, build it myself, after the old burned to the ground!. Had to leave, lost the job. But hey i dont have to worrie about all the things, that have to be fixed :D
I would love to know about the buying agents fees in the US. As we do not use buying agents (although they actually exist in a certain capacity), we have no cost associated with buying a house apart from what you actually talked about in the video, it would be nice to know what you're actually paying a buying agent in the US, for their services.
You don’t actually pay for the buying agent, the seller does. It’s included as a fee when they sell the house - both agents are paid a percentage of the selling price. That is typically 2.5-3 percent each but it is also negotiable in the contract. So given it doesn’t cost you as a buyer - it is super nice to have the help!
@@TravelinYoung Well, even though you don't directly pay for the buying agent, you have to consider that if the seller did not have to pay the 2.5-3% to the buying agent, the seller would likely be willing to sell the house that much cheaper, so in reality you are actually paying for the buying agent.
@@Kris_Lighthawk eh, having bought and sold 3 houses in the US, the agent fee never had an influence in the negotiation. It’s what you pay to play the game. I highly doubt removing that fee would cause housing prices to decline 3 percent in value.
@@TravelinYoungcause both buyer and seller agents are paid a percentage of the transaction there is no incentive to keep the prices low. That coupled with cheap loans is what drove the housing crash in '08. It wasn't just the banks. Realtors also stirred up the market. BTW, I'm a Dane who moved the other way across the pond. I really enjoy your videos which are teaching me more about adulting in Denmark that I never learned growing up there.
Cheap loans for sure drove the crash far more than the average real estate agent. Creative loans given away like candy along with people trusting a bank won't give them something they can't afford right? There are lots of incentives to keep the price low, agents are more incentivized to make the transactions happen quickly with little effort than the final price. They do need to get paid regardless as they are providing a service and this is the most effective way to do so. It also depends heavily on the market. Where we lived in Chicagoland we had massive property taxes which kept housing prices down. Real estate going up meant you have a larger tax bill that could amount to 10-15K USD a year on top of your loan. That has a much bigger impact than real estate fees which is a one time cost (which if it affected the price of house a buyer can just get folded into your loan) rather than something you have to deal with each and every year. When we were selling to move to Denmark we had many interested buyers based on our asking price - but then saw the real estate taxes and walked away.
Nice story. I think you got the rate (kurs) thing wrong when selling. When you want to sell your house you have to buy back bonds at the rate at that time. The rate can go up or down. Historically the rate couldn't be more than 100, but now there are may types of loans that do not have a maximum rate.
Kurs is the stock ticker value of anything, always as a percentage if 100.0, just like for stocks . As things are publicly traded by investors and daytraders, it varies minute by minute during business hours . All other stock market principles apply too.
Real estate agents also started offering buying services it’s just not many uses them as it’s not really seen as being worth the cost by many - I bought twice and never used them. But might do if I buy again if it’s a really pricey house
It is a good time for bond rates… if you have a 1% fixed now the rate is around 74 = every 1 million i want to pay off i can actually do that with 740.000kr
As a home owner, I have never heard of the no kurs growth law. When I bought my home, the rules were simple: You owe the principal to the mortgage company, but only receive the proceeds of selling the bonds on the stock market. If you want to end the loan early, you can pay off the remaining principal effective on the next ordinary due date, then a randomized selection of bond holders get their principal early too instead of decades of future interest payments (which is a statistical risk that affects the kurs investors are willing to pay). The same happens with the regular paying down the loan: The interest is passed through to bond holders, the reduction in principal turns into a random subset of bond holders getting paid in full while all the others keep riding along and earn interest . In addition to the passed through interest, the mortgage company charges a "contribution percentage" for their own pockets. If some debtor defaults, the mortgage company is still stuck paying bond holders out of those pockets, so they will tend to foreclose and get paid at least something from the foreclosure auction. Many times, the mortgage company will make a bid hoping to sell higher on the regular market. On every real or car property, debts will be listed in the government registry with a priority of who gets first dibs on foreclosure proceeds, usually the HOA has dibs on the first 50K for unpaid services, then the mortgage company, than the 10% loan, then everyone shares any excess crumbs. Until the early 1970s, there were usually 2 regular mortgages: Ordinary (first priority, low max percentage) and Special (second priority, higher max percentage, higher investor risk), and the HOA would often be last.
Thanks for the detail! And I misstated the law - it is that Kurs can not exceed 100 when you buy the bonds back. And since you reconcile the gap between your kurs and 100 at time of initiation by adding principle or cash - there should be no risk that you have to cover any gap when buying back the bonds as they wouldn’t in theory exceed your expected loan. I am still wrapping my head around this so it gets confusing super fast for me :).
this is perfect timing, my partner and I are considering moving to denmark. Its so much to take in and learn, whats the rules, can I study there, how long can we stay there if I was born there etc.
A suggestion of possibly helpful wording to differentiate between the Danish and US process… in the US you have an actual Agent, a proxy, to look for houses on your behalf as the purchaser, while in Denmark this Agent is more of a house broker… the person deals explicitly on behalf of the seller, not on behalf of the purchaser.
Tillykke med huset! Vi har købt to gange, og jeg forstår stadig ikke processen!; Heldigvis er min kone meget mere voksen på den måde end jeg er. I England, hvor jeg voksede op, er man altid fanget i en kæde af folk som flytter fra bolig til en ny bolig, og hvis en af dem trækker sig kollapser kæden, og man skal starte igen med at finde en bolig. Det er meget mere ligetil her.
Very interesting video I will say you are not completely correct in the description of the danish system. I am talking about the process buying and finding a bank to loan you the money. As other people have said you can get an agent that will look for houses for you. But in regards to getting a bank loan you can automate some of the process by using a online service that will find the banks willing to give you the best loan conditions. Perhaps this service only work for danish citizens I am not sure about that.
Seems like the initial couple of steps are easier in the U.S. but everything after that is so much more easy in Denmark. 20:03 "fax me this" Heh, I keep forgetting that the U.S. is still a mostly analog society.
I do not miss the Danish property market, especially the "Kurs". Also, be VERY aware of the conditions under breaking early / selling before the bonds mature. Was a 100.000 kr mistake. *Edit: Each year will be backed by a bond, so if you have a 3 year fixed.. you have 3 bonds with a penalty if sold/broken before maturity. Me thinking it was only 30.000 kr for the whole 3 years.....
