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

Bobeagleburger · 27-03-2020 11:00pm

Maitguel wrote: »

Just finalising my mortgage this week and the sense I got from my branch manager is that there could be a change coming in relation to mortgage lending so if you really want to be on the property market you may find it difficult later on in the year.

We are going to proceed in any event as the property is still good value all things considered and there will be still be other buyers out there despite the economy going to ****. Not everyone will lose their job and there will be work to be done once this is all over.

I can understand buyers in Dublin and surrounding areas wanting to hedge their bets, but it all depends on the particular properties. You will get cheaper properties after this but it might not be in the area you want

Of course your branch manager will say that! He's selling you a product....

Id expect a big drop in house prices and would walk away from any deal tbh. Personal opinion.

Logan Roy · 27-03-2020 11:31pm

Might not be the right place to ask this, but is a mortgage offer letter binding? Is there any way a bank can withdraw the offer before the 6 month validity ends? Our jobs are safe so not concerned about this, more about banks deciding not to lend. We're well within the central bank limits and could afford to put in a bigger than 20% deposit (second time buyers). The house we intend to buy won't be ready until the summer and contracts haven't been received yet so there's probably some scope for a reduced price if the market heads that way.

guyfawkes5 · 27-03-2020 11:40pm

Approval in principle is not binding, not sure about the offer letter which is per property and is made when you're sale agreed.

Logan Roy · 27-03-2020 11:42pm

guyfawkes5 wrote: »

Approval in principle is not binding, not sure about the offer letter which is per property and is made when you're sale agreed.

We have the offer letter, we're sale agreed on the new property.

guyfawkes5 · 27-03-2020 11:53pm

Apologies, you mentioned that in your original post! I have no idea unfortunately.

Maitguel · 28-03-2020 12:01am

6 wrote: »

Of course your branch manager will say that! He's selling you a product....

Id expect a big drop in house prices and would walk away from any deal tbh. Personal opinion.

I get that, but i thought commission/ incentives were gone for bank employees on lending products so nothing really in it for him whether I take it or not?

Maitguel · 28-03-2020 12:02am

6 wrote: »

Of course your branch manager will say that! He's selling you a product....

Id expect a big drop in house prices and would walk away from any deal tbh. Personal opinion.

I get that, but i thought commission/ incentives were gone for bank employees on lending products so nothing really in it for him whether I take it or not?

Deco99 · 28-03-2020 12:16am

6 wrote: »

Of course your branch manager will say that! He's selling you a product....

Id expect a big drop in house prices and would walk away from any deal tbh. Personal opinion.

What experience in buying or selling property would you have? Curious if you've ever purchased

0gac3yjefb5sv7 · 28-03-2020 1:04am

Any risk in sending a booking deposit in the current climate in case the EA went bust?

mcbert · 28-03-2020 1:18am

So is that the end of house surveys for a while or could they somehow be in the essential services category?

Bobeagleburger · 28-03-2020 1:19am

Deco99 wrote: »

What experience in buying or selling property would you have? Curious if you've ever purchased

Homeowner

Bobeagleburger · 28-03-2020 1:20am

Daveys think prices could fall up to 20%

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/construction/stock-market-moves-indicate-new-house-prices-could-fall-up-to-20-1.4210823

vmb · 28-03-2020 9:39am

we have just exchanged contracts with the buyers and conveyance date is due the 20th of April. With the new "stay at home" measures I wonder if the buyers will be able to move in.

Any info about this?

Nijmegen · 28-03-2020 9:43am

vmb wrote: »

we have just exchanged contracts with the buyers and conveyance date is due the 20th of April. With the new "stay at home" measures I wonder if the buyers will be able to move in.

Any info about this?

Well do they live within 2km of the house?

I think no completions will be happening till this is over.

ZX7R · 28-03-2020 9:48am

Logan Roy wrote: »

We have the offer letter, we're sale agreed on the new property.

