Do's and don'ts for first time buyers

mimimcmc

stevek93 wrote: »

Good positive attitude OP best of luck!

One thing I would like to ask people here is well what I done was saved into the bank what I was going to take out my mortgage with instead of the OP saving into the credit union should the OP be doing this instead?

I don't think it matters where you're saving as long as you can show your commitment to saving for however long (6months plus)
I'm with AIB, met with their mortgage advisor last week and my savings are with credit union, partners with AIB, it doesn't make a difference to them as long as I can show my statements from CU.

Worth noting that if you're with BOI and a FTB, they have a good deal if you open a mortgage savers account with them. If you save a certain amount for six months and have at least 5k at the end, they give you 2k on drawdown (there is probably a few more stipulations to this that i'm forgetting)

Febreeze

stevek93 wrote: »

Good positive attitude OP best of luck!

One thing I would like to ask people here is well what I done was saved into the bank what I was going to take out my mortgage with instead of the OP saving into the credit union should the OP be doing this instead?

I was going to save my deposit with the banks but I was having trouble trying to set up a savers account (long story) Plus, my grandparents set up a Credit Union account for me when I was born and then when I turned 21 (I'm well over the other side of 25 now haha) they gave me my book and of course, I wasn't a millionair but I spent most of the money to get my first car and insurance (the memories of my first car. Absolute banger it was) It was around that time I was told about taking money out of my savings continuously so from then I put drips and drabs in and then it was only last year I fully committed to putting a set amount each week and never touched it since. I spoke to a Bank about the deposit savings and I was advised that once I'm shown that Im saving a set amount, regardless of a bank, post office or Credit Union, it doesn't matter. But I was in two minds about going back to the current bank I'm with now and asking.

After seeing all the advice on this thread, and others it seems to me that once I save, show set amounts, show I can live and not messing around, then it's grand :-)

Febreeze

mimimcmc wrote: »

I don't think it matters where you're saving as long as you can show your commitment to saving for however long (6months plus)
I'm with AIB, met with their mortgage advisor last week and my savings are with credit union, partners with AIB, it doesn't make a difference to them as long as I can show my statements from CU.

Worth noting that if you're with BOI and a FTB, they have a good deal if you open a mortgage savers account with them. If you save a certain amount for six months and have at least 5k at the end, they give you 2k on drawdown (there is probably a few more stipulations to this that i'm forgetting)

I heard that too about BOI but I've been having awful problems with them lately. Trying to call them for issues is like a maze. Understandably now, they will have load of people ringing with all sorts of issues but I tried to set up a savers account with them and it was just one issue after another so I just stuck with the Credit Union. I knew they give cash back if they see you saving and that would be a huge help but sure. Live and learn eh :-)

SozBbz

Febreeze wrote: »

I was going to save my deposit with the banks but I was having trouble trying to set up a savers account (long story) Plus, my grandparents set up a Credit Union account for me when I was born and then when I turned 21 (I'm well over the other side of 25 now haha) they gave me my book and of course, I wasn't a millionair but I spent most of the money to get my first car and insurance (the memories of my first car. Absolute banger it was) It was around that time I was told about taking money out of my savings continuously so from then I put drips and drabs in and then it was only last year I fully committed to putting a set amount each week and never touched it since. I spoke to a Bank about the deposit savings and I was advised that once I'm shown that Im saving a set amount, regardless of a bank, post office or Credit Union, it doesn't matter. But I was in two minds about going back to the current bank I'm with now and asking.

After seeing all the advice on this thread, and others it seems to me that once I save, show set amounts, show I can live and not messing around, then it's grand :-)

Totally doesnt matter where you're saving as long as you're actually saving and you can get a statement to prove it.

Basically the only bad place is under the mattress for reasons we've already discussed.

witnessmenow

One bit of advice I would have for people is to figure out the broadband situation , especially if it's out the country.

It was a really important requirement for us. Especially as we have seen in the last few months, a good broadband line is essential.

Eir will let you check using an eircode, so there really isn't any reason to not check that.