Yes, you also get a much lower interest rate. I see that as a major downside though, plus you can't really convert them in the same way as with fully fixed rate loans. I always go with proper fixed rate loans, it's hard to go wrong with those, the others are just too speculative imo.
In Aarhus a realtor known from television ("hammerslag" and "hus til halsen") has started a buyer's agency. Super convenient and more "trustworthy" than a seller's agent
Sometimes, if people are interested in a particular house, they'll ask the real estate sellers to contact them, if it's put up for sale ( Probably the more expensive houses) 😉
Like the way Nordics do it! that you have Takstmann who goes thru the house before it goes to market. Pointing out everything what is okay or wrong with the house.
Remember that the Danish bond (financing) system is based on an entirely digital process by which all actors in the process are digitally verified (buyer, seller, tax authorities, house valuation etc.), so once you're all set, all actors are aware of address changes, tax deductions and so on. Denmark are among the top digitalized countries in the world, meaning that all interaction with authorities, including health records, tax statements and even the library are based off your government issued digital signature (and all Danes have this readily available at their phone or device connected to the internet). Also, mortgage credit loans are offered in either fixed 10 - 30 year runways or adjustable/flexible loans that refinance on a predetermined schedule (i.e. F1, F2 .. F20 etc. meaning a flexible yearly refinancing), which can come in handy if the central banks are dropping the rates.
And which can become incredibly expensive if the interest rate goes up. If you don’t have the margin for that risk in your income you may have to sell the house.
I only bought a house once. In Denmark. It was stressful. But I think it would be anywhere. It is just such a big investment. I actually got my own broker as a buyer. It is not necessary, but I am lazy and they helped a lot. It did cost a bit extra of course, but for me it was worth it.
Really interesting to listen to, just a reflection (as a Swede now living in Dublin). How to buy, the red tape and building standards as vastly different between countries so much..... I wish I could point at something and say it's because of "that", but I think there is no such thing, but you could blame / praise things like culture, history, government involvement etc. The very very basic description comparing Sweden and Ireland would be in Sweden you can get a mortgage, do a viewing and sign the final contract within 4 hours and be done, in Ireland it took me 7 months to close a house and I was chasing banks, solicitors and inspectors with a blow torch....
Your bank will likely have people capable and willing to get you started. Banks make money on safe loans, so they have an interest in getting you as customer if you're reliable. So my advice is: Call you bank and state your intensions.
@@hassegreiner9675 True that. I intent on trying to have conversations with my bank when ever i need advice on something financial, not that I'm going to take their advice but at least to get an understanding of what i have to do or how the different things work :) Atm I am looking to get a flex job, so i have unfortunately never had any reason to talk with the bank about loans or savings accounts, pensions or anything like that, hopefully that will turn soon! My partner's brother just bought a house, sad to say the bank we all share wouldn't even give an offer on a loan at all, where as all other banks they contacted where more then happy to do so.. He is going to write a PHD so our current bank did not see that as a steady nor reliable income..
I guess you, in Denmark, could hire a buying agent - if you want to pay for this service - it would more or less double you agent cost, so I don’t think a lot of people would pay for this. It would be interest to hear about the different between houses in the US vs DK. If you see house improvement series from the US, the houses always seem to be built extremely light - wood and drywalls. - and what is this US obsession of number of bathrooms (are people in the US use more time in the bathroom than in dk?) - there seems to be a need for one toilet/bath to each room, where in dk you would most likely have 1 bathroom, and then a small 2nd toilet/shower, maybe 3 bathrooms in a very big house. Maybe make a video comparing indoor decoration US vs DK - your furniture and indoor design seems very Nordic compare to the US where the still is often very heavy with dark wooden furniture’s.
Probably not an issue at all, but i just have to ask. How does it feel knowing that you now own a house in a land where trespassing is barely considered a crime until someone walks into your house?, and the fact that even if someone do trespass your property, then you are NOT entitled to use force?. Does that even crossed your mind as an american?, im just curious, countryside americans are kinda notorious for going nuclear against trespassers after all
Dont worry, someone in the buying selling chain made the money you "scored" with a good kurs deal. I just cant figure out who. Someone must have lost them. Perhaps a dude in another country has to go from his house in order for you to get your good kurs deal. It sounds like im blaminng, but im not, just thinking that nobody just gives you money in this world. Im Danish and have been through 3 house deals and a number of refinancings, and the banker always just says that the bonds are now cheaper which is good. Im just happy that i can now chip a bit more of the debt and is selfishly not asking who paid for it. I dunno, could be interesting figuring out who actually looses money and who scores so big, that they would pay me big money just to refinance.
Highly interesting comparison! I now understand plenty of realtor scenes in various American films. ;-) Ages ago, I shared a condo with my brother in Copenhagen. It turned out to be murder to sell, but when we finally did sell it, the buyer died before she could sign the dept assumption documents! Disaster! She had signed the end agreement, but that wasn't enough. It took us years to sort that out. 😕
Well we sold our house last year and we had Coffee , cookies and sweets for the byers at every showing including a couple of open house. But hey thats was here on Fyn and our way of trying to attract byers :)
BUT!!! when buyin a land house with som land to you dont get that life line of that owner switch time! i just did buy some like that my man and icelandic but it whent great.
I do know John Oliver recently did an episode covering the topic, but it’s not something we have experience with. Our first townhouse was in an HOA back in 2001, but we only lived there a short 3 years and never had issues. In Denmark we live in our own detached house and there is no HOA. We do have some rules we must follow as defined by the kommune - like trimming hedges, etc.
Hi, thank you for this fantastic stream. Do you also know how it works when you buy an old house and want to build a new house on the same land. Is that easy to realize. I know in southern Europe its very hard to arrange.
