My Dutch partner and I have been looking to buy our first house in the Rotterdam region (outside of the city itself),
We've been finding the process of buying a house frustrating: fixed open houses with a 'secret' one chance bidding process / sold before we can even view them seem to be the trend right now, and really don't play nicely with a full-time job.
Even though I can handle all of this in Dutch, I've noticed a little reluctance from estate agents to engage with me. So we're thinking about hiring an aankoopmakelaar to get the job done.
Do any fellow expats have any recommendations for this, is it worth the extra 1000+ euro?
We're hoping we can remove some of the stress of this process onto them so we can do something more exciting with our evenings than scanning funda, looking at WOZ reports and downloading kadaster data (estate agents hate you for doing that btw).
Cheers guys!
Connor
Estate Agents / Aankoopmakelaars (Buying your first Dutch Home)
Dear me - I'd never heard of an "aankoopmakelaar", neither had my wife. Our daughter has just bought her first house in Holland; I just called her to ask what they were, but they didn't use one, so after a bit of investigation, I discover there is now also a verkoopmakelaar; so together with the makelaar, you now have (potentially) 3 bureaucrats after your money. My wife and I just worked out that they are something like Kirsty and Phil from Location, Location, Location on English TV, but sorry, we can't recommend one.
What I can contribute is that we just got back from visiting our daughter, her house is a new-build on the edge of an estate and there is a block of luxury apartments being built across the canal from where she lives; in the week we were there, I sat and watched what was virtually a non-stop queue of people waiting to get to view what is essentially 12 apartments, so it looks like the Dutch housing market is booming and you'll need all the contacts/help you can get and if 1000 euro will get you to the top of the queue, then I think I'd do it.
Hope this helps a bit.
Cynic
Expat Team
Cynic wrote:after a bit of investigation, I discover there is now also a verkoopmakelaar; so together with the makelaar, you now have (potentially) 3 bureaucrats after your money. My wife and I just worked out that they are something like Kirsty and Phil from Location, Location, Location on English TV, but sorry, we can't recommend one.
Yes, that's what they are "purchasing estate agent" literally translated. This is no episode of "Escape to the country" or homes under the hammer, I can tell you that.
Cynic wrote:What I can contribute is that we just got back from visiting our daughter, her house is a new-build on the edge of an estate and there is a block of luxury apartments being built across the canal from where she lives; in the week we were there, I sat and watched what was virtually a non-stop queue of people waiting to get to view what is essentially 12 apartments, so it looks like the Dutch housing market is booming and you'll need all the contacts/help you can get and if 1000 euro will get you to the top of the queue, then I think I'd do it.
We're avoiding new builds, we did almost get won over by one... but paying rent + a mortgage for 2+ years.... noooo way, also why we're avoiding the cities, it's crazy busy in some neighborhoods, so long as we're near a metro station we're happy 
Congrats do your daughter on her new home! She made it! Gives me hope we will too, but indeed as you said if it helps us get our foot in the door (literally in this case) it's worth it.
Hi again.
Perhaps you need to look a bit further away; to the south of Rotterdam, we have friends who live in Zevenbergschen Hoek, it's a village, but is on the mainline into Rotterdam (if that's the important part), a bit further is a larger town of Breda, also commutable. Our family all live in the east of Holland (echte Tukkers), house prices there are much more sensible.
The housing market is really scarse the last couple of years, so people are biddng far over the asking price. So it's really a bidding war and its getting only worse. Just be prepared for a long search for the right house.
@cynic Breda also hasn't much houses available and the commute isn't that great.
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