The right offer

Dubsey

Hi all,

FTB so just looking for a bit of advice. We are looking to buy a house in Malahide and have found one that we are really interested in. It is a 3 bed semi in a good estate and the current asking price is €420K. It is a desirable area but I was expecting to be offering in the region of 10 - 20% less than the asking price, however, the estate agent tells us that there is curreently an offer on it of €400K.

My question is how likely is it that this is true and is he just trying to make us pay more and force us to make a decision?

Thanks for any thoughts/advice.

D.

ricman

HE could be making it up , theres no way of telling.IF hes lying , say ,wait a week,then offer 380/90 the offer might be accepted.Look on daft.ie , what are similar houses in the area going for?
IF the house is worth x k to you ,you can wait and make an offer.
ITS a buyers market, no one can force you to pay over the value for any house.
Have a look at other houses in the area , you may find a house that has a bigger kitchen for the same price.

Idbatterim

That is still a damn large sum of money, what would you pay in rent per month for a similar house?

Duckjob

400k+ for a 3 bed semi. Sweet Jesus.

SoupyNorman

Dubsey wrote: »

Thanks for any thoughts/advice.
D.

Thoughts:

If you buy a 3bed semi anywhere in Dublin for anything close to €400k you will be regarded as a lunatic and you will deserve the big fat mortgage repayments chained around your neck.

Advice:

Dont buy for 2 years.

Zamboni

SoupyNorman wrote: »

Thoughts:

If you buy a 3bed semi anywhere in Dublin for anything close to €400k you will be regarded as a lunatic and you will deserve the big fat mortgage repayments chained around your neck.

Advice:

Dont buy for 2 years.

I have to be honest, whilst I completely agree with this, it is bugging the crap out of me that decent 3 bed semis are not dropping to decent value yet.
I've seen a lot of price drops all over Dublin from 500k - 600k bracket down into the 400k but I haven't seen a decent 3 bed in the area I am looking at drop less than the €340k mark.
I don't know how the vendors are still holding on.
I've seen around 20 specific houses that haven't dropped a penny since this time last year still up for sale.They must be executor sales where there is no rush to buy.
Then there is a bunch of idiot FTB's doing the old dead cat bounce giving the false impression of moving market.
'Patience is a virtue' is a damned understatement

Either way, paying 400+ for a 3 bed in Malahide is pure lunacy.

ntlbell

Put your bid to them.

Tell them it's live for one week and move on.

You'll know pretty quickly if there playing a game.

SoupyNorman

Zamboni wrote: »

Then there is a bunch of idiot FTB's doing the old dead cat bounce giving the false impression of moving market.
'Patience is a virtue' is a damned understatement

I sincerely believe we're in a dead cat bounce scenario at the moment. Two guys in work have signed on the dotted line for apartments, and I've heard anecdotal evidence of more buying.

Unfortunately we'll always have suckers, people who believe EA's, people who live in their own reality and are frivolous with their money.

The line currently is, 'buy now or there'll only be the dregs left' . Hilarious stuff, sure we had massive oversupply even at full employment 2years ago and now emigration is ballooning to further weaken demand.

Bobeagleburger

420k for a 3 bed semi detached ? :eek:

I'd offer 280k cause that's about the right price.

SoupyNorman

rarnes1 wrote: »

I'd offer 280k cause that's about the right price.

Based on what?

You simply cannot pluck a value out of the sky. The €420k is the asking as thats what all other houses are asking give or take the Vendor delusion factor, I and you do not agree with that price but there is at least a rational behind it. If we dont like or cant afford the house then we simply dont buy it, we cant barge in and tell them what we will pay.

I can guess there are 10 (oh wait, 11)similar houses for sale in the local the OP is interested in, all similar size and all in the €400k range so one is propping up the other as long as they are shifting. If they dont shift, one will start to creep down in price, then another then another....Demand and Supply in action.


The house maybe worth €280k in 1/2 or 3 years time but you'll have to wait for the market to dictate that, not you.

Treehouse72

Dubsey wrote: »

My question is how likely is it that this is true and is he just trying to make us pay more and force us to make a decision

It is exceedingly unlikely. It seems that every house you bid on has a bid on it just under asking, and yet the PTSB/ESRI monthly housing report has just had to be changed to a quarterly report because of the tiny volume of traded properties. This is entirely inconsistent with the lies EA's are telling.

The last of those PTSB/ESRI reports showed that in Q1 2010, property prices dropped 10.3% in Dublin:

http://www.esri.ie/irish_economy/permanent_tsbesri_house_p/

That was publised 15 days ago, so is fresh information. The latest and best snapshot we have.

On a €400,000 house, that is a drop of - gulp - €12,000 PER MONTH. If you bought it on January 1, by March 30 it would have dropped almost €40,000 in value.

Now, I may be exaggerating somewhat in being so literal - just because that's the average drop doesn't mean these specific houses are literally dropping that much. But it is possible they are. One way or the other, a sensible and conservative assessment would be that it's likely these properties are dropping in value 3% per month.

Bottom line: you would be absolutely insane to buy now considering the foregoing.

gurramok

Dual income FTB taking out a jumbo mortgage for a 'nice' address on a 3bed semi.

Have you factored in the repayments if one of you lose your job/get illness/have a child/rates rise?

A couple with kids where one lost their job were on Ghostland(RTE) last night, they are screwed financially and stranded for many years in Belmayne, they took out a 350k mortgage.

niallo27

gurramok wrote: »

Dual income FTB taking out a jumbo mortgage for a 'nice' address on a 3bed semi.

Have you factored in the repayments if one of you lose your job/get illness/have a child/rates rise?