Similarly it's also worth checking what the phone reception is like if that is important to you.

guyfawkes5

witnessmenow wrote: »

One bit of advice I would have for people is to figure out the broadband situation , especially if it's out the country.

It was a really important requirement for us. Especially as we have seen in the last few months, a good broadband line is essential.

Eir will let you check using an eircode, so there really isn't any reason to not check that.

Similarly it's also worth checking what the phone reception is like if that is important to you.

I would second this - a poor broadband connection can be very difficult or even impossible to fix as you are at the mercy of ISPs in scheduling an upgrade to the line coming to your property, and if you are in a remote or awkward area, they may not prioritise this.

coughdrops

witnessmenow wrote: »

One bit of advice I would have for people is to figure out the broadband situation , especially if it's out the country.

It was a really important requirement for us. Especially as we have seen in the last few months, a good broadband line is essential.

Eir will let you check using an eircode, so there really isn't any reason to not check that.

Similarly it's also worth checking what the phone reception is like if that is important to you.

Comreg have a map for checking coverage by any of the mobile phone providers. Think it is "outdoor" coverage only, but gives a good idea of the options by eircode

Febreeze

guyfawkes5 wrote: »

I would second this - a poor broadband connection can be very difficult or even impossible to fix as you are at the mercy of ISPs in scheduling an upgrade to the line coming to your property, and if you are in a remote or awkward area, they may not prioritise this.

Thank you witnessmenow and Guyfawkes for those broadband advice. I will be putting that on my list. I never even taught of that :-)

wolfyboy555

Are most new build estates (3,4 beds houses) ran privately now and not taken over by the local council? One estate I have looked at has said they will have management charge of nearly €500 p/a. Is this common around new builds? I would imagine over time this could increase the way Ireland is!

SozBbz

wolfyboy555 wrote: »

Are most new build estates (3,4 beds houses) ran privately now and not taken over by the local council? One estate I have looked at has said they will have management charge of nearly €500 p/a. Is this common around new builds? I would imagine over time this could increase the way Ireland is!

This is the norm now as far as I know. The councils don't take new estates in charge anymore.

paulie13

Management fees are the number 1 reason why I'd never purchase in a new estate again. For all but the rarest of estates, an absolute waste of money with nothing to show for it, except a growing resentment of those within the estate who don't pay and get the exact same services as everyone else.

wolfyboy555

SozBbz wrote: »

This is the norm now as far as I know. The councils don't take new estates in charge anymore.

Thanks it's really putting me off. The houses are overpriced as it is with very little green areas so not much maintenance required. Do these mgt companies also have any other say on your house for example satellite dishes etc?

Jen Pigs Fly

wolfyboy555 wrote: »

Are most new build estates (3,4 beds houses) ran privately now and not taken over by the local council? One estate I have looked at has said they will have management charge of nearly €500 p/a. Is this common around new builds? I would imagine over time this could increase the way Ireland is!

Unfortunately it is, we pay €360 a year for the management company. Our estate does have huge green areas however and a park, so they’re out all the time on those massive drive on lawnmowers. They also did a massive de weeding of the driveways and cut the grass at the front of the house.
In a way it’s worth it, they’re also pushing for the completion of the playground and such.

My parents are in an older estate, and they pay 80 every 6 months for getting the greens cut and trees maintained. While we pay much more, we get more.

You have to pay it, it’s in the contract, so no issue of people not paying I suppose. It’s a bit unfair to make people pay it however. They lobbed it in when we paid our 10% deposit, the vultures.

But they have crazy rules too, we cannot put a satellite out, but honestly, don’t need it, sky comes through virgin media lines.

We also cannot keep birds and poultry.

And they have a policy against noise, so barking dogs are dealt with swiftly.

Graham

wolfyboy555 wrote: »

Thanks it's really putting me off. The houses are overpriced as it is with very little green areas so not much maintenance required. Do these mgt companies also have any other say on your house for example satellite dishes etc?

Your solicitor should be able to advise you better on what is/isn't in the development rules.

Keep in mind that once you own a house in the development, you will be a shareholder in the management company. The board of the management company will be made up of home owners within the development.