Have you signed the mortgage contract with your solicitor .

wirelessdude01 · 28-03-2020 10:25am

vmb wrote: »

we have just exchanged contracts with the buyers and conveyance date is due the 20th of April. With the new "stay at home" measures I wonder if the buyers will be able to move in.

Any info about this?

Was meant to be collecting our flooring today and the keys on Monday. God only knows when all of this will happen now.

Logan Roy · 28-03-2020 10:40am

ZX7R wrote: »

Have you signed the mortgage contract with your solicitor .

Not yet, main priority at this stage is to get our own sale over the line, i'm not too concerned about the new house or getting a mortgage when the time comes as we are asking for much less than 3.5x combined earnings. Famous last words and all that though! :pac:

ZX7R · 28-03-2020 11:54am

Logan Roy wrote: »

Not yet, main priority at this stage is to get our own sale over the line, i'm not too concerned about the new house or getting a mortgage when the time comes as we are asking for much less than 3.5x combined earnings. Famous last words and all that though! :pac:

Ok best of luck

0gac3yjefb5sv7 · 28-03-2020 12:17pm

Pheonix10 wrote: »

Any risk in sending a booking deposit in the current climate in case the EA went bust?

Anyone?

akesha · 28-03-2020 12:20pm

Hi all,

we are selling our house and completion date is in two weeks.

My husband and I are very concerned due to all this situation:

- last week buyers signed the contract and the loan has been issued
- our contract does NOT have any clause to get the buyers out of the deal
- this week we exchanged signed contracts and entered in a binding contract with a completion date in 2 weeks
- We are not living in the house, so this is ready for them so we told our solicitor to try and get an earlier closing date
- We left the keys in the house, only person with a key is the state agent

Now we are seeing the news with the new measures and we are wondering if buyers would be able to do what's needed to close the deal.

Are solicitors able to perform their duties regarding getting the funds from the banks?
Would be possible for state agent (who I know is working from home), to get the key and deliver to the buyers?

ZX7R · 28-03-2020 12:25pm

akesha wrote: »

Hi all,

we are selling our house and completion date is in two weeks.

My husband and I are very concerned due to all this situation:

- last week buyers signed the contract and the loan has been issued
- our contract does NOT have any clause to get the buyers out of the deal
- this week we exchanged signed contracts and entered in a binding contract with a completion date in 2 weeks
- We are not living in the house, so this is ready for them so we told our solicitor to try and get an earlier closing date
- We left the keys in the house, only person with a key is the state agent

Now we are seeing the news with the new measures and we are wondering if buyers would be able to do what's needed to close the deal.

Are solicitors able to perform their duties regarding getting the funds from the banks?
Would be possible for state agent (who I know is working from home), to get the key and deliver to the buyers?

Yes solicitors will be able to perform there duties , even if things still need to be singed for whatever reason,they can do this by post.
Bank transfers will go ahead but may experience some delays due to the current situation.

beauf · 28-03-2020 12:30pm

Pheonix10 wrote: »

Any risk in sending a booking deposit in the current climate in case the EA went bust?

There was always risk. Yes. Everyone in that chain including the builder could go bust. Is it more risky now, yes. How could it not be.

I assume the biggest slow down will be in new builds.

TheSheriff · 28-03-2020 12:32pm

Pheonix10 wrote: »

Any risk in sending a booking deposit in the current climate in case the EA went bust?

Of course there is risk!

Experience_day · 28-03-2020 12:34pm

Anecdotal but my GF who works in mortgage portfolio for one of the larger banks says they will be scaling back mortgages a fair bit. Fair few people who reckon they'll get mortgages are going to get a surprise shortly...

Tricky situation, buy now and potentially lose value on house or wait for cheaper prices and not be able to get a mortgage... can see some people fearing a repeat of last time having to rent for 5 years instead of paying of a mortgage..

