Anyone know this property.

irishivan

Hi all
We've been looking at a house for sale in kilcolgan co galway. It's a repossession old stone farmhouse,the estate agents have given us feck all info after asking him several times & reckons its had loads of interest.
We have found out a bit of interesting info (thanks Ross) through this forum but would like to find out more. We're going to view it next week & are concerned it might be a waste of our time & money traveling there.
If anyone knows anything about the house, its history,the previous owner/developer or anything about the area, the agent (Shane mcdonagh).
Anything at all please pm me.
Many thanks
Ivan

Kinvara Rd, Kilcolgan, Co. Galway
€100,000 4 bed 1 bath
11 more photos
Here's the house

OfflerCrocGod

Are you trying to embed links in your comments? Nothing is showing up.

irishivan

OfflerCrocGod wrote: »

Are you trying to embed links in your comments? Nothing is showing up.

Yeah!
I might try later on the laptop

athtrasna

irishivan wrote: »

Yeah!
I might try later on the laptop

Mod note:As a poster with less than 50 posts you cannot post links. If you want to pm the link to me I will add them to your post.

emzippy

We stopped on Friday evening at this property (if it's the same one you're talking about) and had a walk around as the gates were open.

On the side of the house and back door someone had written 'flooding' in spray paint and drawn a line about half way up the house. It was written in two colours - one all over the main back door.

We didn't see any evidence of water damage on the outside or inside by looking in the windows. We were wondering whether the area was prone to flooding as it is set quite low compared to surrounding houses. It may also have been written by someone who doesn't want it it sell.

On the way past again today the gates were tied closed.

Don't have anymore info than that (we're not interested in buying the property). Hope it's of some help.

irishivan

Hi again

I'm glag i joined this forum.!!!
Thanks for the replies it's been a real eye opener.
Apologies to the moderater I didn't know about the links.
After reading several threads about house buying in Ireland I'm getting quite a good idea about estate agents!!!
Again if anybody knows any info on this house or dealt with the agents.
Please please let me know.
Many thanks
Ivan

P. Breathnach

I note that it is for sale by a receiver. That suggests to me the possibility that the "warning" spotted by emzippy might be spurious, done to discourage potential purchasers.

But if you research the matter, and are confident that there is no flooding threat, you are not home and dry (pun intended). You need to research local attitudes, because if you buy a property that has been seized by a bank, the local community might not be welcoming. If the person who lost the property is local to the area, the risk might be high.

The house obviously needs a lot of work. I'm not familiar with the market in that area, but it looks to me that the asking price is wildly optimisitc.

the_syco

irishivan wrote: »

Kinvara Rd, Kilcolgan, Co. Galway
€100,000 4 bed 1 bath
11 more photos
Here's the house

http://www.daft.ie/sales/kinvara-rd-kilcolgan-galway/1052192/

Thargor

Ive been driving past that house for most of my life and never seen it come close to flooding even in times it seemed like all of South Galway was underwater, there are a lot of bodies of water around there that do swallow whole fields in Winter but that house isn't in any danger otherwise Kilcolgan town and the main Gort-Galway road would be in danger aswell but they've never been at risk.

Cant believe its listed for 100k (I know...), God knows what it would have cost during the Celtic Tiger. Cant believe its such a dump inside either, there is years worth of work gone into that house, scaffolding up and down multiple times, roof on and off iirc, vans and cement mixers parked outside at various times down the years etc.

d1sc0d3v1l

I was there with emzippy on Friday looking at the property. It was only out of mild interest as my father was considering buying in the area, I don't think it's really suitable for him and even if he was interested he wouldn't be buying anytime soon.

There are a few things to consider about the 'flooding' warnings that in my opinion nullify them as nothing more than an act of retribution or some other obscure interest. To be clear, the warnings were spray painted around the building at various places describing flooding of about 2-3 feet.

Firstly, for the sake of argument, I'll list the reasons that there is a possibility of flooding:

1) I lived quite close to there for many years, as anyone who has lived in east Galway can tell you, it's turlough country; vast swathes of land in that area flood every winter.

2) The house appears to be low-lying compared to the surrounding land and is surrounded by large, unusual, and almost certainly man made embankment (make of that what you will).

3) There was a large and unfinished bit of ground work going on on the property. I didn't climb down to inspect in great detail but truth be told it did appear to be just a septic tank. The size was the only thing I found a little unusual, but it was nothing extraordinary.

