Keep being second at viewings :(

KatieDot

Hi,

So, myself and my Husband are trying to rent. Long story short we were trying to buy but the new central bank regs and the rise in prices in our areas have seen our bids way outmatched (south county dub) with ex council reaching 500'000.
We want to press pause. Rent for a while/year and live a little more. The problem is that we desperately need out of a way to small studio (been here for years)! But we both work insane hours in jobs with very little flexibility (60-70hour weeks).

We want a 1.5 bed (double and desk/single guest room) in an area accessible to town (d4, d2,d6, d14) and the m50. Budget is approx 1200. I'd love a small cottage or house but would take a well built (noise protected) apartment. Need min one parking space. Our friends and family and lack of time mean location is not too flexible!

What we want is coming up but at every viewing we are too late. We're great tenants - but can't negotiate work commitments to get to the apartments/call first. Neither of us can even take calls in work!!

Do any landlords out there have any suggestions for us? We have everything (refs etc) to hand. Everything but time. Have been looking for three months or more now. Getting daft updates, everything, but each time I call it's gone or someone else can view it first.

Finding it very frustrating!! Has anyone else experienced another way??

Sala

I feel for you, I didn't realize how bad things were until I decided to look at the rental stock where I want to buy to compares prices/rents of 3 bed houses and I was horrified searching D6w and there were only 5 to rent!

The CB rules could have an effect on prices so would you not hang on where you are for a few more months before you decide if buying is off the cards. Anywhere you go is likely to be substantially more than what you're paying now and will eat into your savings each month.

Daft used to have a thing where you could put up your own profile /message and landlords contact you- if it's still there it could be worth a shot, but no doubt it'll be much quieter given the supply issues

baldbear

You just have to take time off work and go and view. Landlords have all the cards now so if you see somewhere suitable ring and go asap. Explain at work and if their unfelxible tell them you have an appointment.

astrofool

It's probably worth engaging an agent to find a place on your behalf, most estate agents would help out here.

johndaman66

Yer workplaces would seem to be as bad of slave drivers as my own. 60-70 hours every week is just too taxing. Anyway were not here to discuss that.

You can set up daft alerts, so that if there is a new property added to a certain search you will be notified. I'm sure its possible to set this up so that you instantly receive a text or beep for an email etc. Also, the local newspapers should be worth a check, not everyone advertises on daft. The day they are published to get ahead of the game so as to speak.

I'd guess a lot of Landlords would accommodate you with a viewing on a weekend day or late on in the evening too irrespective of how heated the market is up there. Remember that their own work commitments might mean such times are more suitable for them too...

Getting new accommodation is life changing so if yer employers wont allow ye a couple of hours for viewings and doing yer business considering all the hours yer working to hell with them, they aren't great employers

KatieDot

Thanks all,
Unfortunately my work is client based health care so flexibility or time off is non negotiatable but I may send out an email to agents with references etc attached and ask them to think of us. That's clever!

Staying put is not an option - our workloads are heavier and our place is tiny. Don't even have a table to eat/set up a laptop at. I'm really struggling to live there and we need the move. It's damp and dark and cold! Was a great cheap pad as a postgrad student or when we were saving for somethjng (weddig etc) or recently when there were v close realities of buying but we're way priced out and it's time to be more realistic.

Sorry for the half rant. I know it's tough for everyone at the mo. just finding it really hard. It seems like a mad system that the tenants the landlords want (out a lot for work or home asleep and boring!) can't get the place fast enough!

Anyway, thanks all. Will get scanning!

BeatNikDub

The best of luck KatieDot.
Maybe if you met an agent and then they could do viewings on your behalf?

ams

Hi OP,

When I was searching for a place a couple of months ago my friend who had just gotten a place gave me the following tips which really helped me to get the place I wanted:

"You need to sell yourself a bit for nice places I've found, don't be afraid to tell them what you do for a living and how long you've been working there.

Have your work refs & landlord ref gotten and preferably sent before viewing so they are impressed by what's on them, know you mean business and are attractive as tenants."

Its not about getting there first most of the time - the landlords want someone who will care about their house etc as well - maybe focus on this a bit more.

hfallada

OP don't bother with agents. They do the minimal work, where as LLs tend to be more flexible when it comes to viewings. Eg weekends and late evenings.

