Purchasing a house in The Netherlands: how we can help with placing a bid without a financial clause

With the housing market in The Netherlands overheating again, many client are asking if they can place an offer without a financial clause for a pending mortgage approval. In this tight market this can make the difference whether or not you are successful with a bid. There is nothing more annoying then having the best offer but another competitor takes the price with a lower offer simply because they did not have any conditions on it. Well, we have some good news for you. With our special priority services clients can place an offer without financial conditions. Let us explain how it works.

How does a financial clause work?

 

When your bid on a property is accepted, the seller’s agent or the notary will draft a purchase agreement. Once you sign this, you legally always have three days in which you can still back out or change your mind without a penalty. After that the penalty could be 10% of the purchase amount.

 

As the mortgage is normally not approved in three days, a mortgage advisor or agent will recommend you to put in a condition on your offer that you require three or four weeks to get your mortgage approved. During this period if you mortgage gets declined, you can back out without a penalty. So the financial clause is there to protect the buyer, but it leads to uncertainty for a longer period of time for the seller.

 

If you’re not sure if you can get a mortgage approved for the purchase amount, bidding without a financing condition is quite risky. However, in this market, it is a popular option at the moment. It makes your bid much more attractive: the seller is almost certain that their house will be sold in just three days. It’s therefore common for sellers to prefer the offer without conditions, not necessarily even the highest bid!

 

Why can you remove the financial clause if you work with Independent Expat Finance?

 

Our company has access to almost all mortgage providers in The Netherlands. But with two of the biggest providers, ABN AMRO Bank and ING Bank, we have a priority service. This means that once we submit a complete mortgage application to either, we have an agreement with them that they will review the application on the next business day at latest. Good preparation is important but if we have all the documents necessary for the application ahead of signing the purchase agreement, we could get an approval a day later. Or at the worst, we have feedback of the mortgage provider if anything needs to be adjusted or extra documents are required. All of this within the three day cool off period. If it doesn’t work out, you can still withdraw from the purchase free of charge.

 

How can you make use of our priority service?

 

For starts, get in contact with via our website or phone number to schedule an intake session. During our intake session, it is one of the subjects we will discuss as there are some conditions for making use of this service.

 

For the priority service the secret lies in a good preparation on both the client side as well as on our end. Having all your income documents (also possible for entrepreneurs or self employed) ready and checked by us ahead of signing the purchase agreement is first of all necessary. Secondly, having a valuation report ready and or demonstrating you have sufficient savings to pay for any difference in the valuation vs purchase price is important. Then once we submit the application, it is our job to make sure the mortgage providers starts reviewing your application within the service level agreement.

Request a free intake meeting

 

If you would like to discuss the current housing market and mortgage landscape, you can always reach out to us or to Nick from Your Dutch Home for an online intake session. These sessions are always free of charge.