The roof on it needs a good bit of repair, or even replacement. The bit of an extension on the side needs to be replaced too. What you are buying is little more than an expensive site that you are likely to get planning permission on.
Yeah, it looks like common asbestos roof sheeting used around the time of construction. I would personally assume it's asbestos, question the estate agent about it, and get the response in writing.
Photo 42 here ;
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This gushing report in the Indo even has this Caveat Emptor;
"Over the years, Dominic has installed double glazing and a new kitchen and bathrooms, but says that although the house is structurally sound and has what he calls "a great footprint", it is now in need of refurbishment - particularly in terms of insulation to improve the BER, currently D2."
@emeraldsky For that money I'd expect the estate agent to walk you through the property with his phone camera, especially if they knew you were coming from abroad.
it was the ad on DAFT that was linked to.
The add on daft has this:
Screams asbestos
Wood is clearly rotten here
Deck is also rotten, at what is probably the end of the fall, so whole thing needs replacing
And not to mention probable serious cold bridging here
I genuinely appreciate your pointing these things out. As I said, neither my husband nor I know much about construction; we honestly did not know those pictures indicated problems. I can now see the wood is rotting along the roof edge, but I had no idea when we looked six months ago. I'm embarrassed to have been so naive. We've learned the hard way and I can now see those photos and recognise a problem, but we were babes in the woods six months ago. Neither of us had ever seriously looked at houses and so we were figuring out some things as we went along.
The Independent is more clear about the house's needing refurbishment, but the original listing said this: "The property requires a little updating but what a canvas to work on!" In the States, usually when a property needs "updating," it means cosmetic work instead of full-on refurbishment. It can certainly mean the latter, but US listings tend to be a little more clear about a property needing serious work. The phrase "fixer-upper" is often used in American listings, but it wasn't used here. :) My husband is an Irish citizen who grew up in Ireland, but we were both looking at listings through an American eye when we started. I especially still need help figuring out what some terms mean! :) I also thought the agent would be honest about what the house needed; happily the other agents we worked with were honest.
Asbestos isn't hard to remove, but, as you said, it does require money. At the end of our tour, spitballing with the estate agent, the bare minimum we came up with for all the work required on the house was around €300,000. The agent said there was no "wiggle room" on the price, so it was well over €1M for a house that we weren't particularly enthused about.
It really wasn't too bad in the end; as I said, we both got to see Wexford for the first time, and we loved it. Gorgeous city with so much fascinating history!
Thank you so much for saying this! Very kind of you. :) My husband grew up in Ireland and is an Irish citizen; he has never felt the US was "home," and neither have I, to be honest. I've been to Ireland several times and there is nowhere else we'd rather live. I have Irish ancestry (I do know this doesn't technically make me Irish), and I have been fascinated with Ireland since I was a child, even though no one around me ever brought it up in any way. I'm sure some people will think of me as a "blow-in," and I am, but my husband isn't; he is just coming home. It's been a long time. A nasty estate agent isn't going to put him off returning home. :)
Paddy Moloney's house in Laragh Co. Wicklow on the market;
An hour up the road from Curracloe for @emeraldsky to have a look at.
A D2 BER and the pine cladding might be off-putting, but a nice house just the same, and great history.
That's absolutely beautiful, inside and out.
Paddy Moloney just went up a bit more in my estimation. Very understated house. National Geographic subscription and couldn't care less about 70 inch TV's.
Honestly I'd buy it in a heartbeat if I had the cash. I own a car with a very interesting history and a very well known previous owner. It gives me a nice tingle every time I get into it knowing who may or may not have sat in it.
A great find for the thread.
Going to have a look at it later.
Having been house-hunting in that neck of the woods this time last year €1.1m for a 170m2 house needing a massive refurb is bang in the middle of market pricing. Anything of that size (and plenty without the garden space to take an extension) was over €1m 12 months ago, and based on the general age of the housing stock in D14 most would require anoher 300-500k to modernise them on top of that.
500k to modernise is insane. The market is so screwed right now.
No way it would cost within an 'asses roar' of €500k to modernise that house. Not a chance unless you were putting in gold toilets or building a large extension onto it.
I didn't say that specific house. I said the majority of what's been for sale in that range in D14 would take between €300-500k to modernise.
Try reading the post instead of strawmanning
Everyone wants large extensions. People are obsessed with having houses bigger than they need.
3 acres and what looks like a converted shed for 200k outside roundwood.
"Occupied under terms unknown", indeed
Is there neighbour houses right up on top of you just behind the house. You cannot see the buildings in the drone shot or are they sheds?
I think they are probably the out buildings mentioned. I guess if it's BidX1 then it's been repossessed by the bank, but whoever is there won't leave?
Take a chill pill there boss.
So it's 300k for a site...a nice site but still!
I wonder how busy that beach and footpath walkway gets. Plus it's fairly built up too with houses. If I was to live in the countryside I would like privacy especially for that price and as you say it's just a site an over priced site in my eyes.
That field in the middle of the forest is mad too. What ever the reason is. Maybe another farmer owns the land with forestry.
Beautiful spot, and Donegal is lovely, but who is making these prices? It's a ruin on a small site. Granted, you possibly won't need planning permission, but fecking baltic up there for much of the year.
How much would that likely have been 4-5 years ago? Would it even have been €50k?
That is gorgeous!!! My husband and I had a look and we love it! The views are incredible, as is the interior. It is a little expensive, though. Almost a million euros - wow. Paddy Moloney must have been a hell of a guy. ;) Thank you for pointing that one out. I love Co. Wicklow and we've been looking at many houses in that area. I'd love to live in the Wicklow Mountains. (Though... don't people disappear from there from time to time??)
@Citizen Six Perhaps that is so for many people (wanting to expand on the house), but in the case of the 'asbestos house,' the 300k estimate was simply to fix what was broken, not to add on to anything.
So you buy a house for a relatively cheap price and spend lots more money on protracted legal processes to have the person leave what is now "your" new house
You could always move in with them I guess.
You couldn't, the sitting tenant would get compensation from the subsequent RTB hearing. Tenants rights are very strong here, it can takes years to evict them legally even of they stop paying rent and wreck the place.
I kind of like this one but you just know you're in for a tough uphill battle against the mould when they're showing you the dehumidifier in the photos
Streetview from 11 years ago has a for sale sign on the property.
I was only joking anyway.
