Currently buying/selling a house? How is it going? READ MOD NOTE POST #1

Sebastian Dangerfield

Sue de Nimes wrote: »

Moving back to Ireland after 20 years in the UK, my wife and I see huge differences in the house buying process. One thing we have seen is the difference in regulation. I don't think UK estate agents are any more trustworthy, but they are regulated very tightly. Dealing with Auctioneers/Estate Agents in Ireland is like the wild west in comparison. Time and time again we see "errors" in listings that always make the properties seem more valuable. Accidentally adding bathrooms or bedrooms. Dishonest measurements.....really all sorts of things.

I saw one house listed recently as a 3 bed. There were beds in 4 rooms, but two were clearly attic rooms that don't qualify as bedrooms, so I was curious as to where the third was. Called the EA, who advised that he wasn't counting the two attic rooms as bedrooms (because that wouldn't be accurate!) but was counting a downstairs bathroom which was once a bedroom, but could be "de-plumbed" back into a bedroom again.

I wish Daft and MyHome would make certain info mandatory for a listing. The amount of ads I see that don't have the BER, total square footage / metres for the properties etc is frustrating.

ftbman

The biggest problem with the house buying process in Ireland that I can see is in the fact they don't have to tell you anything you don't specifically ask about and even if you do and they lie, you can't do a thing. Plus the valuers get paid for not even showing up.

For example, the house may have a feature called "gravity water". In plain laguage that means no rain - no water. Or your septic tank may be on somebody else's property. That's a very common thing, as large farmlands have been passed on over generations and sold off in pieces for development.

In our case the estate agent knew all along, but didn't say a word. My advice is to visit the home owner and let them walk you around the property and ask about everything that comes to mind. Water, electricity, heating, waste disposal, access etc. And make them show you the places around the house that seem inaccessible.

The agents, the valuers and the engineers, they all get paid for superficial inspections and for simply putting into their reports what the agent's advert says.

There's also the issue with wind-farms popping up like mushrooms after the rain. The owners know if there is one going to be built nearby, but they aren't required to tell you. We found out only by accident. When we asked the agent he pretended this was news to him. It took a while to find out who was building them. Thankfully, those companies are obliged by law to give you exact information with maps and risk assessments. It turned out the windfarm was to be built within a year with the nearest turbine only 700 meters from the house. That's the kind of proximity that devalues a property by 50% or even makes it worthless for residential development.

In countries where regulation prevents such blatant fraud you get this information right at the start. Here, when we confronted the agent and the house owner, they became quite irritated and hostile. We backed out of the deal and lost money to fees.

Jasna1982

Stark wrote: »

Saw in the papers today that KBC and Permanent TSB have burned through their exemptions for the year. That might cool things somewhat in the second half of the year.

I really hope that’s not true! I applied with PTSB 3 weeks ago with an exemption, and they’re taking their sweet time to process. I was really hopeful they’d give me an exemption

Ace2007

Sebastian Dangerfield wrote: »

I saw one house listed recently as a 3 bed. There were beds in 4 rooms, but two were clearly attic rooms that don't qualify as bedrooms, so I was curious as to where the third was. Called the EA, who advised that he wasn't counting the two attic rooms as bedrooms (because that wouldn't be accurate!) but was counting a downstairs bathroom which was once a bedroom, but could be "de-plumbed" back into a bedroom again.

I wish Daft and MyHome would make certain info mandatory for a listing. The amount of ads I see that don't have the BER, total square footage / metres for the properties etc is frustrating.

Why can't an attic be called a bedroom?

Ace2007

Jasna1982 wrote: »

I really hope that’s not true! I applied with PTSB 3 weeks ago with an exemption, and they’re taking their sweet time to process. I was really hopeful they’d give me an exemption

This was on rte:

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2021/0525/1223774-mortgage-borrowing-rules/

Zenify

Sebastian Dangerfield wrote: »

Has anyone noticed a significant drop in properties hitting Daft and MyHome over the last two weeks? I had been steadily getting 2-3 per day for the last couple of months under my search parameters. I expected more to come up since viewings were allowed to re-commence, but the tap seems to have been turned off altogether.

There's a few more properties than 2 weeks ago but they have gone up in price so probably not showing in your parameters.

Funds are paying more, lots of housing agencies bidding and people with family money bidding, driving the prices higher atm. I've been following the housing market for a few years keeping an eye on bids and its just gone bat **** crazy. It was just crazy before Q4 2020. I'm gonna check the ppr and see if they actually sell for the bids.

