€375,000 unit. €0 down. €9,000 annual refund.

Background

"Arjun" (not his real name) came to Moderna in September 2025, after seeing the math on a friend's deal sheet. Senior asset manager at a global bank's Munich office, nine years in Germany, on a Blue Card with permanent residence pending. Gross household income €175,000. Annual income-tax burden after Soli: roughly €52,000.

He had spent six months trying to do this himself. Two banks declined his Blue Card. A broker quoted him an over-renovated unit in Schwabing that did not pencil. He arrived skeptical.

The first call (15 minutes)

Davide ran the discovery call. Three questions: how much do you pay the Finanzamt, what is your time horizon, and what does "good" look like. On the call he sketched a target unit (€350,000 to €400,000, Munich Speckgürtel or co-living, projected cashflow neutral) and a target annual refund (€7,000 to €10,000). He did not ask for any documents.

Arjun got off the call with a one-page email summarizing what we would do, what he would do, and what he would owe at the end. No commitment forms. Two days later he scheduled the financing-prep session.

Weeks 1 to 3: financing pre-approval

Maximilian took Arjun's profile to four banks in our network with a known appetite for Blue Card holders in his income bracket. Three came back with offers within 11 days. The best terms:

• 110% financing (purchase price + Nebenkosten covered, no cash to close)
• 3.45% fixed for 10 years, 2% repayment
• Sondertilgung of up to 5% per year, used to recycle Finanzamt refunds
• Underwriting cleared in 9 business days

Pre-approval letter in hand. We had not looked at a property yet.

Weeks 4 to 5: sourcing and underwriting

Davide surfaced three units from our off-market pipeline. Two were rejected at the underwriting stage (rental projections did not survive a neighborhood-comp sanity check). The third, a 38m² co-living unit in 81243 München with a five-year guaranteed-rent operator agreement, cleared.

Weeks 6 to 7: notary and handover

One Schedule-A walkthrough with Arjun in person, the Mängelliste cleared in three days. The Notartermin was 90 minutes; Sophie translated paragraph by paragraph. Keys handed over the following Tuesday.

Lessons

1. The Blue Card is not a deal-breaker, it's a sourcing problem. Three of our 150+ bank partners specialize in Blue Card holders in his income bracket. The two banks that declined him had no internal expertise; they were not the right doors to knock on.
2. Refunds compound when recycled. Arjun's €8,940 annual refund goes into the Sondertilgung against principal. Over 27 years, this single decision lifts his net tax-free equity by an estimated €138,000.
3. The underwriting bar matters more than the deal pipeline. Two of the three units we surfaced did not pass our own math. The win was rejecting them quickly.

Where it stands today

Six months in, the unit is cashflow-positive as projected, the first tax filing returned €9,012 (slightly above projection), and Arjun has asked us to source unit #2 in Augsburg for Q3.