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

C14N wrote: »

I agree, although dealbreakers are not always the same for everyone. My personal deal-breakers are largely based on location and condition of the property. I really, really, don't want a huge commute, so being close to work (or potential future jobs) and public transport is highly important. At the same time we have a few "black spot" areas we don't want to be in. Also don't want a house that is very old and needs a lot of work.

I think they're very reasonable deal-breakers. I think location and decent structurer survey are two most important factors you should consider when purchasing. You can always fix up the house over time and do what you like with it but if you decide that you're not happy with where you are, then you're stuck.

TetrisLover wrote: »

I think they're very reasonable deal-breakers. I think location and decent structurer survey are two most important factors you should consider when purchasing. You can always fix up the house over time and do what you like with it but if you decide that you're not happy with where you are, then you're stuck.

The commute is just a big one for me in particular. Used to live in a place where I was driving 45-60m each way to get to work. The end result is almost no time in the day when you get home to do anything else. I've also seen plenty of studies about the negative effects driving and being in traffic for long periods has on mental health and stress levels. I ended up moving to an apartment that was about €400 more expensive, but where I could walk to work and never regretted it. Imo, life is too short to be spending a huge amount of it sitting in a car every day, and the savings in depreciation and fuel costs make the cost gap narrower than it seems at first.

Deleted User wrote: »

I think a lot of ye should pretty much disregard the condition of the house. Buy the biggest sh/thole you can find. So long as it's not structural, you're laughing. I see loads of people getting put off houses because the ceiling has collapsed due to a leaking shower or there's mould all over the place.

That stuff is an easy fix and more often than not the house will sell generally for less than the cost of repairs.


Obviously if there's a structural issue, then that's a different story altogether, but being able to look beyond the house being "ugly" or "rough" is not a bad thing at all. Definitely make sure you're happy with the area/neighbourhood, though.

The thing is that the mortgage we have only covers the cost of the property, so any improvements would have to come straight out-of-pocket and there won't be much left in savings after buying the place. You can get mortgages that allow extra money for rennovations, and if we had one I'd be happy enough to consider it at the right price (the main asset after all, is the land the house sits on), but right now we're just not really in a position to do so, and not keen to have to be paying both rent and mortgage for several months while work is done.

If we knew we had somewhere in the range of 50-100k extra to play with to do up a cheaper, older house, then it would be a great option though. With that kind of money you can easily do a lot to improve the heating, convert an attic for extra space, put in a new kitchen, re-do flooring etc. I kind of regret not getting the details on that when were applying for the mortgage in the first place, but was leaning strongly towards a potential new build at the time so didn't really think much about it.

o1s1n wrote: »

I had a weird phone call with an estate agent a couple of days ago.

Really dismayed by the above happening over and over, I thought I'd give it a go myself. Rang up and offered 25k over asking before any of the viewings took place on a house we really liked.

Was told by the EA 'no no, don't offer that much, that's silly! wait until you view this week and if you really like it, offer the asking price. You have to leave yourself some wiggle room'.

The call ended and I sat there with the phone in my hand beyond confused!

You may have just met the world's first moral driven EA, maybe they took a shine to you and have ear-marked you for the purchase at asking!

standardg60 wrote: »

You may have just met the world's first moral driven EA, maybe they took a shine to you and have ear-marked you for the purchase at asking!

Most of the houses I looked at went for 30k over.

Your 25k might put off a lot of potential bidders from the get go.
The EA might want to keep people in the race.
Also their seller might get a bit itchy and take the first high bid they see, typically these "blow them out of the water bids" have a time constraint.

Plus if you had waited until the bidding has started then the EA is obliged to reveal your bid to the seller. Before bidding starts, then I don't think they have to.

Maybe it might be a slow week and the EA wants to look busy around the office, I dunno would it look good if they flipped a house quickly without letting everyone pitch in.

Treppen wrote: »

Most of the houses I looked at went for 30k over.

Your 25k might put off a lot of potential bidders from the get go.
The EA might want to keep people in the race.
Also their seller might get a bit itchy and take the first high bid they see, typically these "blow them out of the water bids" have a time constraint.

Plus if you had waited until the bidding has started then the EA is obliged to reveal your bid to the seller. Before bidding starts, then I don't think they have to.