Now for the reasons that I'm skeptical about the warnings:

1) The images on the daft.ie do not show the spray-painted warnings. So they are relatively recent. They appear to be drawn at different times judging by the numerous paints/markers used and they're excessively large, almost manic.

2) There is a lot of internal dry-lining/chalkboard that appears to be there at least a few years, this would clearly show signs of flooding but doesn't. Even by looking at the concrete flooring it was clear to see that it had not been exposed to even minor flooding. The exterior of the building also shows no signs of flooding in the past.

3) The building appears to have been built in two stages. i.e. it was extended at some stage in the distant past. It doesn't make sense as to why someone would further invest in a site that was flood prone. Same argument goes for whomever was developing in the recent past.

4) As irishivan noted already, I too have traveled past that site countless times over the past 20+ years and I have never noticed flooding at the location, that said, the house is at least a hundred yards from the road so one might not have noticed it.

In all, the house is beautiful, and if you're looking for a project that needs a lot of work it's a good price imo. I found it to be in worse condition than the pictures initially lead me to believe. It does appear to be structurally sound, but there is still a lot of heavy work to be done that the pictures don't really reveal. Some of the PVC windows are just sitting in place and haven't actually been installed yet, there are windowsills etc. missing. I didn't see any advertised oak trees, just ash/sycamore. Really, you're looking at an absolute minimum of 50k before you could even consider living in it.

Newyogi

Hi guys

I've been looking into this property with my wife. A beautiful setting, with cobbled stable floor in the front, mature trees in the driveway (we noticed they weren't Oak too!) and plenty of space around you.

100% agree with d1sc0d3v1l and co - very little work done over the 10 years from 1999-2009 and add to this that the build is very different to the mansion with Tennis court that was approved for planning (go Celtic Tiger!)

The conclusion .... get a well respected engineer to assess the site.
I had the same concerns listed on this post - the house being low, the stables & old building being high and the build sitting idle and incomplete for so long. I did the registry checks, check with locals and insurance for flood / water and came up clean... but… I then went out on monday to check the ground after the rains when I noticed that a 'concerned citizen' had posted a laminated A4 picture of flooding on the ESB pole out the front.

Now... it could be the same guy who wrote on the doors to warn or scare folks away - but the picture was pretty convincing. I could see the door was stained about 1/5 the way up in the front but the water had subsided in the photo to below this. I could see the photo was taken at least a couple of years ago because the trees were bare in the background, there were no weeds growing out of the guttering and the flashing was intact around the lower roof (unlike today).

I later had verbal confirmation of flooding in 2008(9?) but no real details of whether this was rain, run off or groundwater. That said, I am certain civil engineers can do marvelous things with drainage (and can see some works done) but I can’t tell if this photo was showing a once off, resolved or recurring issue.

Back to the original conclusion – you can ask the auctioneer, locals or others but decide with an Engineers Assessment in your hand.

Feel free to PM me if you like

All the best

irishivan

well we went to view the house on Saturday & reckon its a complete money pit white elephant!!!!!!
as some here know it sits in a basin lower than the trees that surround it, Yes someone has written on the back wall/windows warning flooding.
we managed to get inside & the drylined walls on ground floor are covered in mildew/mould. The place stinks of it.
theres a trench dug up in the concrete floor & back filled ?????

outside there is signs of some groundworks & septic tank but couldn't see any field drains etc.

after we had a chat with a friend of my sister who lives in Kinvara she has bought,sold,done up houses in galway for years so knows her stuff & passes by that house every day to & from work.
she reckons every estate agent in the county knows that house & if they say otherwise their full of sh*t. she confirms the (yearly)flooding & has seen water up to the window sills on several occasions she also reckons that every few years they tart it up a bit to try & sell it to some smuck.

the area is solid limestone, if you dig down 3-4 meters or so you hit bedrock, littered with turloughs (underwater river/lake) & the house sits on one so tryng to sort the flooding by drainage would be very hard.

so its been an eye opener, an education in property sales in ireland!!!!! not least learning how estate agents operate.

but we are still looking!!!!

BertyytreB

I can't post links but try this:

galway.ie/en/media/GCDP%202015-2021%20Stage%201%20SFRA.pdf

just add www to the start of that, it's a decent flooding guide