The danish market for house loans helps, as you mention, reduce the risk for the financial institutions investing in the mortgage bond. This again bring down the interest rate (as interest rate is basically the price for the invester to accept the risk) for people how needs a loan for a house. An interesting fact is that this structure has existed in Denmark for more than 200 years, and in that periode of time no invester of the mortgage bond has ever suffered a lose caused by a defaulting bond series. So it is a really safe investment for financial institutions. As a note: all house owners with a "realkreditlån" pays a fee on top of the loan to cover the cases where individual house owners have to default their payments and the "bank" (actually the mortgage credit institution) takes over the house.
my girlfriend and i are looking for a apartment or a house for buying. we are first time buyers but holy hell its hard to find something something that you can afford. buying 60 km from Kbh when you dont have 400-500k in saveings. the m2 prices are really too high and the interest for the bank loan are really high. When people are speculateing in buying a house too make proffit or have a saveing for later the marked goes up. sorry for my bad english :)
wait you didnt just call a realter and have them set up every viewing for you? thats how me and my gf did it. but maybe its different depending on where you live (we live in mid jutland) We didnt have to organise anything and we viewed on all days of the week. some late in the evening some in the early day. for us it was much more like you say it works in the US. With the offer as well we never spoke personally with anyone but the agency that helped us find and buy and our lawyer
@@TravelinYoung no my parents said it was the same the last house they bought 10+ years ago they were the ones who told us how it all worked and was a great help in choosing the agency and the bank. There have always been companies which handle your side of things but they are not specifically realters they are kinda like a middleman between you and realters and serve kinda as lawyers too though not fully its hard to explain. Edit: my dad just said the best way to explain it is kinda like how richer families used to have a person who handled their paperwork, finances and even sometimes your estate. some of these over time evolved into being basically advisers whos job it is to make sure you arent screwed over. They are paid a fixed sum not based on sales thus have nothing to gain from you being pushed into a sale.
I don’t actually know what selling agents cost in DK to be able to compare. In the US the seller pays 2.5-3 percent each for the buying and selling agent. That is negotiable in the contract though. A buyer doesn’t pay any of that, it is a cost incurred by the seller.
and after you have paid off the house you still don't own the house, you still have to pay land ownership, not much, but if you don't do that, the government can take your house from you, is it like in the usa?
Of course, you have to pay taxes for property in the US also though the amount varies depending on where you live. This was a huge issue in cities in the early 2000s (and probably still today) where housing costs were skyrocketing and people couldn’t afford the taxes for homes their families had lived in for many years and owned outright.
Seeing this as a Dane: A buying agent and a broker really just seems like a lot of unnecessary, probably overcharging, very expensive, fluff, on top of the expensive house price, for something you can do yourself.
From another Dane: One of my friends used a buying agent and saved a lot of money. The buying agent knew exactly how low the price could go and saved them more than the costs for hiring him. That may not always be the case. If I remember correctly, they saved about 200.000 DKK...
That is a benefit to having support from an agent. They do this every day - so their understanding of the market can help you drive for the right price.
@@dallesamllhals9161 of course, they do this everyday because it’s their job. I would expect you for example to do your job better than I would - someone who may come in and try to do it once every 5-10 years. They provide a service, and in the US you certainly can go it on your own if you want, but having bought/sold multiple houses I prefer getting the support and reducing stress. Using a broker also helps reduce discrimination on loans - which we absolutely faced here as non Danes when contacting banks directly.
In the US the seller pays both the selling and buying agent a percentage of the selling price. Typically 2.5 to 3 percent each - that is negotiable in the contract.
For sure....but I really did love that shot in the empty house. So I found a way to work it in to this video :). That was taken a month ago, was strange to watch it back when it was editing over the weekend.
You can go to a real estate agent, and ask them to find you a house. But it will cost you, and as you know by now, Danes don´t like to pay to much for anything. So it is the norm that we go on the internet to find a house ourselves, it turns in to a kind of hunt, we all want a great place to live and a great deal, the hunt for these things excite most Danes.
Hey congratulations on your home owner status! I have hired private “kurs” experts that monitors the market for me and my realkredit loan. They are very knowledgeable and have helped me knock off hundreds of thousands of my capital and they charge 200 kr a month to monitor the market and take a small percentage when they take action. They are the “kurs” experts you are looking for. 😅👍🏻 thanks for another great vid
Mind you, 'ejendomsadvokater' (real estate lawyers) are specialists and have an obligation to reduce all kind of risks associated with the purchase from you and it goes beyond financial stuff. Also, you can hire brokers to guide you in your buying process - if they'll take it as far as to find a house for you, I don't know., but I guess it's all down to how much you want to spend on that service. The seller buys the inspection report which most be provided by a certified agency and the seller is under a loyalty 'oath' in the sense, that any hidden problems may be termed failed 'loyal oplysningspligt' (requirement to loyally inform the buyer of all relevant information). Unfortunately, when the 'kurs' goes down the rate goes up and vice versa, so it's a gamble of whether you prefer to pay more for less or less for more. PS I'm a little concerned about the size of your bar and I'm checking on the total remaining volume between videos ;-)
As an ordinary 3 times Danish homeowner, I think you really nailed the process! "Kurs" can be a bit complicated, I think you made a very fine explanation. If you can find someone professional who can explain it in ordinary terms, it would be great. And again, congrats with your new home!
Really nice stream today , even Danes learn from you ,to buy a house in Denmark . Love from Denmark and congratulations with your new house 🤗
Congratulations in regard to purchasing your home. I've been to Denmark quite a few times and have always wanted to live there, but never able to get that accomplished. Very happy for you folks. Greetings from Chicago, IL.
Have an italian beef at Portillo's for me! And Thanks!
@@TravelinYoung I can do that and their chocolate cake for dessert :-)
❤
Before Corona, "open house" was usually a real open house, you just showed up (in a certain timeframe, usually a ½ or one hour). Some real estate agents also acts as buying agents, but it is not that common to use. You did exactly what most people do.
In Denmark you can also buy a house directly from the owner. But the bank probably want uh out to hire someone, who can validate the state of the house, which brings me to my next point.
In Denmark, the ejendomsmægler works and is paid by the seller of the house, and ad the buyer of the house, you must always have this in mind. Therefore, it can be a good idea, to hire e.g. an architect or some kind of building constructor, to validate the house for you. Not that he can have a final say on the report of the state of the house, but he can tell you in person, whether he agrees or thinks the price is reasonable.
Great video, very interesting. Thank you for talking with me in Porto at the market. Yes I did complete the Camino, 180 miles, and just returned to the US last night. Looking forward to more videos.
Thanks! It was super nice to meet you and I’m so happy to hear you made it through. So cool, welcome back home.
"Skat" in danish can mean both "tax" and "treasure" but it can also mean "dear" or "darling". I work in an IT company and we had "Skat" (the danish tax authority) as one of our customers a few years back. I'm in the SPOC (single point of contact) department which is where our customers call if there is something wrong with their IT or if they have a request.
