Boots-on-the-ground buying, how are you finding it?

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121674539#Comment_121674539

The Avondale house wouldn’t need 300k. 2 bathrooms 30k, and a kitchen for another 30k. And it’s good to go, I’m. It not a huge fan of expensive energy retrofits. The payback period is really poor. People have been living the houses for years without issue. EWI would modernise the exterior and make it more comfortable

the monkstown house wouldn’t need 300k either. 100k would get you a kitchen , bathrooms, stove, paint and carpets.

I viewed it last week and it’s not in bad condition.

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121674566#Comment_121674566

All houses of that era need a retrofit.

It's not about payback it's about comfort. Who wants to live in a cold big house that costs a bomb to heat. Nobody.

Just because something was done 30 years ago doesn't mean it's a good way of doing it today.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121674776#Comment_121674776

There’s a balance . It might costs a bomb to beat, but still less than doing an expensive retrofit, with a 20 year paybavk. There’s lots of low hanging fruit that can be down to reduce heating costs before going for an expensive retrofit

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121674841#Comment_121674841

I've done it all I know well the costs. But equally living in 1970s big cold house is madness and nonsense.

SharkMX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121674308#Comment_121674308

Thats not an apartment., Thats a room :)

RichardAnd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121675522#Comment_121675522

I'll meet you half-way and say that it's an ensuite with an identity crisis :P

Jokes aside, I would be perfectly happy to live there myself if I could get it for a reasonable price. If I had a few hundred thousand sitting in my account with nothing to spend it on, I'd buy it as it's a great location.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121675522#Comment_121675522

A studio apartment

copacetic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121674522#Comment_121674522

BER of F and 100s of thousands needed spending on it and the trimestown pretty much the same, in better repair but very sloppy extension add on and nearly everything core needing doing. Anything needing a pile of work is much cheaper as it’s so hard to get it done at all and for a reasonable price impossible.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121678652#Comment_121678652

The BER system has big flaws.

what would you spend hundreds of thousands on?

copacetic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121678748#Comment_121678748

Hah, sure buy away so, it’s the bargain of the century. I’m sure you’ll tell the engineer who points out all the issues on the survey and the QS who estimates it that you know better and there are big flaws in building regs, ber and their prices.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121680081#Comment_121680081

You didn’t answer the question…

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121680099#Comment_121680099

BER is very flawed. But an F is accurate based on the images.

It needs thousands to even get to a C.

Looking for some thoughts here,

EA has 2 houses same location, same price. Both been up for 2/3 months, went to view both, liked A but B wasn’t the worst needed some cosmetic work.

We were told both sellers in a rush to sell we put in a bid over asking on A , as there was only an asking bid that had been there for over a week and they came back to say now the sellers want to see what happens.

they took 1st offer on B as that seller was concerned they wouldn’t get anyone else

In that time someone outbid by a low amount so we came back in and are looking the highest bidder. Getting a bit concerned this is a ghost bidding situation.. any thoughts? Do I give it a few days?

we did a fairly aggressively bid in the first place and was told verbally that that should be more than enough so was surprised they went fishing for more bids?

This is it

Unfortunately there's no real way to know if bids are real or not, as difficult as it sounds, you just have to trust the EA is above board

AhhHere

Bid on one property in your name. Bid on the 2nd property in your partner's name

slystallone

What is the best way of assessing the insulation ina house when buying?

MicktheMan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121702064#Comment_121702064

A good quality thermal imaging camera can be useful to 'see' what is and is not insulated...

However, I'm guessing you are really asking how best to assess the heat retention properties of a house when buying. You might think I being pedantic here but I often come across houses with very good insulation values but yet lose heat at a rate of knots, literally.

Any heat loss surveyor worth their salt should be able to give a decent assessment with a simple on site visit.

Claw Hammer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121674522#Comment_121674522

That Trimleston house is a converted 3 bed. Only 4 houses in that estate were built as 4 beds. Like all house of that era, a kitchen extension is a must as well as new windows dorrs and insulation, heating and bathrooms. No change out of 300k.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121704545#Comment_121704545

The kitchen is 5.13 m x 3.25m. I don’t believe an extension is a must.

acri

So, tried a change of tact with a house we were pursuing in Crumlin. In an effort to avoid a bidding war, I called the EA and asked if the vendor had a number in mind that they'd be happy with. Eventually the vendor came back with said number, so we proposed €10k under this.

Looks like it worked. A week later and we've been told the property is ours. Paid the Booking Deposit today.

🎉

copacetic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121706525#Comment_121706525

Good news, it think it probably suits most vendors, it’s better than the constant 1-2k offer above the last offer, meaning a dragged out process waiting to see are some people waiting for the slow constant bidding to stop before bidding etc, going back for another viewing, waiting for anything to come out of the viewing etc

standardg60

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121706525#Comment_121706525

Well done!

Worth remembering that while EAs are working for the vendor they are also working for themselves, they need to sell to make a living, so being proactive and establishing yourself as a bona fides serious buyer separates you from the tyrekickers. In reality the EA is in charge of the sale, establishing a good relationship with them can be more than half the battle.

I remember in the other thread a poster stating that the EA told them their opening offer was too much! They got the house for less than it.

tommyombomb

quick question, people mentioning the 10-20% over asking but i assume this is for houses. What are apartments and duplex's doing in Dublin? I am really hoping it is is no more than 5% over the asking which is standard.

SharkMX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121709824#Comment_121709824

I bid on a few apartment in the last year. When I looked up eventual sale prices they all went for anything between 10 and 30% over the asking.

Claw Hammer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121709824#Comment_121709824

Asking is just a marketing tool which varies from property to property, agent to agent and owner to owner. You should never use it as an anchor. Look at similar properties which have sold and see what they sold for. work out the value from that. Bid what you think it is worth without regard to the asking price.

RichardAnd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121709824#Comment_121709824

From what I've heard, apartments are less likely to shoot over the asking price with the condition that the original asking price is not deliberately listed below the valuation. That said, I'm speaking only of "standard", 1-2 bedroom apartments in Dublin. I've seen 3-bedroom apartments go 30% over the listing, and somewhat unique apartments (e.g., one in a converted Georgian house) may well attract interest simply because it's somewhat unique.

None of the apartments that I looked at ever went beyond 10% over the asking price, and this was back in the lockdown fueled days when over-shooting was normal. From anecdotal experience, I've known one or two people who actually got an apartment below the asking price, but these were bog-standard apartments in the West of Dublin. A good apartment in a good area will attract attention always.

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121711517#Comment_121711517

Yeah, we sold our house two years ago, two estate agents came to value it, both were within 10k of one another in their estimate.

First guy said he would list it at 10% below what he thought we would get, to hook people in and get them bidding. Second guy said he would list it higher than what he thought we would get, because then people could low-ball us and think they were driving a hard bargain.

So, the same house could have gone up on daft.ie with maybe a 60k difference in the asking price, but with the same actual valuation, depending on who we chose.

standardg60

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121727786#Comment_121727786

Well don't leave us in suspense!

Which did you go for and what happened?

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121728793#Comment_121728793

Lol, did you like the pause for dramatic effect?

Went with the first guy and we did indeed close at about 10% over the (deliberately low) asking price. We were sale agreed on our new house so a quick sale was more important than squeezing every euro out of it.

Just an example of how asking prices aren't a great indicator of much.

RichardAnd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121728949#Comment_121728949

I'm not having a go at you specifically, but deliberately listing houses below their valuation is a socially deleterious thing to do. People who cannot in truth afford the house will waste their time viewing it, making offers and getting hopeful only to eventually lose out. To me, it's a dishonest tactic used by EAs.