SozBbz

wolfyboy555 wrote: »

Thanks it's really putting me off. The houses are overpriced as it is with very little green areas so not much maintenance required. Do these mgt companies also have any other say on your house for example satellite dishes etc?

Would totally depend on the development, but they can do.

I own a property in a mixed development (houses, duplexes and apartments) and there are more rules for the apartments than there are for the duplexes, and again more rules for the duplexes than there are for the houses.

There are good and bad points, but I'd just say do your research.

In my opinion its a few hundred a year to make the place look nice. Its not just green areas, its the everything inside the development once you leave the public road, so if internal roads need maintenance etc that type of thing is covered and also street lighting etc. In some places it might include communal bins - but theres no one size fits all so if you're interested in a particular unit, you'd need to do some reading.

The upside of it is that everyone is subject to a common standard so you're protected from your neighbour erecting a 6ft statue of jesus in their front garden or painting their house pink with polkadots.... but yes there might be rules about a sky dish.

FYI sky can install communal dishes for entire developments (thats what we got in the end - 2 dishes serving up to 85 units) so theres not necessarily a reason to get a dish per house anymore.

wolfyboy555

Graham wrote: »

Your solicitor should be able to advise you better on what is/isn't in the development rules.

Keep in mind that once you own a house in the development, you will be a shareholder in the management company. The board of the management company will be made up of home owners within the development.

Ok good to know. So in theory the homeowners would the ones making changes to any fees due etc? What would happens to surplus ? Like phase 1 has nearly 70 houses so I can't imagine it costs 35,000 to cut the grass and keep on top of roads.

SozBbz

wolfyboy555 wrote: »

Ok good to know. So in theory the homeowners would the ones making changes to any fees due etc? What would happens to surplus ? Like phase 1 has nearly 70 houses so I can't imagine it costs 35,000 to cut the grass and keep on top of roads.

Public liability insurance
Upkeep of roads
Upkeep of green areas
Upkeep of any railings or literally anything in the communal spaces
Lighting
Sinking fund (emergency fund for big ticket items)
Paying a management agent to manage the day to day
Bins perhaps?

Literally every piece of infrastructure within the development (minus the individual houses themselves) need to be maintained. Granted in year 1 those costs shouldnt be high, but thats why a sinking fund is important. A well run development will build up a strong sinking fund in its early years so that in future years when items may need replacement, theres adaquite money available.


Every home owner is a member of the management company. The Management Company typically nominates a board of directors who actually make day to day decisions - ie reviewing quotes from contractors. In practical terms most developments have a Managing Agent who does the day to day leg work on behalf of the board, who ultimately make the decisions -they obviously charge a fee for their services, and the board can elect not to renew their contract if they don't feel they're getting value for money and award the contract to another Agent.

You'd be surprised how quickly €35000 can be accounted for.

Graham

wolfyboy555 wrote: »

So in theory the homeowners would the ones making changes to any fees due etc?

No theory, that's pretty much it exactly.

One home, one vote.

Personally I'd much rather that type of estate than your typical free-for-all, mostly abandoned by the local authority type of development. At least you have a say in what happens in a private estate.

Febreeze

Hi everyone. Hope all is well!

I was chatting to a friend about the saving process and explained I'm saving in the Credit Union only for the friend to inform me that, the Credit Union doesn't allow you to save over 10,000 (?) Friend said they previously saved with CU and had more than 10,000 saved and CU rang to inform that this wasn't possible. Their reasons was, they didn't have enough members in their branch (?) Friend then said it was ideal to save in a bank account and get interest instead. This has shaken me up a little bit as I taught this was ideal enough. I've been saving in the CU for years and as my previous post, last year I started to knuckle down and continously saved, never withdrew any amounts and its close enough to 10,000 now and I'm worried they will ring me and tell me that this isn't possible. I don't want to have to transfer a large amount back into my BOI account and have questions thrown at me.

Now that I'm back in work, getting a set amount in wage and back to saving set amount each week and living comfortably. I really don't want to have to start changing my means and ways of saving. I'm getting a lot closer to were I want to be.

Does the CU have a right to tell you how much you can and can't save with them?

cython

Febreeze wrote: »

Hi everyone. Hope all is well!

