Are there estate agents that represent the buyer in Ireland?

woodstock1708

Hello,

My husband and I are not Irish, though we've lived here for a few years (renting).

We're thinking of buying a house in Dublin, and I was wondering how the system here works.

In the U.S., where I'm from, the buyer generally works with a realtor (estate agent) who is in charge of setting up all the viewing, dealing with the realtors representing the various sellers of the houses you're looking at, etc. Then, when it's time to close, the agent representing the seller has to give a part of the commission to the agent "representing" the buyer.

Basically, the realtor does all the legwork for the seller in setting up appointments to see properties and things like that. He/she also advises on market values and how that property stacks up against other properties recent sold in the area, potential issues in a property that might not be obvious before inspection, etc.

Is there a similar system here, or would it be better for me, as a buyer, to just directly contact the estate agents who are listing the properties and ask to see them?

Thank you for your help.

Ray Palmer

I have never heard of it here but it may exist at the high end of the market.
Myhome and daft have most of the property for sale in the country so there is little need too.

EricPraline

OP there are a small number of buyer's agents active at the high end of the market in Dublin, but they're very rarely employed and their usefulness in the current depressed market is debatable.

As suggested above, your best bet is to look at www.myhome.ie or www.daft.ie and contact vendors' estates agents directly. Obviously these agents will represents the vendor's interests, not yours.

Also a Property Price Register for Ireland has recently come online, which provides actual sale prices, as opposed to estimates or guides - http://www.myhome.ie/priceregister

Woodville56

woodstock1708 wrote: »

Hello,

My husband and I are not Irish, though we've lived here for a few years (renting).

We're thinking of buying a house in Dublin, and I was wondering how the system here works.

In the U.S., where I'm from, the buyer generally works with a realtor (estate agent) who is in charge of setting up all the viewing, dealing with the realtors representing the various sellers of the houses you're looking at, etc. Then, when it's time to close, the agent representing the seller has to give a part of the commission to the agent "representing" the buyer.

Basically, the realtor does all the legwork for the seller in setting up appointments to see properties and things like that. He/she also advises on market values and how that property stacks up against other properties recent sold in the area, potential issues in a property that might not be obvious before inspection, etc.

Is there a similar system here, or would it be better for me, as a buyer, to just directly contact the estate agents who are listing the properties and ask to see them?

Thank you for your help.

Check out BuyersBroker.ie , but same advice as earlier posters applies, also look at Daft.ie & myhome.ie

wexie

woodstock1708 wrote: »

Hello,

My husband and I are not Irish, though we've lived here for a few years (renting).

We're thinking of buying a house in Dublin, and I was wondering how the system here works.

In the U.S., where I'm from, the buyer generally works with a realtor (estate agent) who is in charge of setting up all the viewing, dealing with the realtors representing the various sellers of the houses you're looking at, etc. Then, when it's time to close, the agent representing the seller has to give a part of the commission to the agent "representing" the buyer.

Basically, the realtor does all the legwork for the seller in setting up appointments to see properties and things like that. He/she also advises on market values and how that property stacks up against other properties recent sold in the area, potential issues in a property that might not be obvious before inspection, etc.

Is there a similar system here, or would it be better for me, as a buyer, to just directly contact the estate agents who are listing the properties and ask to see them?

Thank you for your help.

I've actually been thinking the same thing. We've starting looking at moving recently and the area we're looking at there seems to be a wild discrepancy between asking prices and(according to property register) the prices things are actually selling for. One house was listed for 750k but sold for 550K. How do you find a balance between not paying to much in still coming in with reasonable offers?

Probably no point either I guess in taking out a local estate agents as the area we're looking in they're likely to all know eachother...

D3PO

wexie wrote: »

How do you find a balance between not paying to much in still coming in with reasonable offers?

Know the market you are buying into, track it for long enough before and with the help of the Property Price register and tools like daft drop etc you should have a fair idea of what is reasonable market rate.

wexie

D3PO wrote: »

Know the market you are buying into, track it for long enough before and with the help of the Property Price register and tools like daft drop etc you should have a fair idea of what is reasonable market rate.

yeah that's what we're trying to do.

Problem is that where we're looking there have been less than 15 houses sold since 2010. Varying between about 100K to well over a million so it's hard to get an idea.

Property price register is pretty handy though. Been an eye opener so far.

clunked

Woodville56 wrote: »

Check out BuyersBroker.ie , but same advice as earlier posters applies, also look at Daft.ie & myhome.ie

Try http://www.buyersagent.ie/. Know someone who had a good experience there.