I'm very lucky in my housing situation, as mentioned here many times, I live in a house owned by a family member and just pay for maintenance and bills. I have this situation for the foreseeable future. I view properties and place bids, if I find something I like at a good price I'll take it.

I don't think anyone on this forum can creditable say there are properties at a good price out there. The only argument to buy now is you'll waste more money on rent if you don't buy now, or prices are gonna go higher.

I am so annoyed with the current property market in Ireland, not so much for me (I'm cushy) but my entire generation. Some of my friends, even with PHDs are planning to leave Ireland as soon as restrictions lift. They believe they will never own housing here.

We come from a Country where people have died so that we can own property. I remember in school the teachers used to talk about landlords upping rent if the tenants fixed a leak in the roof. And many families living in one house. Could you imagine that 20years after my teacher talking about history like that we would now have houses with over 30 people crammed into them. Not to mention a housing shortage yet landlords hordng vacant properties.

I hope our current politicians are vilified in the same way the British are in our history books. I hope they know that history will not be kind to them. Now is their chance to fix the problems they have caused, they only have a short time left, let's see if they can make a difference or if we will remember them for the situation the have fostered with their policies.

Ace2007

Ace2007 wrote: »

Why can't an attic be called a bedroom?

They're classified as storage areas due to ceilings not being high enough generally. If they're high enough, you need to get an architect to apply for planning approval to recognize as bedroom.

Sebastian Dangerfield

Ace2007 wrote: »

Why can't an attic be called a bedroom?

It has to meet certain regulations around fire safety etc to be classified as a bedroom. Our attic is converted and is probably the best room in the house, but it doesn't meet regs so we have to sell as a 3 bed with an attic room rather than a 4 bed. There is a bed in the photos, most people will use it as a bedroom like we and the previous owners did, we just can't sell it as one.

Others may be able to provide more specific info.

Jafin

I'm really confused about exceptions - does every bank do them differently? I have AIP with Bank of Ireland and when I asked about an exception the mortgage advisor told me that I had to find a property first and then apply for an exception based on that property, and that the people who decide on exception do so on a weekly basis. Having read the above article from RTE about PTSB it seems like people were able to apply with them for an exception without having already found a property and that it was just part of their AIP, or am I reading the article incorrectly?

ec18

Jafin wrote: »

I'm really confused about exceptions - does every bank do them differently? I have AIP with Bank of Ireland and when I asked about an exception the mortgage advisor told me that I had to find a property first and then apply for an exception based on that property, and that the people who decide on exception do so on a weekly basis. Having read the above article from RTE about PTSB it seems like people were able to apply with them for an exception without having already found a property and that it was just part of their AIP, or am I reading the article incorrectly?

Yes all banks have different criteria for what qualifies for exemptions. Generally an exception won't be granted for AIP until it's gone to the underwriter for full approval and that would involve being Sale Agreed.

People who have AIP with an exception would have put a house address of a similar value down when applying rather than just asking for the max allowable

Emma2019

liam7831 wrote: »

Yes they can, the closing date is agreed by the two solicitors as a reasonable date for both parties to aim for. Could easily be another 4 or 6 six weeks after this date if progress is slow due to banks engineers planning etc

I'm pretty sure the closing date is binding, it can only be moved if both parties are agreeable. Which is why my vendors solicitor doesn't want to put in a closing date, in case their chain sale falls through, but my contract would still be binding and they would therefore have to vacate the property.

I've studied some contract law too, although it's been a few years and if both parties have signed and returned the contracts and there's a closing date - unless there's specific provisions that cover moving the date, the date would be binding unless both parties agree. I'd be surprised if conveyancing was different.

Edit: Solicitor friend has confirmed that if both parties sign, the closing date is generally binding.

Mad_maxx

Ace2007 wrote: »

Why can't an attic be called a bedroom?

Conversion may not have been certified

Most attic conversions aren't and should not be listed as bedrooms for marketing purposes, some auctioneers do it anyway

Mad_maxx

Sebastian Dangerfield wrote: »

As a seller I would be perfectly fine with paying rent for a short period, if the buyer was amenable. I understand they want to close quickly, perhaps so as not to have to go back to their bank for another approval. However I have read in other places of concerns around entering into some form of tenancy arrangement before you ever fully take possession.