One of my former colleagues, who had no "breaks" or sense of impropriety, saw on the phone it was "Skat" calling and he took the phone and said "Hej Skat!" meaning either "Hello darling" or "Hi Skat" (Hi Tax company). He said afterwards it was completely quiet on the line for several seconds until she continued with the call like nothing unusual happened...
We usually answer the phone normally with ", this is speaking" or something similar.
I would honestly love any economy/banking video you make.
Actually, The Danish Bond Financing System for houses is also, to my knowledge, among the best in the world! In my time as a house owner I had the ability to pay for my house in cash, with my sawed up and invested values, so I never had any loans, but only a few are able to do that.
You can actually have a buying agent which helps you with everything related to buying a specific house. Everything like legal, offers, contracts, house inspection, insurance etc etc are handled by a "køberrådgiver". But it is optional but recommended as they are professionals.
Very insightful! It would be great if you could arrange more dip dive into kurs or how the mortgage system works in DK. Thank you 😊
Check the comment I made previously on the various mortgage options etc.
Don't do a video just about kurs. Do a video about the whole realkredit concept
In DK the inspection report is payed by the seller. It's not a public service.
I should have been more clear in the “payment” part. But it is required regardless of who pays and a buyer has access to the information before they make an offer - which is different for sure from the places I purchased homes in the US.
Very interesting, as you probably noticed things normally is pretty similar in Sweden and Denmark (as well as in the other Nordics countries) but there where as expected a few minor differences, but also one major one so please tell us more of how this kurs/bond thing works since in Sweden we lend directly from the Bank.
I'm danish, living in florida and I didn't even know what kurs really was about.. very interesting. I think it would be interesting as well if you explained the us credit score system and how it works, pro and cons..
Good luck with your new home! It can be very fast in Denmark. Once bought an apartment in 5 days, from seeing it & signing Monday, paying & getting the deed Thursday and moving in Friday. (Cannot be done faster due to the 3 days opt-out holiday).
The Danish Obligationer (State guaranteed bonds) are issued by the Danish government to reduce the money flow in Denmark. Instead of the money circulating around in the Danish society, which potentially could create a minus on the international trade balance (because some of the money are spent on foreign goods paid in foreign currency), the money is absorbed by the government, who pays an interest rate to the bond investors. The value of the bonds are determined by the interest rate printed on the bond in comparison with the current interest rate. Let’s say the rate on your bond is high compared to the current rate, then you are not likely sell your bond, and the value of your bond (The kurs) will be high. On the contrary, if the current interest rate is high, the value of the bond will be low.
In years with high export and low import, there’s a surplus on the international trade balance, and the government typically issues less statsobligationer (State guaranteed bonds). The bonds are running for a specific number of years parallel with your house payments, which are linked to the bonds. However, if you want to buy out your house loan immediately or change your loan, you will have to pay the value of the bond (kursen), which could be high or low depending on the current interest rate and of course the demands on buying bonds 😮 something your bank advisor should know about
Very interisting video thank you :)
Also looking into buying house.
I think I prefer the danish system and buy my own champagne after takeover😀
Honestly, i feel like it was way less stressful to buy a house here because everything was done up front. We werent trying to manage financial and legal stuff while in the final throws of packing like we would have been in the US. I REALLY appreciated that this move - Miranda
When you get a loan in a credit union, you actually get the loan as bonds. So if you need to loan 1.000.000 kr., you will receive bonds worth of 1.000.000,-. But you need real money to pay the seller. So you need to sell your bonds. The price of the bond is "kurs", so if the Kurs is 98, you will get 980.000,- that you can give to the seller, but if the interestrate is 4%, you pay 4% of the 1.000.0000 kr, and NOT the 980.000,-. So you need the kurs to be as high as possible. Since you originally got the bonds as a loan, you will need to return the bonds. So if the kurs has fallen to 80, because the interes rate has gone up, you can buy bonds that is nominally worth 1.000.000,- for 800.000,- hence saving 200.000.
1.0000.0000kr is a LOT of money ;-)
Nice to see someone who gets it, well written! From and fellow dane and finance guy ;)
Can't wait to see this...
Congrats with your new house Josh. There are some buying agents to negotiate in Denmark as well. They take some percentage based on how much they decrease the price. We are in the same process rn, and I think your video is very beneficial for all home buyers, thx for that.
Kurs is quite simple. You have a loan of 100 kr and get 98 kr to buy your house.
And you are right. It is possible to play with the loan. If the interest is increasing then you can pay the old loan which will have a low Kurs, and your debt will decrease.
When the interest decrease you can pay out the old loan at Kurs 100 and will have a lower monthly payment.
There is also the concept of negative interest rates on bond mortgages. I pay minus 0.2845% on my loan which has to be refinanced in 3 years.
This means that I still has to pay administration cost, fees and everything else for that debt, but the negative interest rate is deducted from those costs. So every three months I pay 8323 kroner and 7500+ of that goes directly to reducing the principal.
In three years time who knows what the interest rate will be, but I can with almost certainty claim it will not be negative interest rate again.
Its more so in copenhagen, it used to be that Openhouses was most of the day. And I believe in different areas in Denmark it is still so.
Back in the day, only credit unions could finance house/property in Denmark, since the duration of the financing was typically 25 - 30 years. Since bonds were less volatile, actually quite stable, and mostly guaranteed by the state, they were used for the financing to secure the sellers their money. Anyway, that's what they taught us in high school...
Congratulations on your new home, may it suit you well for the future.
Real estate bonds are not guaranteed by the state.
I stand corrected...
Actually, the bonds are guaranteed by all the other borrowers who have loans financed by that particular tranche of bonds. Everyone pays into a shared account, administrated by the bond issuer, to cover the risk of defaults. That’s the part of the monthly payments that’s called “bidrag” (which also contains the fee paid to the issuer for handling payments to the bond owners). It’s not interest but still tax deductible.