No right answers here..

vmb · 28-03-2020 1:04pm

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Was meant to be collecting our flooring today and the keys on Monday. God only knows when all of this will happen now.

how are you going to collect the keys? I do not know if state agents are able to perform any task at this moment.

As seller the only thing I guess I can do is by posting the keys to the buyer directly but I understand that is completely abnormal.

Same thing about house pre inspection, our state agent wont do it. We recorded a video before leaving the house showing it's empty and ok, hope the buyer will be happy with it

tomister · 28-03-2020 3:01pm

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Was meant to be collecting our flooring today and the keys on Monday. God only knows when all of this will happen now.

In the exact same boat here. Was meant to get keys on Friday but the bank misplaced some of my documents so the solicitor had to resubmit.
Drawdown is now Monday and flooring was going in on the Monday too. Need to be out of the apartment in 2 weeks....
No idea where I stand now

beggars_bush · 28-03-2020 3:11pm

Was talking to someone who works in a planning department of a council in Dublin.

They've been told to keep working from home on projects and have as much stuff as possible ready to go when this crisis is over

beauf · 28-03-2020 3:28pm

tomister wrote: »

In the exact same boat here. Was meant to get keys on Friday but the bank misplaced some of my documents so the solicitor had to resubmit.
Drawdown is now Monday and flooring was going in on the Monday too. Need to be out of the apartment in 2 weeks....
No idea where I stand now

If you have heat, water and toilets you could move in. Don't need flooring. Think of it like glamping.

wirelessdude01 · 28-03-2020 6:21pm

beauf wrote: »

If you have heat, water and toilets you could move in. Don't need flooring. Think of it like glamping.

You also need beds and white goods. None of which are being delivered right now by any shops.

Maitguel · 28-03-2020 7:17pm

The comment regarding the funds with the EA I would imagine at contract stage the deposit has already been acknowledged by both the EA and in the contract itself therefore the seller through their agent has acknowledged receipt of same and if the money was to disappear it would be a matter for the seller and the EA. If the EA goes bust and you still want to complete the sale I can’t see how the seller losing the money would be the buyers concern. The opposite applies if the buyer wishes to pull out, so potential a risk there.

Regarding the mortgages, I got the same impression that I need to push on with the application ASAP. Can anyone say what happened previously with lending as I thought banks would still lend to FTB if they had the deposit and otherwise financial circumstances? Do they request large deposits or that you have been saving for longer??

guyfawkes5 · 28-03-2020 7:52pm

Maitguel wrote: »

Regarding the mortgages, I got the same impression that I need to push on with the application ASAP. Can anyone say what happened previously with lending as I thought banks would still lend to FTB if they had the deposit and otherwise financial circumstances? Do they request large deposits or that you have been saving for longer??

I successfully applied for AIP to BoI in October and EBS at the start of this month as a FTB.

I was just shy of a 10% deposit on my application to BoI, but they were happy to overlook that with a promise of a letter gifting the deficit written into the AIP (which could then be withdrawn if I had the full amount when I was ready to go sale agreed on a property).

Neither had any particular stipulations about deposit beyond the legal minimum. The only hard lines I ran into were regarding career, like being full time and not on probation, and not taking out any additional loans after you get the AIP letter.

Logan Roy · 28-03-2020 8:05pm

Experience_day wrote: »

Anecdotal but my GF who works in mortgage portfolio for one of the larger banks says they will be scaling back mortgages a fair bit. Fair few people who reckon they'll get mortgages are going to get a surprise shortly...

Tricky situation, buy now and potentially lose value on house or wait for cheaper prices and not be able to get a mortgage... can see some people fearing a repeat of last time having to rent for 5 years instead of paying of a mortgage..

No right answers here..

Genuine question here as I was still in university during the last recession. When. banks scale back lending how does this work? Do they just make the criteria stricter? Unwillingness to lend over a set amount?

