Selling Home, to buy elsewhere - any tips?

chases0102 · 15-11-2021 11:28am #1

Hi all,

We are looking to sell our house in the near future, with the intention of buying a place in a different part of the country completely.

It is a little bit daunting, and is quite the leap of faith, so am looking to see if anyone has any tips, or even an indication of the timeline, as to how to do this as smoothly as possible. Stuff like the bank, deeds, legal, estate agents, and all other agencies involved - just wondering at what stage are they involved in the process.

Some info on our context:

We bought our own house in 2018, with HTB (know there are revenue implications here) with a 30 year mortgage on a 5 year fixed
Have a young family, with one member due to start school next September - so we know we need to consider schools for her, etc.
We will be in a 'chain', so to speak - will have to sell our house, to buy another. How has that worked for others

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Emma2019 · 15-11-2021 8:14pm

Requesting your deeds as soon as possible will save you weeks of time. Your solicitor can have the contracts ready to go whenever you go sale agreed which really shortens timelines. It can take 8 weeks to get the deeds from the bank and pretty much nothing can move on without them.

Bidding on another house will be difficult until you are sale agreed on your own so get your house listed asap.

Talk to your bank or broker about the implications of moving during your fixed period.

chases0102 · 16-11-2021 9:31am

Thanks Emma2019, very helpful advice, particularly around the deeds - didn't know that.

black & white · 16-11-2021 10:15am

A tip I got was to contact my solicitor beforehand to tell them I was going to be selling, they organised the Deeds and gave me a list of documents I was to get to shorten the process. I needed all LPT/NPPR/Household Charge accounts showing all outstanding charges were paid; a Statement signed saying there had been no extensions or developments since we bought it, copies of photo ID and proof of address.

The house should be going up for sale Thursday or Friday so will see how it goes.

chases0102 · 16-11-2021 12:12pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118173356#Comment_118173356

Brilliant, thanks for that.

Sounds like you're further on in the process to us, be interesting to hear how you get on

black & white · 16-11-2021 12:22pm

I'll let you know, forgot to mention it was a poster on here, Ongarite, that gave me help getting the household charge stuff sorted.

chases0102 · 16-11-2021 2:38pm

Cheers black & white

shesty · 16-11-2021 2:54pm

We are just about ending the process - moving in 3 weeks.

We put ours up for sale early August, knowing it would sell quickly. Tip - if there are viewings and you have kids, tell the estate agent that you want viewings in blocks of time where possible (1-2 hours where you all leave the house) and not 30 mins here and there throughout the week. Clear your house of any extraneous stuff (ie, kids toy buggies etc), leave some of it stored elsewhere if possible for the duration of weeks that the viewings might be taking place. In addition, make it very clear to the estate agent from day 1 that you will not be leaving the house until you have somewhere else to go, and ensure they pass that message on to any potential buyers (assuming that is your intention).

We had been looking for quite a while. Supply was way down. It was a bit of a leap of faith on our part but at least 2 houses had come up for sale that were a possibility in the week before we put ours up, so we went for it. In addition, we had just got fresh mortgage approval. Tip - have your mortgage approval in place. From a few banks if you can, to give you options. Let the banks know you are looking and your own house is going up.

Bidding went on on our ours for a couple of weeks. We let the estate agent handle it. She wanted to know was there a price we absolutely had to get for it, and once she knew that, she was grand. She called once a week or so to update. We let her decide when to call a halt and go sale agreed. Meanwhile we were looking at 2 or 3 houses. Tip - respond to any houses you are viewing on quickly. The market is moving very fast. Make it clear to the selling agent that you are selling yours now and your approval is in place. Get back to any emails on updated bids etc fairly quickly, seem interested.

We went sale agreed on a house for us about 4 or 5 weeks after our own (totally stressful!). Then the real fun began. Engage a solicitor quickly, and they will send you documentation. There should be a form to sign authorising them to request the deeds for your house, get that back quickly. You will also need the LPT summary (with the charges paid up to the end of the LPT year that you are selling in), the cert of exemption/discharge of the NPPR (local council), any documentation on planning/extending if you have had work done, your marriage cert (if it exists), photo ID like a passport and proof of address. Solicitor will then go away, request deeds. If you have gone sale agreed, contracts should be drawn up by your solicitor to give to your purchaser, and the solicitor of wherever you are buying, to send to your solicitor. Both parties may issue queries to each other on the contracts. Get your loan pack from your bank (you can do that early yourself too), and send it to your solicitor. After that it is a waiting game. Give them a week or so, but keep in contact at least once a week to keep things moving.