So… basically you’re “selling” bonds in your house via the realkredit, to whoever wants to buy those bonds. This can be big or small-time investors. The percentage of interest they get with your bonds (what you pay to the realkredit), and market developments determine how much they are willing to pay - and, thus, how many bonds you have to sell to get the money you need. If you later wants to sell your house, you essentially buy back your bonds - and their market value then determines how much you have to pay to get the people who own the bonds to give them up. So as an investor, you can invest in stocks or in bonds. The profit bonds give isn’t as large, but also not as risky as stocks. A friend of mine once said; “you buy bonds to eat bread. You buy stocks if you want to butter the bread.” As an investor bonds are fun; you want to get as high an interest rate as possible for as low a “kurs” as possible. It’s a long-term investment, usually 10, 20 and 30 years. Once or twice a year some of the bonds pay out; essentially you get the full price of them (100 kr.), but they’re gone - people paying off their loans, refinancing, going broke. And you can sell them if you want to, at the day-to-day ‘kurs”.
You ALMOST had me understanding the kurs and bond thing... well done :) I'll just keep renting and keep out of all that :)
2.05 Just say 8 PM CET (Central Europian Time) as that could easily be converted to US time zones if anyone is watching from the US :D
Thanks for the video! There's very little info in English about the whole mortgage process in Denmark. Would love to hear more! 😊 I am definitely in the boat of wanting to buy but the mortgages also seem expensive right now compared to just 1.5 years ago.
The kurs can not go above 100. There is not a rule that you always will be able to pay back your loan cheaper than you got it. You could for example get a loan in kurs 98 and then need to pay it back in kurs 99,50. But not above 100!
And it possible to finance your home with bonds that are not close to 100. You could in theory get a 1% loan with kurs 67 if you wanted it. Usual is that you loan in bonds close to 100. In today's market that would be a 5% bond. But it IS possible to finance your home with a 1% loan.
The Danish bond system is regarded as a very safe and efficient. Japanese investors used to like Danish bonds. So many homes bonds are owned by Japanese investors :-)
16:30 You are wrong, the "kurs" is what you get when you issue the bond, when you buy it back it is always at 100, so the 2% loss at kurs 98 is at the beginning of the loan, not a the end!!!
When you make a 1M dkk loan in bonds you get 980000 dkk if the "kurs" is 98.
BTW. you can get a preaproval from the bank before you go out looking at houses, just so you know what price range to look at...
Wrong, the rate of your backing bonds may drop significantly if the rates increase. It's not something one should speculate in but these days with extreme volatility in the bonds market, it's not uncommon that bonds purchased a couple of years ago can lead to a significant savings as the rates have increased since your financing.
Great content from you guys! 5/5
See the bond as a partial value of your house or like a pawn. and the trading of bonds as dealing your old watch with a pawn shop.
When you hand in the watch you want as much as possible for it (high "kurs"), but when you return to buy it back you want to pay as little as possible (low "kurs").
So the "Kurs" is the value of the bond - just like the value of a share. Talking shares you would aim to "buy low and sell high".
Talking bonds you are on the other side of the table as you are actually selling bonds representing partial value of your house, so the aim is to "sell high and buy low".
Good analogy, thanks!
Yes, hard walls and floors on their own with little damping will sustain standing waves ( eigenmodes ) for much longer - it's quite fascinating to experience 😉
Kool you got the mic fixed :)
What we normies refer to as echo, is called reverberation(apparently) in the tech sound industry
Of course - my degree is in sound engineering :). So my issues last video plagued me and was something I had to figure out. There are some issues with the camera I need to work through. There is also a firmware update so I’ll go through that this weekend and fine tune it all long term :).
Oh! Nice concept with the "kurs" and bonds. We don't have that at all here in Sweden. A bit of chance, but still...
The kurs is basically the price of the bond. A bond has "printed" a value on it. For example 1000 kr and an interest rate. If the market interest rate is higher than the interest rate on the bond, the kurs (price/value) of the bond goes below 100 (percent). Equally if the interest of the market is lower than the bond, the kurs (price/value) goes above 100 (percent).
As a homeowner, you are usually alllowed to pay you mortage by buying similar bonds in the market and "delivering" them to the mortage company (in practice you just pay them the money it), which cancels out your bonds. Which means if you bought your house at kurs 97 (so you got 97 kroners everytime you signed for 100 kroners of debt - all due to different interest rate) and the price later goes down to 70, you can pay 70% on the principal of the loan by swapping equal bonds instead of paying it out.
Also all loans (I think) can be repaid by paying back the principal - i.e. the amount of debt you signed for (not the amount you received which was the kurs (percentage) of the amount you signed for).
That means that in a market with falling interest you can pay out you loan to around (slightly above) kurs 100 (even though the kurs is 120+), and in a market with rising interest (like now) the fixed interest long term bonds' kurs (price/value) goes down and you can pay the kurs times the principal.
So either way interest movement is an advantage to the issuer of the bonds (i.e. the home owner) except in the buy situation....
This mechanism is basic bond pricing (like in the rest of the world), but the different part in Denmark is that the homeowner is exposed directly to the bonds themselves (where in the US you are only indirectly involved in them through a financial firm)....
I think it was not clear enough, so a short addendum. When you take out the loan you ISSUE the bonds (i.e. signs the obligation to pay) with a given principal. Due to the price correction (kurs) the buyer of the bonds (i.e. the lender of the money) pays a slightly lower amount for the principal... I.e. you buy a house that costs 2 million, so if the course is 95% you need to take out a loan of 2M/ 0.95 .. which you then owe (legally) unless you are lucky enough to do the bond swap later
I would love to see/hear a more detailed description of "kurs" and what advantages it can give you.
Gratz, great stuff. I miss my house, build it myself, after the old burned to the ground!. Had to leave, lost the job. But hey i dont have to worrie about all the things, that have to be fixed :D
I would love to know about the buying agents fees in the US. As we do not use buying agents (although they actually exist in a certain capacity), we have no cost associated with buying a house apart from what you actually talked about in the video, it would be nice to know what you're actually paying a buying agent in the US, for their services.
You don’t actually pay for the buying agent, the seller does. It’s included as a fee when they sell the house - both agents are paid a percentage of the selling price. That is typically 2.5-3 percent each but it is also negotiable in the contract.
So given it doesn’t cost you as a buyer - it is super nice to have the help!
@@TravelinYoung Well, even though you don't directly pay for the buying agent, you have to consider that if the seller did not have to pay the 2.5-3% to the buying agent, the seller would likely be willing to sell the house that much cheaper, so in reality you are actually paying for the buying agent.
@@Kris_Lighthawk eh, having bought and sold 3 houses in the US, the agent fee never had an influence in the negotiation. It’s what you pay to play the game. I highly doubt removing that fee would cause housing prices to decline 3 percent in value.