Maybe it might be a slow week and the EA wants to look busy around the office, I dunno would it look good if they flipped a house quickly without letting everyone pitch in.

All the agent wants is for it to be sold at a price that the seller is happy with. Agents don’t have much interest in getting the price higher, other than the hope it entices more people to sell. Agents would prefer a quick sale rather than pushing to get 10k extra which is only 100 or so extra commission for the agent’s firm.

Alwandy wrote: »

This has most likely been asked before but I can't find it...

So, I'm buying a new built. It's estimated to be completed in February, went by the house today and saw the house I'm purchasing got the windows and roof in plus plastered all around on the outside waiting for the bricks to go in.. Now I'm in a bit of a situation, my letter of offer expires in December. They have estimated it to be finished after that (February), looking at it, it looks the house will be completed waaaaaaaay earlier. Is there any chance to drawdown before that or am I able to renew my letter of offer before it expires as my AIP originally was set to expire November this year? Reason I ask is that I have a very lucrative offer from a company to join them and I've declined them for mortgage reasons and I'm getting 2nd thoughts (Their offer is 2x my salary in yearly bonuses with other benefits).

NOTE, I have a 6 month period of "mortgage holiday", am I able to tell my solicitor to ask the builder to withdraw a cert of completion in December even though the roads aren't paved?

you're better off waiting and not rushing the builder to be early. If you close and there's issues with the estate/house it's a nightmare getting them back after the moneys been sent

Anyone know what would be a reasonable time frame to expect to receive a closing date on a sale, place I'm buying, signed contracts received by solicitor a week and a half ago and he said he was reaching out to vendor then for closing date, I told him I'm good to go so whenever suits the vendor will suit me (house is vacant so no chain involved), a week and a half later still not date, was I niave to think I'd have a date the next day after solicitor reached out to the other side. Been in contact with my solicitor twice who just said he's heard nothing yet.

Please help me with good options to buy a 3 bed house or 2 Bed apartment in Dublin. 350 -380K. PLEASE

Please help me with a good development in Dublin or surrounding areas for 3 Bed house or 2 bed apartment/Duplex. 350 to 380 K. TIA

I have lost out on a few houses recently that went way over the asking price.

Is it advisable not to be the first one to put on an offer?
Is offering the asking price only shoving up the price on yourself?
I’d appreciate any advice about strategy for putting on offers.

Balluba wrote: »

I have lost out on a few houses recently that went way over the asking price.

Is it advisable not to be the first one to put on an offer?
Is offering the asking price only shoving up the price on yourself?
I’d appreciate any advice about strategy for putting on offers.

I don't think any strategy will help all you can do is set your maximum price and walk if you don't get it.

Balluba wrote: »

I have lost out on a few houses recently that went way over the asking price.

Is it advisable not to be the first one to put on an offer?
Is offering the asking price only shoving up the price on yourself?
I’d appreciate any advice about strategy for putting on offers.

Depends on the place and the level of interest. A lot of the ones I've been looking at, I think I'd be tremendously lucky to get at asking price, never mind at less. So I don't think there's any harm in bidding first at asking price, because it'll end up going for that or higher anyway, and you get kept in the loop when the bidding starts. As a first bidder you always could underbid a bit, but I feel like I'd kind of just be wasting my own time with it when I do.

At the end of the day, you just need to know your own maximum you'll be willing and able to pay. If someone else is able/willing to higher than that then there was never really anything you could do strategically to win.

Starting to get very demotivated at this stage. Looking around the meath/westmeath area near navan, kells, trim, athboy, delvin and everything is going over our 400k budget even if listed at 320-340k "asking".

We're looking at houses with >1 acre so perhaps this plays a factor but I feel like we've been outbid on so many dream houses at this stage its difficult to keep going. Have another viewing later today a bit further out in westmeath so hopefully the madness stops!

We moved to my investment flat in 2017 to save up and move to the "forever house" and not have to move again. The most important thing is that we are happy and dont want to move again.
We are considering others (and were outbid at 75k over asking in one!) but it's a lot of money to pay for something you're spending 30 years to pay for and live in if you're not happy.

I think both myself and herself would prefer to wait 6 months for a better option than to move now to a less than 90% aligned property