I was chatting to a friend about the saving process and explained I'm saving in the Credit Union only for the friend to inform me that, the Credit Union doesn't allow you to save over 10,000 (?) Friend said they previously saved with CU and had more than 10,000 saved and CU rang to inform that this wasn't possible. Their reasons was, they didn't have enough members in their branch (?) Friend then said it was ideal to save in a bank account and get interest instead. This has shaken me up a little bit as I taught this was ideal enough. I've been saving in the CU for years and as my previous post, last year I started to knuckle down and continously saved, never withdrew any amounts and its close enough to 10,000 now and I'm worried they will ring me and tell me that this isn't possible. I don't want to have to transfer a large amount back into my BOI account and have questions thrown at me.

Now that I'm back in work, getting a set amount in wage and back to saving set amount each week and living comfortably. I really don't want to have to start changing my means and ways of saving. I'm getting a lot closer to were I want to be.

Does the CU have a right to tell you how much you can and can't save with them?

It seems this varies from CU to CU. Apparently the one I have an account with recently reduced their deposit limit from 100k to 50k due to the volume of money on deposit, and being unable to support the dividends this attracted or similar. A 10k limit seems very low though.

Short version though, yes they can cap the amount you have on deposit, and if you're breaching their threshold you should look at alternative deposit facilities.

RedXIV

Each credit union does have a level of independence, but I can tell you that I've passed that already and got no calls. And that's happened in two different credit unions.

You could email them and ask, but my gut instinct is that you'll be fine, especially since more and more Credit Unions are trying to get into the mortgage game and to do that, you need to leverage a lot of savings

Febreeze

cython wrote: »

It seems this varies from CU to CU. Apparently the one I have an account with recently reduced their deposit limit from 100k to 50k due to the volume of money on deposit, and being unable to support the dividends this attracted or similar. A 10k limit seems very low though.

Short version though, yes they can cap the amount you have on deposit, and if you're breaching their threshold you should look at alternative deposit facilities.

Really? That's a shame.

I was even hoping to use them as an option for a possible mortage option. I was under the assumption that if the CU can see you save consistently and see how much you have then they would be more than happy to help. Its clear how naive I am with this process.

In saying that, many moons ago my granddad saved with the CU under my name. He saved 20 pounds at the time from the day I was born, until I was 21 (obviously being 21, mortage wasn't top of my list so I bought my first banger of a car and loved it!) Of course, I spent it all on the car, insurance, tax etc then for the next year after that it was holidays and so forth (I ultimately regret that decision now!) but he never mentioned the limit to me and this is a man who would drill into me about savings, pensions etc so I was shocked when my friend mentioned it too me.

I was thinking of ringing my CU that I'm with to find out but if it does look like I only have a set limit, would it be worth my while to transfer all that was saved into an account I could set up in my current bank account and continue from there?

Febreeze

RedXIV wrote: »

Each credit union does have a level of independence, but I can tell you that I've passed that already and got no calls. And that's happened in two different credit unions.

You could email them and ask, but my gut instinct is that you'll be fine, especially since more and more Credit Unions are trying to get into the mortgage game and to do that, you need to leverage a lot of savings

That's exactly what I was thinking myself. My partner has his own CU account connected to his job and he wasn't informed of any limits either so we were both under the assumption that all was fine with saving in CU.

Mind you, my friend has also got a habit of dipping into their funds so I was trying to see if it was the CU maybe installing the whole "keep saving, don't dip into account" rule into them by reminding them of their habits. But in saying that, my mind I'm thinking, well I'm saving my own money so why would they tell me what I can and can't save?

cython

Febreeze wrote: »

That's exactly what I was thinking myself. My partner has his own CU account connected to his job and he wasn't informed of any limits either so we were both under the assumption that all was fine with saving in CU.

Mind you, my friend has also got a habit of dipping into their funds so I was trying to see if it was the CU maybe installing the whole "keep saving, don't dip into account" rule into them by reminding them of their habits. But in saying that, my mind I'm thinking, well I'm saving my own money so why would they tell me what I can and can't save?