@@TravelinYoungcause both buyer and seller agents are paid a percentage of the transaction there is no incentive to keep the prices low. That coupled with cheap loans is what drove the housing crash in '08. It wasn't just the banks. Realtors also stirred up the market.
BTW, I'm a Dane who moved the other way across the pond. I really enjoy your videos which are teaching me more about adulting in Denmark that I never learned growing up there.
Cheap loans for sure drove the crash far more than the average real estate agent. Creative loans given away like candy along with people trusting a bank won't give them something they can't afford right? There are lots of incentives to keep the price low, agents are more incentivized to make the transactions happen quickly with little effort than the final price. They do need to get paid regardless as they are providing a service and this is the most effective way to do so.
It also depends heavily on the market. Where we lived in Chicagoland we had massive property taxes which kept housing prices down. Real estate going up meant you have a larger tax bill that could amount to 10-15K USD a year on top of your loan. That has a much bigger impact than real estate fees which is a one time cost (which if it affected the price of house a buyer can just get folded into your loan) rather than something you have to deal with each and every year. When we were selling to move to Denmark we had many interested buyers based on our asking price - but then saw the real estate taxes and walked away.
Nice story. I think you got the rate (kurs) thing wrong when selling. When you want to sell your house you have to buy back bonds at the rate at that time. The rate can go up or down. Historically the rate couldn't be more than 100, but now there are may types of loans that do not have a maximum rate.
Kurs is the stock ticker value of anything, always as a percentage if 100.0, just like for stocks . As things are publicly traded by investors and daytraders, it varies minute by minute during business hours . All other stock market principles apply too.
Real estate agents also started offering buying services it’s just not many uses them as it’s not really seen as being worth the cost by many - I bought twice and never used them. But might do if I buy again if it’s a really pricey house
It is a good time for bond rates… if you have a 1% fixed now the rate is around 74 = every 1 million i want to pay off i can actually do that with 740.000kr
As a home owner, I have never heard of the no kurs growth law. When I bought my home, the rules were simple: You owe the principal to the mortgage company, but only receive the proceeds of selling the bonds on the stock market. If you want to end the loan early, you can pay off the remaining principal effective on the next ordinary due date, then a randomized selection of bond holders get their principal early too instead of decades of future interest payments (which is a statistical risk that affects the kurs investors are willing to pay). The same happens with the regular paying down the loan: The interest is passed through to bond holders, the reduction in principal turns into a random subset of bond holders getting paid in full while all the others keep riding along and earn interest . In addition to the passed through interest, the mortgage company charges a "contribution percentage" for their own pockets.
If some debtor defaults, the mortgage company is still stuck paying bond holders out of those pockets, so they will tend to foreclose and get paid at least something from the foreclosure auction. Many times, the mortgage company will make a bid hoping to sell higher on the regular market.
On every real or car property, debts will be listed in the government registry with a priority of who gets first dibs on foreclosure proceeds, usually the HOA has dibs on the first 50K for unpaid services, then the mortgage company, than the 10% loan, then everyone shares any excess crumbs.
Until the early 1970s, there were usually 2 regular mortgages: Ordinary (first priority, low max percentage) and Special (second priority, higher max percentage, higher investor risk), and the HOA would often be last.
Thanks for the detail! And I misstated the law - it is that Kurs can not exceed 100 when you buy the bonds back. And since you reconcile the gap between your kurs and 100 at time of initiation by adding principle or cash - there should be no risk that you have to cover any gap when buying back the bonds as they wouldn’t in theory exceed your expected loan. I am still wrapping my head around this so it gets confusing super fast for me :).
this is perfect timing, my partner and I are considering moving to denmark. Its so much to take in and learn, whats the rules, can I study there, how long can we stay there if I was born there etc.
A suggestion of possibly helpful wording to differentiate between the Danish and US process… in the US you have an actual Agent, a proxy, to look for houses on your behalf as the purchaser, while in Denmark this Agent is more of a house broker… the person deals explicitly on behalf of the seller, not on behalf of the purchaser.
It would be really interesting with someone explaining the kurs in details. I think many danes doesn't know about that as well
I think you are right. I suspect most danes know the basics - get as close to 100 as possible and then refinance when it is to your advantage.
Tillykke med huset! Vi har købt to gange, og jeg forstår stadig ikke processen!; Heldigvis er min kone meget mere voksen på den måde end jeg er. I England, hvor jeg voksede op, er man altid fanget i en kæde af folk som flytter fra bolig til en ny bolig, og hvis en af dem trækker sig kollapser kæden, og man skal starte igen med at finde en bolig. Det er meget mere ligetil her.
Very interesting video I will say you are not completely correct in the description of the danish system. I am talking about the process buying and finding a bank to loan you the money. As other people have said you can get an agent that will look for houses for you. But in regards to getting a bank loan you can automate some of the process by using a online service that will find the banks willing to give you the best loan conditions. Perhaps this service only work for danish citizens I am not sure about that.
Seems like the initial couple of steps are easier in the U.S. but everything after that is so much more easy in Denmark.
20:03
"fax me this"
Heh, I keep forgetting that the U.S. is still a mostly analog society.
I do not miss the Danish property market, especially the "Kurs". Also, be VERY aware of the conditions under breaking early / selling before the bonds mature. Was a 100.000 kr mistake.
*Edit: Each year will be backed by a bond, so if you have a 3 year fixed.. you have 3 bonds with a penalty if sold/broken before maturity. Me thinking it was only 30.000 kr for the whole 3 years.....
Yes, you also get a much lower interest rate. I see that as a major downside though, plus you can't really convert them in the same way as with fully fixed rate loans. I always go with proper fixed rate loans, it's hard to go wrong with those, the others are just too speculative imo.
In Aarhus a realtor known from television ("hammerslag" and "hus til halsen") has started a buyer's agency. Super convenient and more "trustworthy" than a seller's agent
I really don't thing ejendommæglere couldn't be trusted to the degree required. Remember, there's legislation and an ejendomsadvokat on your side.
What's his name? URL?
Sometimes, if people are interested in a particular house, they'll ask the real estate sellers to contact them, if it's put up for sale ( Probably the more expensive houses) 😉
Interesting comparison video…
Do a kurs video. That would be a nice in dept video :-)
Like the way Nordics do it! that you have Takstmann who goes thru the house before it goes to market. Pointing out everything what is okay or wrong with the house.