Depending on the situation, a date for the contracts will be proposed and you will sign both on the one day. Our timeline started early August, and we signed last week. So.....3 months?Plus a further 3 weeks to the actual move. Ours was smooth (so far) in that we are buying a house owned by an elderly couple who are moving out, and our buyers are first time buyers. We are the middle of the chain. Nothing untoward has been thrown up and there were very few contract queries on both sides. It can be more complicated depending on what you end up buying. But roughly that's how it works.

chases0102 · 16-11-2021 4:54pm

Hi Shesty, wow thanks for that comprehensive account, very enlightening and informative

old_house · 17-11-2021 3:59pm

While deeds are often mentioned in threads like this they should only be an issue when the property has not been registered with the land registry (and assigned a folio) previously. In large parts of the country deeds are a thing of the past, with really only Dublin lagging behind (see https://www.prai.ie/land-registry-services/). And with the house in question having last changed hands in 2018 it's well possible there aren't any deeds to be requested. Or is my thinking wrong?

afatbollix · 17-11-2021 4:58pm

I'm also on a fixed mortgage deal. Currently, I have to pay 2% to end my deal. It might be worth checking your mortgage paperwork. Waiting until next year to sell for me means I save 6k. Sometimes you can move your mortgage deal with yourself so saving on new product fees and that penalty.

black & white · 22-11-2021 4:21pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118173939#Comment_118173939

It's gone on the market today, EA thinks there will be a lot of interest in it, fingers crossed he's right.

black & white · 03-12-2021 9:45pm

Update in week 1, 5 viewings and 1 second viewing booked for next week and still enquiries coming in.

shesty · 05-12-2021 5:29pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118181316#Comment_118181316

Interesting.I often deal with land transfers at work, and deeds are usually involved.

I think they go check the Land Registry anyway, regardless.I don't think Deeds are a massive issue usually.

mrslancaster · 05-12-2021 7:27pm

You'll need a BER cert for the EA.

Also, if your potential buyer is a local council or an AHB, just be aware that can slow down the sales/closing process. I know someone who went sale agreed with an AHB in June, weeks of back and forth with paperwork, inspections, certificates, legal queries, and the AHB backed out last week. Six months wasted and expensive legal fees, no reason given but if the house wasn't suitable, you'd think they would've realised sooner. House had no issues, but government agencies are very slow and government policy can change fast. Similar thing happened someone I know a few years ago when selling to the council - months went by and eventually they couldn't wait any longer. They withdrew, re-listed, and sold within a few months to a private buyer.

Stick to a deadline for signing contracts, if anything goes wrong on the buyer side, mortgage problems, jobs etc, you can quickly put the house back up for sale.

black & white · 22-12-2021 1:01pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118265688#Comment_118265688

Latest update, a bid is on the table for 5k under asking, EA suggests leaving it for another 2 weeks after Christmas and see if there are any more bids.

JimmyVik · 23-12-2021 11:48am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118272688#Comment_118272688

I have seen cases where the deeds are "lost" by the banks.

First thing anyone selling should to is engage their solicitor to get the deeds. At least then the bank are locating them and the solicitor will have them in good time, instead of waiting until sale agreed to locate them.

I know Ulsterbank at the moment store have a 3 week lead time on getting deeds.

D n G · 27-12-2021 5:59pm

We're, hopefully, at the end of our process too. Our house went up for sale the first week of November and we went sale agreed 3 weeks later at about €64,000 over asking price (we thought we were asking a bit much in the first place). We're also sale agreed on the property we're buying. We are in the middle of a chain, however, we are in the happy position of a cash buyer for ours and the house we're buying is already vacant.

We thought we had everything geared up to go but never thought of the NPPR Cert of Exemption so have to get that soon as the offices open after Xmas.

A word of advice to anyone going for a mortgage that are over 50 and may have some health problems. Try and sort your Mortgage Protection out as soon as you can. We've had a very stressful few weeks as the Mortgage Protection companies refused to cover my spouse and were pricing me at €175+ per month. I vape, have high blood pressure and cholesterol so they loaded me. We had to apply for a waiver from our mortgage provider which was hard fought for but finally achieved. But it took a long time and was very time consuming. It's head wrecking going through long questionnaires with a stranger on the phone knowing it's going to be a no but needing several letters of decline to give to the bank.

Marcusm · 27-12-2021 6:07pm

If this house was last sold in 2018 there are no “deeds” as it will have been mandatory to ensure that a registration was made with the Land Registry meaning that all future transfers are of registered land.

wildwillow · 27-12-2021 6:14pm

The house also probably has a valid BER cert as they last for ten years.

black & white · 28-01-2022 2:19pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118360471#Comment_118360471

Accepted this bid as nothing else materialised post Christmas. Deposit paid and Auctioneer has seen proof of funds etc so hopefully will go through smoothly.

Selling Home, to buy elsewhere - any tips?

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