I committed to purchasing the house at the end of June. I really wanted to be out of my apartment. I wanted to stop paying rent. I wanted a shorter commute. My life was going to change radically with this house! And I was excited!
Buuut, the owner didn’t want the sale to go through until January 1, 2018. I wanted to move in as soon as humanly possible, so I asked about the possibility of renting it back from the owner for a few months. I suggested a monthly rental price that I thought was fair (turned out it was probably overgenerous), and we agreed in principle.
I was having meetings with various banks and if you’ve read the earlier posts, you know that BCGE was the last bank standing with an offer. But even that arrangement did not happen without its hiccups. I went to a bank appointment in mid to late July. I thought I was signing the mortgage papers. I was not. I was bringing in proof of ID, and filling out form after form after form because I am a US citizen. The US government has made banking life very difficult for its overseas citizens, and nowhere more so than in Switzerland. And then I asked what happened next. When would I sign the mortgage documents? Well, you have to be approved for an account first. So when so-and-so arrives back from vacation in three weeks, he’ll take a look at your documents and if he approves you, he’ll sign off on it, and we can go from there. Say what?! Back the truck up, there is one person in the entire organization that can approve account requests by Americans and he’s on holiday for three weeks?! #fml
Obviously, it all worked out in the end (at least that chapter…), but to say I was a little worried was an understatement. I had put chf20’000 in earnest money into an escrow account and if I didn’t have a mortgage by the time we signed the documents in August, I could lose it.
La Marmite de Chocolat 