Have you considered buying in Glasnevin/ Drumcondra or Phisboro if you are pushing it? There is some great large houses in Drumcondra for 500k. They have massive gardens, close to town and its as safe as most of the southside. You cant get a suburb in Dublin with more Green spaces than Glasnevin. The schools are pretty good in both suburbs. The people are mainly wealthy ABC1 people. Glasnevin and Drumcondra has a ton of wealth and old money. The joke in most private schools in town is that the media portrays private schools as for the super rich, when they are actually full of children from Glasnevin and Drumcondra.

I don't know what the obsession with South County Dublin is. Most houses are small and over priced. You can amazing houses for a lot less money on the northside. Eg you can get a 3 storey over basement with 3000 sq feet for about 425k on the NCR. The area is a bit 'Ghetto'.Phisboro has changed so much in the last 7/8 years. With higher property prices and higher regulations combined with lower returns on rental. Places like NCR will change over time into nicer neighbourhoods.

Arbiter of Good Taste

hfallada wrote: »

OP don't bother with agents. They do the minimal work, where as LLs tend to be more flexible when it comes to viewings. Eg weekends and late evenings.

Have you considered buying in Glasnevin/ Drumcondra or Phisboro if you are pushing it? There is some great large houses in Drumcondra for 500k. They have massive gardens, close to town and its as safe as most of the southside. You cant get a suburb in Dublin with more Green spaces than Glasnevin. The schools are pretty good in both suburbs. The people are mainly wealthy ABC1 people. Glasnevin and Drumcondra has a ton of wealth and old money. The joke in most private schools in town is that the media portrays private schools as for the super rich, when they are actually full of children from Glasnevin and Drumcondra.

I don't know what the obsession with South County Dublin is. Most houses are small and over priced. You can amazing houses for a lot less money on the northside. Eg you can get a 3 storey over basement with 3000 sq feet for about 425k on the NCR. The area is a bit 'Ghetto'.Phisboro has changed so much in the last 7/8 years. With higher property prices and higher regulations combined with lower returns on rental. Places like NCR will change over time into nicer neighbourhoods.

I think "SoCoDu" is pretty depressing. The nice areas on the Northside - Clontarf, Glasnevin, Drumcondra - have much more character. Granted, you may need to put a little extra legwork in to make sure you are on the "right" side of some areas, but there is good value and good people there.

witchgirl26

OP - maybe for the viewings, try dropping an email to a few of the agents managing some in the areas you're looking at explaining the situation & asking for a list of whats coming up. Also there's a section on myhome.ie that shows all house viewings (for sale at least but not sure about rental) for the next week which could be handy.

I know you mention south county dublin for buying. I'm not going to tell you to move northside as I know from experience that if all your family & friends are on one side of the city & you're on the other, it can be quite difficult. But would you consider widening your search area. I currently live in a lovely part of d24, am really near the m50 & also good links with buses & luas isn't too much of a trek either. Prices definitely not as high as you're mentioning. Also as far as I know, if you have mortgage approval in place (even in principal), the bank will honour this past 1st Jan as long as it's valid & only if you have to reapply for it, would the new rules kick in.

dudara

We recently moved house (rental). Thankfully, even though we have demanding jobs, we have flexibility in our hours and we could work around meetings etc.

I had alerts set up and would text/call/email immediately as per ad instructions. A lot of viewings actually were in the evening/weekend as that suited the landlord better. I found it better to deal with owner-landlords as they often had the same working hour constrictions as we did.

When we did go to a viewing, we were always 10-15 mins early. As well as that, we always were dressed well. We had both our work references printed out along with business cards and we told the landlord immediately what we did. We both have senior professional jobs, and we used that to our advantage.

Ultimately, despite a very hot market, we got a house within about 5-7 days of serious looking with about 10 viewings. We rejected quite a few places, as we were kind of particular about what we wanted.

Long story short, keep doing what you're doing. If you can't ring in work, then text or email. But make sure to respond, and highlight your pluses in your response. If you need to take some time off to focus on house hunting, then do that. Otherwise, you're going to get more and more stressed.