It could be interesting to hear which municipality you have moved to :D
Remember that the Danish bond (financing) system is based on an entirely digital process by which all actors in the process are digitally verified (buyer, seller, tax authorities, house valuation etc.), so once you're all set, all actors are aware of address changes, tax deductions and so on. Denmark are among the top digitalized countries in the world, meaning that all interaction with authorities, including health records, tax statements and even the library are based off your government issued digital signature (and all Danes have this readily available at their phone or device connected to the internet).
Also, mortgage credit loans are offered in either fixed 10 - 30 year runways or adjustable/flexible loans that refinance on a predetermined schedule (i.e. F1, F2 .. F20 etc. meaning a flexible yearly refinancing), which can come in handy if the central banks are dropping the rates.
And which can become incredibly expensive if the interest rate goes up. If you don’t have the margin for that risk in your income you may have to sell the house.
I only bought a house once. In Denmark. It was stressful. But I think it would be anywhere. It is just such a big investment.
I actually got my own broker as a buyer. It is not necessary, but I am lazy and they helped a lot. It did cost a bit extra of course, but for me it was worth it.
Really interesting to listen to, just a reflection (as a Swede now living in Dublin). How to buy, the red tape and building standards as vastly different between countries so much.....
I wish I could point at something and say it's because of "that", but I think there is no such thing, but you could blame / praise things like culture, history, government involvement etc.
The very very basic description comparing Sweden and Ireland would be in Sweden you can get a mortgage, do a viewing and sign the final contract within 4 hours and be done, in Ireland it took me 7 months to close a house and I was chasing banks, solicitors and inspectors with a blow torch....
I grew up in a separated family so i honestly have NO idea how to by a house here haha! I am gonna learn something new here!
Your bank will likely have people capable and willing to get you started. Banks make money on safe loans, so they have an interest in getting you as customer if you're reliable. So my advice is: Call you bank and state your intensions.
@@hassegreiner9675 True that. I intent on trying to have conversations with my bank when ever i need advice on something financial, not that I'm going to take their advice but at least to get an understanding of what i have to do or how the different things work :)
Atm I am looking to get a flex job, so i have unfortunately never had any reason to talk with the bank about loans or savings accounts, pensions or anything like that, hopefully that will turn soon!
My partner's brother just bought a house, sad to say the bank we all share wouldn't even give an offer on a loan at all, where as all other banks they contacted where more then happy to do so.. He is going to write a PHD so our current bank did not see that as a steady nor reliable income..
I guess you, in Denmark, could hire a buying agent - if you want to pay for this service - it would more or less double you agent cost, so I don’t think a lot of people would pay for this.
It would be interest to hear about the different between houses in the US vs DK. If you see house improvement series from the US, the houses always seem to be built extremely light - wood and drywalls.
- and what is this US obsession of number of bathrooms (are people in the US use more time in the bathroom than in dk?) - there seems to be a need for one toilet/bath to each room, where in dk you would most likely have 1 bathroom, and then a small 2nd toilet/shower, maybe 3 bathrooms in a very big house.
Maybe make a video comparing indoor decoration US vs DK - your furniture and indoor design seems very Nordic compare to the US where the still is often very heavy with dark wooden furniture’s.
Probably not an issue at all, but i just have to ask. How does it feel knowing that you now own a house in a land where trespassing is barely considered a crime until someone walks into your house?, and the fact that even if someone do trespass your property, then you are NOT entitled to use force?. Does that even crossed your mind as an american?, im just curious, countryside americans are kinda notorious for going nuclear against trespassers after all
Dont worry, someone in the buying selling chain made the money you "scored" with a good kurs deal. I just cant figure out who. Someone must have lost them. Perhaps a dude in another country has to go from his house in order for you to get your good kurs deal. It sounds like im blaminng, but im not, just thinking that nobody just gives you money in this world.
Im Danish and have been through 3 house deals and a number of refinancings, and the banker always just says that the bonds are now cheaper which is good. Im just happy that i can now chip a bit more of the debt and is selfishly not asking who paid for it.
I dunno, could be interesting figuring out who actually looses money and who scores so big, that they would pay me big money just to refinance.
Highly interesting comparison! I now understand plenty of realtor scenes in various American films. ;-) Ages ago, I shared a condo with my brother in Copenhagen. It turned out to be murder to sell, but when we finally did sell it, the buyer died before she could sign the dept assumption documents! Disaster! She had signed the end agreement, but that wasn't enough. It took us years to sort that out. 😕
@Glorious-Free-time Yeah, no kidding!
Sounds to me like there is a lot of middle man stuff in the US. Is that common in other fields too that you don't directly interact yourself?
I find the lack of cookies make house buying in Denmark very tough... I think I got a single “bolsche” from my broker, but that was it! 😡
Haha!
Well we sold our house last year and we had Coffee , cookies and sweets for the byers at every showing including a couple of open house. But hey thats was here on Fyn and our way of trying to attract byers :)
@@vwm1969 Fyn is a special case! :)
@@Nygaard2We generally do things differently here. 😉
And do the video about loan.
BUT!!! when buyin a land house with som land to you dont get that life line of that owner switch time! i just did buy some like that my man and icelandic but it whent great.
❤️❤️❤️
I've seen quite a number of US HomeOwner Association (HOA) stories, what're your US/Denmark experiences on that topic?
I do know John Oliver recently did an episode covering the topic, but it’s not something we have experience with. Our first townhouse was in an HOA back in 2001, but we only lived there a short 3 years and never had issues. In Denmark we live in our own detached house and there is no HOA. We do have some rules we must follow as defined by the kommune - like trimming hedges, etc.
Hi, thank you for this fantastic stream. Do you also know how it works when you buy an old house and want to build a new house on the same land. Is that easy to realize. I know in southern Europe its very hard to arrange.
So did you use your digital signature to buy the house? :-D
The danish market for house loans helps, as you mention, reduce the risk for the financial institutions investing in the mortgage bond. This again bring down the interest rate (as interest rate is basically the price for the invester to accept the risk) for people how needs a loan for a house.
An interesting fact is that this structure has existed in Denmark for more than 200 years, and in that periode of time no invester of the mortgage bond has ever suffered a lose caused by a defaulting bond series. So it is a really safe investment for financial institutions.
