buying an apartment in Darmstadt, Germany

we started by looking at the nearby real-estate agencys' sites and,
the main site we were already using for rental searches
(defining a regular e-mail alert with the new offers is easy and simple)
http://www.immobilienscout24.de/

after some months and looking at some possible candidates we found the one
almost all the requisites were there including all the critical ones!
so we went to a group visit, together with some 5 other unknown couples
we liked it so we quickly sent an e-mail the next day showing interest
I don't know if this put us in front of the competition or if there was any
but what I know is that we eventually got the apartment

we went to the bank in the meanwhile to make sure we could get the loan
we got offers from a couple of banks before we decided but, in the end
we went for the one where they spoke english... good service is priceless!

the real-estate agency contacted the notary who took care of the contract
this is not always the case, sometimes the buyer has to take care of this,
especially if it is a private to private sale (we were buying from bauverein)
the notary usually does this contract drafting service and is impartial
and the buyer usually pays for the services and production of the contract
when we got the draft we tried to make sense of it (german legal text, nice!)
but finally we decided to get a translator and interpreter (good choice!)
a simple search online and this has all the contacts: http://www.bdue.de/

before the contract was translated we had spotted some things...
but only afterwards, with the english version, we found some of the pitfalls
and we had a meeting with the real-estate agent (representing the seller)
and the interpreter to avoid any misunderstandings

at this point we were finding some very useful links and documents online:
GeneralReport.pdf
General_Explanation_of_Purchase_Contracts.pdf
German_tax_and_fees_related_to_real_estate.pdf
some websites also have some good information and forums:
http://www.expatica.com/de/buying-propoerty-germany.html
http://www.howtogermany.com/pages/housebuying.html

a few changes in the contract were agreed and we scheduled the notary
and there, as seems usual in Germany, a few more changes were introduced
once signed, the notary could ask the Land Register for the Vormerkung
which is a sort of formal pre-transfer of the contracted property,
effectively blocking its sale to anyone but you - making it safe to pay!
we also needed bank papers at this time, acknowledging the mortgage
the bank needs you to sign a contract to create an entry in the Land Register,
saying that the property is mortgaged due to your loan,
and this has to be done before the property is even transferred...
(and independently from the Vormerkung - they take different times!)

and only when the Vormerkung is in the Land Register and (important and)
the mortgage is also in the Land Register, the bank will transfer the money
first into your account and then the full amount to the seller's!
and you inform the notary the payment is done so he requests confirmation
once the seller confirms, the notary requests the change in the Land Register

but before the Land Register changes the ownership of the property,
the Tax Office is informed and the process is blocked...
until you pay property transfer tax and they inform the Land Register of this
and they finally change the property owner to you!

and only then you can say you own the property you "just" purchased
apart from the mortgage entry, which comes out only after its fully paid