Architect will do everything for us - deal with the contractors directly, we'll just work with her to get exactly what we want, so it's OK. Plus we get everything done now so we don't need to f*ck about later. The roof, for instance, is not leaking, bt clearly will need replacement at some point, so we added it to the list to avoid big disruption in a few years, plus the existing roof needs to be insulated, will be cheaper to do it all together. And yes, would love solar tiles, but they don't do the terracotta ones yet, or solar panels, however, the house faces east and has no roof area to the south, so the architect didn't think it was viable. Will look for other possibilities, like a heat-exchanger, etc.
I would look into a ground-air heat pump system. Costs around €15k-20k and requires digging a very deep “well”. But they save a lot of power and lets you heat up water for both room heating and tap water. My uncle has that at his house in Edegem so should be available in Belgium. He even heats his indoor swimming pool with it
It seems we have to wait some more for Tesla Solar in EU ... Meanwhile, I just got the next best thing on my little garage: Midsummer Wave. It's thin-film CIGS on stainless substrate, comes in 55 W modules shaped to fit five Bender tiles (almost black, only). Unfortunately it turns out my ten years old roof had tiles of slightly different dimensions, so the installers threw out the old roof and put up new tiles (at their cost) which are not divisible by five, leaving gaps at both ends of each row as well as the top row (modules go under the row above). Oh well. Anyway, my solar got connected to grid yesterday and is producing now! Can't say how much because the app is not yet live. Nominal is now only a bit over 4 kW, but since the incline is low instant power will be less; on the other hand the duck curve is also less pronounced as half is due east and half west, giving power all day. Yay, home grown Tesla propulsion! Perhaps these are or will also be available in Brussels?
Also, I second @Cobos ' tip of a ground heat pump. We have that (ground-water) and it saves us much money. My Dad used to live in a house with 7 flats and a garden, and they threw out their old oil furnace for such a system; central heating was already water-born. Two holes were drilled, 150-200 meters deep, and the electricity feed was upgraded. Already the first year, the home owners' association stopped running at a loss. And it got even better once the ground brine circuit was actually connected to the heat pump ... Combined with your own electricity generation, it would be hard to beat!
Yeah, this type of heat-pump is definitely on the radar - not sire how practical it would be to dig such a hole in the city though, but will investigate. I also have a friend who has one, but he's living out in the sticks.
Not so much digging as drilling actually. A few years ago it was all the rage around here, probably due to some subsidy. A big truck came with a powerful compressor, together with a track-footed little tractor driller and a big heap of steel pipes, maybe 5 cm diam * 3 meters, that could be joined into a loooong drill bit, and a container for collecting the ground dust. A gigantic vacuum cleaner The greatest obstacle would be to pass that narrow gate into your garden, without damaging trees. But make sure all permits are in order from the city! Don't want to drill into any existing structures ... The whole operation took a day or two, making a terrific racket but leaving few signs on the surface afterwards. This is all:
OK, I had an epiphany this morning. Rather than cashing-out in the short term, I'm going to see if I can borrow €800k on mortgage. I'm stressed about the idea of cashing-out all my shares right now, so will see if I can get a loan secured as backup. If the SP rises significantly, I can just not go ahead with the loan, otherwise I see it a buying us some time for the SP appreciate a bit from here. I can sell a handful of shares to pay the mortgage costs in the first year, then pay off the whole loan when the share-price goes back up. Or whatever, gives some flexibility at least.
It looks like a great house! Hopefully you can make the mortgage work as it should be the best overall result. Most of my TSLA was effectivey purchased using the equity in our home through an offset account. Also I can't believe how cheap houses in Brussels are. In Australia a house like that would cost at least double that price.
Indeed, as capital cities go, Brussels is not so expensive - and this house is in one of the mist expensive areas. If it was in London, Paris or Copenhagen, the would be 5x - 10x the price. I made 2 online mortgage application this morning, will get these firmed-up this week. Interest-rates are around 1.3%, which isn't quite, but very close to free money.
