Buying a second hand house

stickybean

Hi there,

Just a few questions I am hoping someone may be able to help with please. We have just had an offer accepted on a second hand house, the family are very keen to move out as soon as possible as they have built a new house. We are keen to also move as fast as possible.

Does anyone have any hints or tips? What do we need to do? The bank are arranging a valuer. Do we need a surveyor as well?

Also we were asked about an expected content list? I thought this was something the current homeowners give to us?

The previous house we bought was a new build and with the exception of the snag the rest was straight forward.

Thanks

Little Miss Cutie

Congrats Sticky Bean

Defintiely get a surveyor, the bank valuer literally just looks at the house confirms it exists and not much else to be honest.

Regarding contents, this is important, I have seen houses were literally everything is removed all appliances, light fittings, curtain poles and once even a radiator!

In our case our contents list included a microwave but wasn't there when we moved in but they left other things that were more beneficial.

Woshy

stickybean wrote: »

Hi there,

Just a few questions I am hoping someone may be able to help with please. We have just had an offer accepted on a second hand house, the family are very keen to move out as soon as possible as they have built a new house. We are keen to also move as fast as possible.

Does anyone have any hints or tips? What do we need to do? The bank are arranging a valuer. Do we need a surveyor as well?

Also we were asked about an expected content list? I thought this was something the current homeowners give to us?

The previous house we bought was a new build and with the exception of the snag the rest was straight forward.

Thanks

Definitely get a survey done - it is so, so important. I know 3 people who have had to walk away from sales in the last few months due to things found on the survey. When we had our survey done I asked the building surveyor to look for particular things that I was concerned about as well as the regular stuff. I also wanted work done so I asked the surveyor to ensure that what we wanted to do wasn't impossible.

As for contents, surely the vendor provides these? Our house was an executor's sale so all the furniture, whiteware, contents of the shed were included. We were given an extensive list that the vendors compiled. We asked them to remove a few things (mainly beds as they are hard to get rid of) through our solicitor and that was done no problem. If it is a family moving on to a new house they'd probably want to take most of the stuff with them I'd imagine but you should get a contents list from them (our EA gave that to us, not our solicitor).

Another thing I was advised is to ensure the attic has been emptied as a few people I know bought houses and there was loads of crap left up there. I got our solicitor to put in the contracts that the attic had to be emptied.

stickybean

Thanks for the advice guys, really appreciate it.

We have the valuer booked and we are pricing a surveyor.

We asked the EA and he said the family are doing a content list and will have it later this week... he said some firms like to get and expected content list to negotiate a price... no idea as we already have an agreed price...

We are hoping to convert the attic so I might ask the surveyor to look into that whilst there.

P. Breathnach

As a rough guideline, you are entitled to regard anything that is a fixture or a fitting ar part of the house - but that's fairly rough.

For example:
- curtain rails, yes; curtains, arguably no (although they are often left because they don't suit the vendor's new property).
- built-in cooker, yes; microwave on kitchen counter, no.

List what you see as being part of the house (don't forget light fittings - there is sometimes annoyance about them).

travist

how much does a survey cost for a standard 3bed semi in Dublin?

Woshy

stickybean wrote: »

Thanks for the advice guys, really appreciate it.

We have the valuer booked and we are pricing a surveyor.

We asked the EA and he said the family are doing a content list and will have it later this week... he said some firms like to get and expected content list to negotiate a price... no idea as we already have an agreed price...

We are hoping to convert the attic so I might ask the surveyor to look into that whilst there.

Sounds like it's all coming together anyway - best of luck and congrats

It's great that both parties want to get things done and dusted as quick as possible. We had that with our house sale, both us and the vendors had everything ready to go and were pretty proactive and we went from sale agreed to having the keys in 7 weeks.

Woshy

travist wrote: »

how much does a survey cost for a standard 3bed semi in Dublin?

Ours was 275 and all the quotes I got were around that price (250 - 300).

Mrs OBumble

stickybean wrote: »

We asked the EA and he said the family are doing a content list and will have it later this week... he said some firms like to get and expected content list to negotiate a price... no idea as we already have an agreed price...

There's a warning bell ringing, I think.

I hope that the price you agreed was what you are happy to pay just for the house, and not for any of the contents.

Likely the vendors are making a list of the chattels that they would like to sell you in addition to the house. Worst case you may get a nasty surprise about how much these are (in their opinion) worth.

Del2005

Don't forget to get the bits below ground inspected also. A proper survey of underground services is money well spent.

stickybean

travist wrote: »

how much does a survey cost for a standard 3bed semi in Dublin?

I've got 3 quotes so far: €390, €290 and €280

They seem to cover the same areas... just going through them

What made you guess it was a three bed semi?

stickybean

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

There's a warning bell ringing, I think.

I hope that the price you agreed was what you are happy to pay just for the house, and not for any of the contents.

Likely the vendors are making a list of the chattels that they would like to sell you in addition to the house. Worst case you may get a nasty surprise about how much these are (in their opinion) worth.

I thought that to... to be honest withe the exception of the kitchen (it's integrated) and the shed (which has been made into the wall (hard to explain)), I'm happy for everything else to be taken... If there is anything left, bonus!!! They have some great taste

stickybean

Woshy wrote: »

Sounds like it's all coming together anyway - best of luck and congrats

It's great that both parties want to get things done and dusted as quick as possible. We had that with our house sale, both us and the vendors had everything ready to go and were pretty proactive and we went from sale agreed to having the keys in 7 weeks.

Wow 7 weeks, that's very impressive, I'm hoping 9/10 weeks which will take us to just after Christmas

Little Miss Cutie

stickybean wrote: »

Wow 7 weeks, that's very impressive, I'm hoping 9/10 weeks which will take us to just after Christmas

We managed it in 6 including the vendors being on holidays for 2 weeks it can be done even quicker