As a note: all house owners with a "realkreditlån" pays a fee on top of the loan to cover the cases where individual house owners have to default their payments and the "bank" (actually the mortgage credit institution) takes over the house.
my girlfriend and i are looking for a apartment or a house for buying. we are first time buyers but holy hell its hard to find something something that you can afford. buying 60 km from Kbh when you dont have 400-500k in saveings. the m2 prices are really too high and the interest for the bank loan are really high. When people are speculateing in buying a house too make proffit or have a saveing for later the marked goes up. sorry for my bad english :)
KBH prices in a nutshell. Gotta love buying house and living in Nordjylland.
@@LexRudera i moved here two years ago from Midyjylland, i miss the prices and a pølsemix !
wait you didnt just call a realter and have them set up every viewing for you? thats how me and my gf did it. but maybe its different depending on where you live (we live in mid jutland) We didnt have to organise anything and we viewed on all days of the week. some late in the evening some in the early day. for us it was much more like you say it works in the US.
With the offer as well we never spoke personally with anyone but the agency that helped us find and buy and our lawyer
I’ve heard this is starting to happen in DK, but not the standard yet. We did it all ourselves.
@@TravelinYoung no my parents said it was the same the last house they bought 10+ years ago they were the ones who told us how it all worked and was a great help in choosing the agency and the bank. There have always been companies which handle your side of things but they are not specifically realters they are kinda like a middleman between you and realters and serve kinda as lawyers too though not fully its hard to explain.
Edit: my dad just said the best way to explain it is kinda like how richer families used to have a person who handled their paperwork, finances and even sometimes your estate. some of these over time evolved into being basically advisers whos job it is to make sure you arent screwed over. They are paid a fixed sum not based on sales thus have nothing to gain from you being pushed into a sale.
So, in DK = Not saved on a platter* for you?
*A platter/service you DO pay for in the USA, right?
I don’t actually know what selling agents cost in DK to be able to compare. In the US the seller pays 2.5-3 percent each for the buying and selling agent. That is negotiable in the contract though. A buyer doesn’t pay any of that, it is a cost incurred by the seller.
@@TravelinYoung +1 I was just being a CHEAP(carring about €$£) Jute! ;-D
We aren't that good at this AM/PM thing in Denmark. ;-)
How high is the % on mortage at this moment ?
and after you have paid off the house you still don't own the house, you still have to pay land ownership, not much, but if you don't do that, the government can take your house from you, is it like in the usa?
Of course, you have to pay taxes for property in the US also though the amount varies depending on where you live. This was a huge issue in cities in the early 2000s (and probably still today) where housing costs were skyrocketing and people couldn’t afford the taxes for homes their families had lived in for many years and owned outright.
When interest rates go up the Kurs go down….
Seeing this as a Dane: A buying agent and a broker really just seems like a lot of unnecessary, probably overcharging, very expensive, fluff, on top of the expensive house price, for something you can do yourself.
Mnjaah! Can you though?(if not that into houses/blue collar..og så videre)
From another Dane: One of my friends used a buying agent and saved a lot of money. The buying agent knew exactly how low the price could go and saved them more than the costs for hiring him. That may not always be the case. If I remember correctly, they saved about 200.000 DKK...
That is a benefit to having support from an agent. They do this every day - so their understanding of the market can help you drive for the right price.
@@TravelinYoung "They do this every day" = a GOOD thing?
@@dallesamllhals9161 of course, they do this everyday because it’s their job. I would expect you for example to do your job better than I would - someone who may come in and try to do it once every 5-10 years. They provide a service, and in the US you certainly can go it on your own if you want, but having bought/sold multiple houses I prefer getting the support and reducing stress. Using a broker also helps reduce discrimination on loans - which we absolutely faced here as non Danes when contacting banks directly.
No more talk - lets taste the whisky in the background!
Here’s someone with the right idea. Skål!!
Whats the agent working for you get paid when the sales are closed in the states?
In the US the seller pays both the selling and buying agent a percentage of the selling price. Typically 2.5 to 3 percent each - that is negotiable in the contract.
Home mortgage financing is like the national sport in DK.
Buying a house, isn't that the opposite of travelling? You might wanna change your name to settling Young.
Oh we still travel, now that we’ve taken care of the house/move we’ve got some trips planned!
@@TravelinYoung Well you do need a place to travel from🙂Congrats on your new home.
Have you lost weight? You look great
Dunno why i just love this channel. But i have to admit i dont watch every video )))
No worries, glad you enjoy!
That at at was as as quite te te te an an an echo cho cho cho.
For sure....but I really did love that shot in the empty house. So I found a way to work it in to this video :). That was taken a month ago, was strange to watch it back when it was editing over the weekend.
You can go to a real estate agent, and ask them to find you a house. But it will cost you, and as you know by now, Danes don´t like to pay to much for anything. So it is the norm that we go on the internet to find a house ourselves, it turns in to a kind of hunt, we all want a great place to live and a great deal, the hunt for these things excite most Danes.
Hey congratulations on your home owner status! I have hired private “kurs” experts that monitors the market for me and my realkredit loan. They are very knowledgeable and have helped me knock off hundreds of thousands of my capital and they charge 200 kr a month to monitor the market and take a small percentage when they take action. They are the “kurs” experts you are looking for. 😅👍🏻 thanks for another great vid
Please be more detailed.
لا حول ولا قوه الا بالله العظيم
Mind you, 'ejendomsadvokater' (real estate lawyers) are specialists and have an obligation to reduce all kind of risks associated with the purchase from you and it goes beyond financial stuff. Also, you can hire brokers to guide you in your buying process - if they'll take it as far as to find a house for you, I don't know., but I guess it's all down to how much you want to spend on that service.
The seller buys the inspection report which most be provided by a certified agency and the seller is under a loyalty 'oath' in the sense, that any hidden problems may be termed failed 'loyal oplysningspligt' (requirement to loyally inform the buyer of all relevant information).
Unfortunately, when the 'kurs' goes down the rate goes up and vice versa, so it's a gamble of whether you prefer to pay more for less or less for more.
PS I'm a little concerned about the size of your bar and I'm checking on the total remaining volume between videos ;-)
Thats nice too in the Nordics you logg in change your adress and everithing just goes along! Post,garbage and what not
Tillykke med jeres nye hjem.