Asking Price????

s.dunne

im trying to buy a house as a first time buyer. been trying to view houses in my area and the first question auctioneers have asked me on the phone is "do i have finance guaranteed?" if not then i wont be shown house. surely it is ok to view houses to see what you can currently get for your money - it supposed to be a buyers market, the houses i want to look at have been on the market for at least 2years plus and are 240,000, they not selling at all. so if i go to my bank and ask for 240,000 and then go back to auctioneer and say yes i got finance, they then know i can get 240,000 and im left nothing to bargain with. in other words they wont show the property until they know they getting the right price! how do i know in the current market whether they are worth 240,000. perhaps in the current climate they only worth 200,000. what do you do in this situation? it seems that the auctioneers are blocking potential sales unless they can guarantee a price and the properties still not selling. Even when you google property prices...it like they in denial, cloud cuckoo land. gone is the day of 4 beds going for 250/290,000 in my area.

liger

s.dunne wrote: »

im trying to buy a house as a first time buyer. been trying to view houses in my area and the first question auctioneers have asked me on the phone is "do i have finance guaranteed?" if not then i wont be shown house. .

Just Say your mortgage approved. You dont need to prove anything to them. If they say you cant view a house then tell them your writing to the homeowner advising them their EA is Declining potential buyers from seeing their house.

And never discuss with the EA with your limits are, How much your approved for or anything like that, it will hurt your bargaining position if you want to make a bid.

The_Conductor

It really depends, is the short and simple.
Houses tend to be second hand properties with sitting owners, who would view a first time buyer viewing with a degree of suspicion. Normally they will have to vacate the house for a morning or an afternoon to facilitate a viewing. Unless they know that the people viewing have the funds to put where their mouths are- it simply isn't worth their while. I am aware of one owner of a 4 bed in Lucan village- who has had offers made on his house 7 times since last September ('09) and all fell through- as the prospective purchasers simply were incapable of following through.

With regard access to finance- I don't know whether you have approached a lender recently- but they have battened down the hatches, mortgage offers (as opossed to offers in principle), which were once a routine affair, now take months- and the amounts lenders are willing to lend- have fallen significantly.

Typically- you can now get a max of 80% of the LTV, subject to a max of 5 times gross or 8 times net salary, and repayments of less than 30% of net at current rates. This is reduced by any debts being repaid to any organisations. Also- deposits are no longer available from any of the credit unions (under last weeks instruction- as it looks like we have 23 insolvent unions nationwide).

It may very well be a buyers market- but you are only a buyer when you have the funds to make a purchase- you are wasting both your time and the time of any estate agent or auctioneer- if you do not have your finances arranged.

liger

smccarrick wrote: »

With regard access to finance- I don't know whether you have approached a lender recently- but they have battened down the hatches, mortgage offers (as opossed to offers in principle), which were once a routine affair, now take months- and the amounts lenders are willing to lend- have fallen significantly.

Its not really practical to go get mortgage offers unless your sure of a house you want to buy. I was in with broker recently and he was saying that approval last for 3months so if you get that before you start looking it could be easily expired before you see anywhere you like.

At least after dealing with him i have a ballpark figure of what I can borrow. What i find difficult is finding a house thats sensibly priced, I've seen a 3bed extended house listed at 299k but right around the corner there's a 4bed semi listed for 298k.

I made an offer for a 3bed mid terrece house few weeks back, asking 195k and i offered 122k explaining in detail why the offer was that low, Similar house in esate on market for 160k and work required to house etc. They just took it off the market.

s.dunne

liger wrote: »

Just Say your mortgage approved. You dont need to prove anything to them. If they say you cant view a house then tell them your writing to the homeowner advising them their EA is Declining potential buyers from seeing their house.

And never discuss with the EA with your limits are, How much your approved for or anything like that, it will hurt your bargaining position if you want to make a bid.

Thank you - I wasn't sure If they could ask me to provide mortgage approved written validation... but thats great.. thanks

s.dunne

I totally understand that some "buyers" are potentially timewasters. I wouldnt look at any house if i didnt think I had a chance as i have a deposit saved etc, have approached bank... understand it will be sticky but i am hopeful..

Treehouse72

s.dunne wrote: »

I totally understand that some "buyers" are potentially timewasters.

The corollary is also true: EA's are wasting our time with their absurd asking prices. These people are still living in cloud cookoo land, although in fairness to them they are not alone in that in this godforsaken bloody country.

True story: Since 2006 when I returned to Ireland from elsewhere I have yet to come across what I would consider a competent or fully professional EA. Have dealt with probably a half dozen of them acting as sales and letting agents. A spectacularly unimpressive bunch.