Duckjob · 28-03-2020 8:54pm

Pheonix10 wrote: »

Any risk in sending a booking deposit in the current climate in case the EA went bust?

Not an expert but my understanding is that EAs like solicitors are required by law to maintain a separate client account for holding client money which would include booking deposits.

This account is completely separate from the nominal business accounts of the EA so even if they did go bust, the money couldn't be claimed by any creditor as it would be legally recognised that the money was simply being held on behalf of clients and it would have to be returned.

Nijmegen · 28-03-2020 10:47pm

Logan Roy wrote: »

Genuine question here as I was still in university during the last recession. When. banks scale back lending how does this work? Do they just make the criteria stricter? Unwillingness to lend over a set amount?

They have quotas of what they will lend out based on how much they in fact can do so safely versus their own capital requirements etc. So when the money dries up on their side, the amount they lend will too. That’s why the central banks spend so much effort putting liquidity into banks, so they’ll have cash to lend.

29-03-2020 9:08am

tomister wrote: »

In the exact same boat here. Was meant to get keys on Friday but the bank misplaced some of my documents so the solicitor had to resubmit.
Drawdown is now Monday and flooring was going in on the Monday too. Need to be out of the apartment in 2 weeks....
No idea where I stand now

We were meant to be doing our final walkthrough yesterday, signing on Tuesday. This had all been held up by solicitor and estate agent falling to send us responses from the seller's solicitor to some structural queries we had. Now our viewing and signing have been put on hold and we're not sure if our mortgage letter of offer will still stand if there's a requirement to get the valuation done again.

We would already be moved into the place if the solicitor and estate agent had been better at communicating with us.

Frustrated isn't even the word.

DaveyDave · 29-03-2020 10:02am

DaveyDave wrote: »

Solicitor and sales coordinator emailed today. We received the completion notice, the help to buy has been claimed and the mortgage was drawn down today.

I'm doing the final inspection tomorrow, once the money has reached their account in the next 3-5 working days and the solicitor is happy it sounds like we could potentially get the keys by the end of next week, wasn't expecting anything for at least 2-3 weeks.

Exciting, but I hope we have enough time to arrange floors and furniture!

DaveyDave wrote: »

Our floor supplier is closed until further notice and IKEA aren't delivering bulky furniture, now getting the keys early will be for nothing

Bit strange they'll deliver a bed but not the mattress...

Slight update to this. Floor supplier let me know they're still working, just closed the showroom as people weren't following the appointment only rule. Although I haven't heard since the latest restrictions, I wonder if they could get around the rule of essential business as they can't work from home.

If we can get floors fit I'll move in myself. The house has appliances and I have basic furniture. Single mattress, cheap couch bed etc. It seems appliances can still be bought and delivered so should be able to get a washing machine. The GF would stay at her parent's house until we could get furniture delivered. It's not ideal but no reason I need to continue living at my mam's.

I thought we could possibly have keys by the end of this week, it might be a bit longer than that but definitely before Easter as I think they will be closing up for the break. It will be within the next two weeks so shouldn't be too bad.

Fingers crossed on the floors...

Mav11 · 29-03-2020 10:09am

Pheonix10 wrote: »

Any risk in sending a booking deposit in the current climate in case the EA went bust?

As other posters have pointed out there is always a risk but AFAIK the Property Services Regulatory Authority has a compensation fund for such events. Not that anybody would want to go down that road!!!!

29-03-2020 11:21am

DaveyDave wrote: »

Slight update to this. Floor supplier let me know they're still working, just closed the showroom as people weren't following the appointment only rule. Although I haven't heard since the latest restrictions, I wonder if they could get around the rule of essential business as they can't work from home.

If we can get floors fit I'll move in myself. The house has appliances and I have basic furniture. Single mattress, cheap couch bed etc. It seems appliances can still be bought and delivered so should be able to get a washing machine. The GF would stay at her parent's house until we could get furniture delivered. It's not ideal but no reason I need to continue living at my mam's.

