apt. buying

(I wrote a long blog post last week for Mother's Day, with pictures of Göteborg and running commentary. Worked on it for many hours. Just at the end my laptop crashed. Had never saved the article. Hadn't even thought of it. All gone. As I write this now I see that within the last week Blogger will autosave. One week too late for me.)

I spent a lot of time this week working on understanding Swedish real estate. I mentioned some of the generalities earlier, but when it get to spending about $200,000 on something I would like to know what I'm getting into. When you see a place the real estate agent includes details about the housing associations economics. It's the summary of the buget for the past couple of years, what was done, the loans that are outstanding, how long it's been since the plumbing and electrical were replaced, the cost of power and heating per square meter, and so on, and so on, and so on. It uses Swedish accounting terms, which are for the most part ones I hadn't seen before.

The association uses another company to do some of the work, like the auditing, but they do some of it themselves. For example, the owners of the one I was looking at are in charge of cleaning the stairwells ("trapphus" = "stair house") and the inner yard, as well as clearing the snow off the yard and roof. I couldn't figure out if that means the association contracts out that work themselves or literally do it themselves. Would I be expected to go up on the roof and clear off snow in the highly unlikely case of Göteborg having more than 1/4" of snow?

I went by Fastighetsbyrån to ask. They are the agents for the apartment. I've been by there a couple of times as I ask questions. They have been very helpful and patient. They are tied to Swedbank, and the service at both places has been excellent. On Wednesday Charlotte and I did the conversation almost all in Swedish, making it the longest hard conversation I've had. There were many side steps to work around things I didn't know, but it worked. I got enough of an understanding to go back and work on mre questions to ask.

Thursday was a "red day" here - a public holiday. They are colored red on the calendar, hence the name. Laura and Jacob hosted a game day in the afternoon, with board games, dinner, conversation, and fun. I asked various Swedes for input on how to interpret the budget. Turns out relatively few had lived in a bostadsrättförening, which surprises me still. But I got a lot of helpful feedback.

The bidding process started on Friday. There are a couple of days for it to be up for bid. Quite a different process than in the US, except in the hottest markets. The asking price, and hence the first bid, is SEK 1 590 000 or US $232,000. By the time I gave up it had gotten to SEK 1 880 000 or $275,000 which was well over the limit I set for myself. There is a tradeoff in location, size, and money. I want something at least 55 square meters, but more like 62. That's barely doable in Linnégatan.

Before then, on that Friday, I talked with Sandra, who is the main real estate agent in charge. She's managing the auction. This time I asked more detailed questions, like "why was there a net deficit of 50,000:- this year and 150,000:- in the next?". Because of the money involved and the stress we talked in English. I got the answers, and learned more about life in a bostadsrätt association. I think I now have a decent understanding of what's going on here. Nothing like jumping in the deep end. Sandra pointed out that I probably know it better now than most Swedes!

Sweden is a highly democratic country. The association has a "styrelse", which is a the "board" of the association. It's probably related to the word "att styra" which I only knew as "to steer" but which also means "to rule" or "to govern". In my head I translate "styrelse" to "steering committee". You have shares in the association, and hence voting rights. You can review the books, become a member of the board, and so on.

In general it's very easy to start a förening. A lot of people here should have practice in reviewing books, etc. which should make this a natural place to start small companies. Especially with nationalized health car that puts the onus off the startup to pay the medical insurance bills like in the US. But the general policies here are against starting companies, though that's less so now than in the past, especially with the new government. So I hear.

That evening I went to Raquel's to meet some tango people. I had bumped into her by happenstance. Because of all the people visiting the House of a Thousand Wows I stayed with some others on Linnégatan. I was coming home from tango on Tuesday when I saw someone who looked familiar going to the 7-11 that I was walking by. She invited me to the small dinner party she was hosting that Friday. With the house buying I decided to skip the dinner but went by later for the conversation and dancing. Also there were Lars, Debora, Eva and ... a woman whose name I forgot. Grr. Silly memory.

The housing search continues. Debora is gone for two months so I might talk with her more on her offer of staying at her place for a while while I search. Laura and Jacob are wonderful hosts but I don't want to overstay my welcome. She's in Kungladugård, which is the other side of Slottskogen ("The Castle Forest" - a large city park) from the end of Linnégatan. That would give me a chance to see what it's like living in that area.

Strange. I just looked at a listing in that area. The biggest room - the living room - is only accessible through the bedroom.

Must remember that I can buy a bike. This is a decently bike friendly town. Except for the rain.