They're not telling you what to do with your money per se. Rather they're just telling you that there is a limit to the amount of it that you can save with them.

Credit unions operate on a share and dividend basis for rewards rather than interest in the way that banks do (loans work on interest as normal), and ultimately if they are overfinanced/underleveraged then they can only pay a very small dividend, if any. This is a way for them to ensure a viable/reasonable return on funds on deposit to their members, and is typically necessary due to their operating on a smaller basis than banks.

witnessmenow

Our CU introduced a limit last year, definitely not as low as 10k, but we had to start saving the rest of our deposit somewhere else. Wasn't a problem for the bank though

Dolbhad

The limit in my Credit Union was 50k but at Christmas they reduced it to 30k. I had more than 30k in my account so they said they would allow the extra balance but couldn’t lodge anymore. They said it was costing them too much to keep money like that on account.

I just sent up an online demand account and it’s actually much easier now. I’m AIB.

However I’m mortgage approved with BOI and they do a savers account linked to the mortgage. If you save in the savers account for at least 6 months and then drawdown a BOI mortgage, you get €2k. You will pay dirt of €700. I didn’t set it up but could be worth looking into depending if your looking at BOI.

Febreeze

Dolbhad wrote: »

The limit in my Credit Union was 50k but at Christmas they reduced it to 30k. I had more than 30k in my account so they said they would allow the extra balance but couldn’t lodge anymore. They said it was costing them too much to keep money like that on account.

I just sent up an online demand account and it’s actually much easier now. I’m AIB.

However I’m mortgage approved with BOI and they do a savers account linked to the mortgage. If you save in the savers account for at least 6 months and then drawdown a BOI mortgage, you get €2k. You will pay dirt of €700. I didn’t set it up but could be worth looking into depending if your looking at BOI.

I'm with BOI and I was thinking of doing this.

If I was to continue with my CU until 10k (which should be around the October mark) and then go and set up a mortage savers account, say November 2020 which gives me until May 2021, saving the same amounts, would BOI question why there's not a lot and why I stopped with the CU?

My partner has his CU set up with his job (HSE, lucky sod) and he explained his saving process and what it's for and he's near enough to 10k himself. They happily obliged so I've informed him of the limits so he's going to ask his CU what the limit is, as will I but if we both have 10k and maybe set up a saver account to another 5-10k each which won't take long, I would assume the process of the mortage wouldn't be too hard, would it? Would we have to show how much we saved with CU and then show how much we saved in another account?

Sorry for all the questions.

Febreeze

witnessmenow wrote: »

Our CU introduced a limit last year, definitely not as low as 10k, but we had to start saving the rest of our deposit somewhere else. Wasn't a problem for the bank though

Was it just more to show you could save a set amount?

Gumbo

wolfyboy555 wrote: »

Thanks it's really putting me off. The houses are overpriced as it is with very little green areas so not much maintenance required. Do these mgt companies also have any other say on your house for example satellite dishes etc?

Satellite Dishes are a planning matter too. You are not allowed have them on the front of the house or forward of the front building line.

Dolbhad

Febreeze wrote: »

I'm with BOI and I was thinking of doing this.

If I was to continue with my CU until 10k (which should be around the October mark) and then go and set up a mortage savers account, say November 2020 which gives me until May 2021, saving the same amounts, would BOI question why there's not a lot and why I stopped with the CU?

My partner has his CU set up with his job (HSE, lucky sod) and he explained his saving process and what it's for and he's near enough to 10k himself. They happily obliged so I've informed him of the limits so he's going to ask his CU what the limit is, as will I but if we both have 10k and maybe set up a saver account to another 5-10k each which won't take long, I would assume the process of the mortage wouldn't be too hard, would it? Would we have to show how much we saved with CU and then show how much we saved in another account?

Sorry for all the questions.

I probably would skip the CU account to be honest and just go straight to a savers account. It seems every CU is different. My partner saves in a different CU and they haven’t imposed a limit yet.


The bank don’t care if you have multiple savings account as long as they can see how much you are saving every month. It just means you’d have to show the CU accounts and the savers account. But you will have to organise the paperwork.