I thought we could possibly have keys by the end of this week, it might be a bit longer than that but definitely before Easter as I think they will be closing up for the break. It will be within the next two weeks so shouldn't be too bad.

Fingers crossed on the floors...

I wouldn't consider a floor fitter as an essential service. & you don't need floors to live there. Years ago people lived in houses for months or years before buying furniture & getting floors done.
I would suggest everyone's health is more important than floors for your house, no offence.

Housebuying · 29-03-2020 12:00pm

We received the contracts just before the first lockdown so we haven't signed anything.

Anyone else just going to pull out? I think house prices will drop. I don't have any concerns in getting another mortgage as my LTV was small.

So it's all speculation at this stage. I'm a long time looking for the right house and was delighted to be sale agreed but can't help but think, this time next year we could get real value.

Previously burnt in the last financial crash so don't want to be in that situation again.

DaveyDave · 29-03-2020 12:20pm

bubblypop wrote: »

I wouldn't consider a floor fitter as an essential service. & you don't need floors to live there. Years ago people lived in houses for months or years before buying furniture & getting floors done.
I would suggest everyone's health is more important than floors for your house, no offence.

Of course, health is more important than floors. At the end of the day it's up to the owner. They're quite busy, I'm sure if they wanted they could take a break. The owner seems very conscious of health and distancing.

If I don't have floors for a few months it is what it is, there will be plenty of time to enjoy it down the line.

beauf · 29-03-2020 12:32pm

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

You also need beds and white goods. None of which are being delivered right now by any shops.

You really don't. You could buy a bunch of camping gear.

I moved into my house with inflatable furniture no floors and bricks and planks for furniture. We did have a fridge though.

dowhatyoulove · 29-03-2020 12:37pm

Well our site has been closed so our final walk through on the 1st will obviously not be done now. I’d be surprised if it did go ahead.

Sad about this whole process - we wanted to get drawdown at least done before everything shut. Thank goodness we hadn’t given our current landlord our notice - we were on Friday but held off.

Claw Hammer · 29-03-2020 12:45pm

dowhatyoulove wrote: »

Well our site has been closed so our final walk through on the 1st will obviously not be done now. I’d be surprised if it did go ahead.

Sad about this whole process - we wanted to get drawdown at least done before everything shut. Thank goodness we hadn’t given our current landlord our notice - we were on Friday but held off.

I doubt if your current landlord will be in any hurry for you to leave. How will he source new tenants or get any work done on the property?

wirelessdude01 · 29-03-2020 2:04pm

beauf wrote: »

You really don't. You could buy a bunch of camping gear.

I moved into my house with inflatable furniture no floors and bricks and planks for furniture. We did have a fridge though.

And where am I meant to buy this stuff?

guyfawkes5 · 29-03-2020 2:05pm

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

And where am I meant to buy this stuff?

Amazon would be a good source for camping gear or inflatable/temporary furniture.

Things like fridges are a much harder though obviously.

dar_cool · 29-03-2020 2:21pm

Electrical shops are still delivering

beauf · 29-03-2020 2:22pm

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

And where am I meant to buy this stuff?

Online? I suspect though a lot of this stuff will need in short supply.

tomister · 29-03-2020 3:17pm

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

And where am I meant to buy this stuff?

If you got stuff with DID I’d check with them. It looks like they’re still delivering but not installing. They were delivering to me on Thursday but I’ll need to cancel it now

givyjoe · 29-03-2020 8:09pm

guyfawkes5 wrote: »

Amazon would be a good source for camping gear or inflatable/temporary furniture.

Things like fridges are a much harder though obviously.

Haven't look recently, but I thought Amazon were only delivering 'essential' suppliers like cleaning products, PPE etc for a number of weeks due to demand.

beauf · 29-03-2020 11:44pm

I've got some phone covers and cables.

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

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