Doubt buyer would agree to that, you might refuse to vacate the house and then it's a two year job for the buyer

creativedrinker

I finally got a bid through that was a little over asking and wasn’t subject a bidding war and I was delighted.

Got a call off the estate agent today to say that the seller wants and extra 10k on top of my price to sell.

Is this a normal thing for agents to do? As the same happened to a friend with the same agent. They use the lower price as a ploy to lure people in and start a bidding war?

Sebastian Dangerfield

creativedrinker wrote: »

I finally got a bid through that was a little over asking and wasn’t subject a bidding war and I was delighted.

Got a call off the estate agent today to say that the seller wants and extra 10k on top of my price to sell.

Is this a normal thing for agents to do? As the same happened to a friend with the same agent. They use the lower price as a ploy to lure people in and start a bidding war?

Yep, pretty standard. The asking price is rarely the price they intend to accept, especially in sub-500k houses, from my experience.

Emma2019

creativedrinker wrote: »

I finally got a bid through that was a little over asking and wasn’t subject a bidding war and I was delighted.

Got a call off the estate agent today to say that the seller wants and extra 10k on top of my price to sell.

Is this a normal thing for agents to do? As the same happened to a friend with the same agent. They use the lower price as a ploy to lure people in and start a bidding war?

Yes, very common. In anything that operates on bidding, not just houses

yer man!

I'm incredibly ignorant as to the new build house buying process and want to buy something within the next year. I'm abroad at the moment so I'm not clued in to how things work at home with the current restrictions.

How do you actually buy a new build house?

Like is it you have to register with the estate agent for the upcoming phase and call them like a mad man for a viewing or to reserve a place on the day sales open? Is there a portal you're supposed to go into on a certain day to select the property you would like to buy?

I'm genuinely confused at how it works as where i am currently, you preselect the house you want to buy online from plans and then on a certain day you're notified if you have "won" the opportunity to purchase the house.

I have a large amount of savings and AIB are supplying me with an AIP document for the balance.

fergus1001

I just had a look at the property price register for my own area (monasterevin) and to be honest I'm not seeing much inflation here, 290,000 for a house in a new estate here and that's what they were advertised for only a few exceptions but I know they are large properties

as I said I cant wait to see the actual statistics for actual sales

FouxDaFaFa

creativedrinker wrote: »

I finally got a bid through that was a little over asking and wasn’t subject a bidding war and I was delighted.

Got a call off the estate agent today to say that the seller wants and extra 10k on top of my price to sell.

Is this a normal thing for agents to do? As the same happened to a friend with the same agent. They use the lower price as a ploy to lure people in and start a bidding war?

This happened to me this week. Agent said seller would probably accept my (over asking) offer if I stood by it, I confirmed my offer. Seller then said he wanted another 5k to go sale agreed. I said no, as I am a solo buyer on a relatively low value property so 5k is a significant amount to me. I expected the seller to leave the property on the market for a while longer to see if he could get any higher bids but he ended up accepting my original offer.

Emma2019

fergus1001 wrote: »

I just had a look at the property price register for my own area (monasterevin) and to be honest I'm not seeing much inflation here, 290,000 for a house in a new estate here and that's what they were advertised for only a few exceptions but I know they are large properties

as I said I cant wait to see the actual statistics for actual sales

It takes about 5 months for a sale to close and I don't know how much longer to go on the PPR. I haven't seen a lot of houses I viewed in Dec/Jan go up yet.

The very first house I viewed in Dec has gone up though and that went 20k over asking (and over what EA said they'd take it off the market at) in an area where Dominos pizza wont deliver due to anti social behaviour

Damo 2k9

yer man! wrote: »

How do you actually buy a new build house?

Like is it you have to register with the estate agent for the upcoming phase and call them like a mad man for a viewing or to reserve a place on the day sales open? Is there a portal you're supposed to go into on a certain day to select the property you would like to buy?

I'm genuinely confused at how it works as where i am currently, you preselect the house you want to buy online from plans and then on a certain day you're notified if you have "won" the opportunity to purchase the house.

How it worked for us with Kelly Walsh sales agents, I was in regular contact with them asking when they were being released etc. Just a note that the developers would not give them a definite date/time that they would be published, to save the site from crashing, so we were informed it would be potentially between Mon - Wed in the morning time

Process:

You register on the website for interest, filling in details etc. You get an email from them saying that the houses are live with a link to a portal You log on to the portal, all houses are listed with type, beds, orientation, sq/m and orientation You choose the one you want to reserve, input all of your details (Yours, solicitors, AIP document, HTB application no. etc) You pay the booking deposit and hope that it goes through...