Ugh, this price action is not what you eat want when you have a house-purchase coming up! Am looking to borrow €720k to pay for the house itself (€80k deposit I need to pay + €105k in taxes and fees), so even if we get that mortgage, need some money out of the portfolio in the coming weeks and months. Pffff!
Will need €80k on signature of the sales agreement, I told my wife I didn't want to sign until first week of October, so after the P&D, so we wrote that as a condition on the written offer for thee house, along with a clause that if we don't get a mortgage, we can stop the purchase. These conditions are normal in Belgium and I wanted them in there anyway, especially the mortgage one, to cover a market-crash, and voilà! So if we stayed around $300, would need to sell around 325 shares, which is around 12% of our pot, not the end of the world, but still not happy about it. Even worse, I have October and November calls (that I nought way before S&P came on the radar), which would nicely cover the deposit, but not any longer! I'm not panic-selling those, may as well hold at least until P&D. The taxes and fees need to be given when the purchase is signed, which would typically be end of the year or January, so plenty of time for a recovery. It's a bit stressful
So it's not a done deal yet, but we are officially under contract. Inspection are mostly ok with only some minor stuff. Looking good for closing in October. (Boats are not included...)
I hear you. I wound up selling about ~10% of my TSLA over last 3 weeks. to cover downpayment, taxes and some other expected expenses. Mortgage company demanded to see the money to cover it in cash accounts. A bit unfortunate I didn't wait for this week being back >$400, but oh well, i'm going to HODL the remainder for a while... At least until Boat and CyberTruck I want to get next year (Wife already said no to CyberTruck, so I'll have to work on that... <sigh>)
What, that whole building? It's HUUUUGE. Mind-you, SOCA aside, and perhaps Brooklyn, Malibu, etc., property is way cheaper in the US. On my side, we got approval (pending valuation and signed sales contract) for €780l mortgage, 18 years at 1.27%APR - that's just crazy cheap, money for free. Plus the end date is past retirement age - it sure helps having a fat trading portfolio at the same bank, kinda smooths the process somewhat So this is great news! I can work my shares to cover the repayments, easily by selling calls, in fact I can see us paying the mortgage off in 4-5 years, still retaining our shares. Don't really know why I was thinking to sell any of them. So my plan (mentioned in the main thread a bit), is to sell 20 covered calls for the end of each quarter, for the strike I'm happy to sell my shares for - which is $800. December $800's are $30 a piece for the moment, so if I dangle 20 contracts out there for $35 then I can get $100k in the bank - along with my 5x Nov 20 $300's, if the SP just bumps up a little, then it's enough to pay all the initial costs (around €200k). Worst-case scenario, I'm forced to sell my shares, but then I'll sell puts against the capital and play it the opposite direction. It's a plan!
Nah. Unlike Model Y, it looks bigger outside than inside. While technically 4bdr It's just REAL 3 bedrooms inside. It's very funky inside though. I love it. Fingers crossed on everything else going smoothly... Note that all windows of all rooms are facing lake. Nothing is facing the other side. Very custom/non-standard house. Which is mostly why we really like it. I hate cookie-cutter designs.
And just like that I now own 2 houses. What the hell did I get myself into? My mind is in overdrive over all the little and big things that need to be done to make the 2nd house livable/fun...
Hey congratulations - BBQ's on the shore are going to be great in the summer!! In our case it's around €500k and 18months with an architect project managing it for us! So, update, we just signed the sales agreement today - that's the first step in the process here in Belgium. We paid 5% deposit (thanks to selling Oct 16 c360's last week) and now there's 2-3 months for the notaries (solicitors/lawyers) to do the due-diligence before the final sales-agreement, which is planned to be signed before the end of the year. So, now I need to trade like fury - ambition, as said before, it to buy and renovate without selling a single share. Let's see what I can manage