A couple with kids where one lost their job were on Ghostland(RTE) last night, they are screwed financially and stranded for many years in Belmayne, they took out a 350k mortgage.

I bet you are Mr popular down the pub on a Saturday night

astrofool

Ask why they haven't bitten the arm off the 400k bidder.

gurramok

niallo27 wrote: »

I bet you are Mr popular down the pub on a Saturday night

A realist ;)

stepbar

I wouldn't believe the lord's prayer from an EA. They are (along with valuers) imo the main architects of the **** we're in at the moment. Too much credence was given to their 'professional opinion'. Mind you a very special mention must be given to the vendors who seem to have no clue at all. To the OP, walk very quickly away. It's gas, I had a call from an EA this week trying to tout a piece of tut to me - 'great value at 169k' ah yeah great value that one bed about 500m away from ballymun. Great value indeed.... and you wonder how many other mugs that line has been tried on.

ricman

Ballymanye, someone paid 350k for a house in the middle of nowhere.Its
hard to have sympathy for someone like that.IF someone pays 400k for a house in malahide,they are paying x amount for the area ,its not like coolock where theres dozens of houses for sale. I reckon you could buy a nice house in stoneybatter for 250 .i think you,d need to be on 70k to afford that mortgage, in a very secure job.
I Presumed the ghost estates were outside citys ,going for 200k approx.I,M not an expert
on malahide so i do not know if its a fair price.Small areas , villages on the southside tend to be expensive cos theres only a limited amount of homes for sale.

the_syco

Dubsey wrote: »

the estate agent tells us that there is curreently an offer on it of €400K.

Offer €380 with a time limit of one week, and then walk away. See how the f**ker likes to jump though your hoops.

Colonel Sanders

Tell the EA to advise the vendor to accept the 400k offer is it's very generous in this climate

unklerosco

We where looking at houses out in Malahide, I'm guessing ur looking in and around Seabury going by the price. We've decided to rent, was gonna rent in Seabury(ave rent seems to be about €1250 with a bit of haggling) but decided to rent down the road in Gartan, same size house as one we looked at in Seabury that was going for €1200. Got the house in Gartan for €900pm.

The houses out there are definitely not worth €400k, we've been looking at houses out there for the last 2 months and there's not a chance I'd pay that for one of them... They've a long long way to go....

stepbar

the_syco wrote: »

Offer €380k

Are you mad?

dan_d

OP, let me put this in perspective for you. I live in Rush and paid 389k for a big 4 bed semi D 2 years ago.
That house is overpriced, and trading on the fact that it is in Malahide to sell. A couple of miles west, in Swords you will find bigger houses for less. I'm from this area of north county Dublin - I grew up in Lusk., with school friends from Balbriggan/Donabate/Rush/Swords/Malahide The only difference between Swords and Malahide is the train line. And if you want a train line, then look at Donabate or Lusk or somewhere - again bigger houses for less money, just as good train service, and little or no difference in commuting.

the_syco

stepbar wrote: »

Are you mad?

Maybe :P but without seeing the house, I could also say to offer €900.

TwoShedsJackson

Now now, Belmayne is not in the middle of nowhere, it's right beside Darndale

mathie

dan_d wrote: »

The only difference between Swords and Malahide is the train line.

The Swords Marina / Estuary must be pretty well hidden so!

There is far, far more to differentiate Swords and Malahide than a train line.

plasmaguy

Honestly, I think house prices will probably end up returning to where they were circa the year 2000, before all the hype began which drove them through the roof.

Find out what the price was in the year 2000 and offer that.

Idbatterim

out of all of them and not knowing much about Malahide or its areas, that detached house for 395k, would probably appeal to me, more than the rest of them. Also I reckon that the lower, the asking price (that in alot of cases, the owners are more desperate to sell), meaning you could conceivably haggle more.

mathie

We lived in Malahide for a few years, sold and are now renting in a better part of Malahide.

Let me just say that my experience of Estate Agents in the area has been absolutley shocking.

- We were lied to by the first EA we tried to sell our house with. He constantly told us there was a mortgage approved buyer. Turns out after weekes and months there wasn't. And the clincher the EA was showing people around our house and recommending buyers to look at the new houses in the estate (as he was selling them for the developer)

- At the moment we're looking to buy. Mostly just looking and putting lowball offers in. We put a lowball offer on a place. It was the highest offer. Then we got someone else to ring up and ask if there were any offers. The EA said there were ... and then proceeded to say the incorrect amount. The EA also said 'Give me a call back in a few weeks to arrange a viewing as I'm busy.'

Not sure if it's just unique to Malahide but it's kinda shocking.

JuliusCaesar

mathie wrote: »

Not sure if it's just unique to Malahide but it's kinda shocking.

Not unique.....goes on all over the country!

SoupyNorman

stepbar wrote: »

I wouldn't believe the lord's prayer from an EA. They are (along with valuers) imo the main architects of the **** we're in at the moment. Too much credence was given to their 'professional opinion'.

It boils down to the fact that EA's didnt have to 'sell' anything, they just popped the massive asking prices on accepted the deposits. Now the tables have well and truly turned, they are being made work for a change although I find it amusing that rather then take on the challenge with some gusto they decide to become dismissive, arrogant and aggressive. I think I'll throw obnoxious in there too...

The state of most 2nd hand homes up for sale is utterly shocking, not so much as a damp cloth run over the counter tops. EA's (in my and friends experience) make zero effort to make a property marketable. I've viewed a few properties to rent over the last couple of years that looked like freshly vacated crack dens. I challenged one EA for lettings us view a property that could be described lightly as 'filthy' to which he just shrugged his shoulders.

I do believe that an EA following this example would severely increase the chance of making a sale...even with the still over-inflated prices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-78hfZOu_s