The house number we really wanted, uploading the AIP document wouldnt work for my partner so we missed out. Then the second, it happened again. Luckily I grabbed the second last house from the type we were looking for.

Its very like buying a concert ticket!

leahyl

Damo 2k9 wrote: »

How it worked for us with Kelly Walsh sales agents, I was in regular contact with them asking when they were being released etc. Just a note that the developers would not give them a definite date/time that they would be published, to save the site from crashing, so we were informed it would be potentially between Mon - Wed in the morning time

Process:

You register on the website for interest, filling in details etc. You get an email from them saying that the houses are live with a link to a portal You log on to the portal, all houses are listed with type, beds, orientation, sq/m and orientation You choose the one you want to reserve, input all of your details (Yours, solicitors, AIP document, HTB application no. etc) You pay the booking deposit and hope that it goes through...

The house number we really wanted, uploading the AIP document wouldnt work for my partner so we missed out. Then the second, it happened again. Luckily I grabbed the second last house from the type we were looking for.

Its very like buying a concert ticket!

Can you not view the house first? Or is this for houses that haven't been built yet? I'd want to actually see a showhouse or something before paying any deposit...

Damo 2k9

leahyl wrote: »

Can you not view the house first? Or is this for houses that haven't been built yet? I'd want to actually see a showhouse or something before paying any deposit...

No you cant unfortunately. There is the usual matterport walkthrough online, but thats all you can see. The deposit is fully refundable (up until signing contracts of course). We were invited to the showhouse less than a week after reserving, and the house was even nicer than what we thought.

We were lucky that a family friend had bought in phase 1, she had videos of when she visited the showhouse and sent them to us. She had lots of advice like having a word doc with all details so you can simply copy/paste into the online form, this helped massively as no doubt someone else was trying to buy the same one as you!

Red Silurian

Currently bidding on a place and 10k ago we got told by the estate agent that he's expecting to see the last few bidders fall away... Yet we keep being outbid

Is this a new strategy by estate agents to keep us interested?

Glaceon

My wife and I have put down a booking deposit on a new build. We got to view a showhouse from the previous phase and put down the booking deposit afterwards. We're just waiting for the contracts to be drawn up now.

Lia_lia

We had a deposit on a new build last year but pulled out. I called into the estate agents office and he showed me what houses were left on the site plan. There were 2 that had become available after other people pulled out. There was no show house at all as they never needed to do one, which is becoming a lot more common these days. But we were brought out to the site to look at a house that was the same type and almost finished. We then paid booking deposit. Got it back after we pulled out.

We tried to put a deposit on another new build development a couple of months ago. Got an email saying new phase was launched and to call a number and leave a voicemail. Phone them 2 minutes after I got the email, left a voicemail and got a call back saying there were only 2 left out of 24 and neither of the ones left were the type we wanted. So we didn’t book any.

We’ve looked at a few second hand houses in past few weeks but not seeing anything we want to buy. Wondering should we just wait. So hard to know what will happen with prices.

jimbob_jones

Hi folks, looking for a bit of perspective here and would appreciate any feedback.

We are currently selling our house and have a buyer who has paid a booking deposit and is looking to pay the initial 10% between this week and next.

We are purchasing a house and have paid a booking deposit plus the 10% for it, we have exchanged contracts for the property that we are buying.

The seller of the property that we are buying is now putting pressure on us to close and is threating to walk away from the sale.

Where does he stand, if he pulls out of the sale at this stage after signing contracts etc... ?

ec18

Has he actually signed and is there a closing date in the contract? If they haven't countersigned then yes he can walk away

It's possible you have signed but he hasn't signed and returned his side of the contract

Ace2007

jimbob_jones wrote: »

Where does he stand, if he pulls out of the sale at this stage after signing contracts etc... ?

I assume you have a solicitor, what do they say?

You might have signed but they might not have - given most if not all correspondence like this should be going through your solicitor i would be chatting to him.

jimbob_jones

Ace2007 wrote: »

I assume you have a solicitor, what do they say?

You might have signed but they might not have - given most if not all correspondence like this should be going through your solicitor i would be chatting to him.

Yeah I had a chat with our solicitor and he said that the contracts were executed and exchanged.

The joys of it.