First Time Buying

RealistSpy

Hi all,

I was hoping you can all point me towards the right path of buying a house.
I recently just found a place to buy and I was wonder if:

I have to contact a solicitor before I put in an offer?
I emailed the EA with an offer straight after the viewing but no reply so far.

I only have the 10% + stamp duty saved.
The apartment is owned by the banks but I don't know what that mean.

My previous mortgage approval expired in August and now I just started the process again last week.

Roselm

RealistSpy wrote: »

Hi all,

I was hoping you can all point me towards the right path of buying a house.
I recently just found a place to buy and I was wonder if:

I have to contact a solicitor before I put in an offer?
I emailed the EA with an offer straight after the viewing but no reply so far.

I only have the 10% + stamp duty saved.
The apartment is owned by the banks but I don't know what that mean.

My previous mortgage approval expired in August and now I just started the process again last week.

How long ago did you email. If you haven't heard confirmation they have logged your offer you need to ring them and check they are aware of it.

johnnyskeleton

You should get an up to date mortgage approval. If the proeprty is less than 200k and you are an FTB I think 10% deposit should be ok but double check this with your individual lender.

A word of caution - being approved in principle does not bind the bank to lend to you. You would need full approval and there can be many pitfalls along the way.

I would caution against making bids in writing without marking them "subject to contract /contract denied" or else you could find yourself in trouble if the bank dont follow through with the loan.

If its a bank sale it means that even if you are the highest bidder they may still refuse; if its NAMA it may take ages to go through and uou may have to sign extra documentation.

wench

RealistSpy wrote: »

I only have the 10% + stamp duty saved.

You're going to need to come up with about another 3 grand to go with that.

Solicitor approx 1,500
outlays (land registry, searches, etc) 1,000
survey and valuation, about 500

RealistSpy

Hi all,

I went to view the place on Friday and I emailed an offer less than the asking the same day.

The property is less than 100K and I was previously fully approved. I have started the new mortgage process and I am hoping it is a lot quicker than the previous.

I save around 1K a month so I hope to continue saving to cover the Solicitors.
Would the Solicitor be the one to organise the survey, valuation and the bidding?
I am hoping to email a Solicitor on Tuesday.

athtrasna

RealistSpy wrote: »

Hi all,

I went to view the place on Friday and I emailed an offer less than the asking the same day.

The property is less than 100K and I was previously fully approved. I have started the new mortgage process and I am hoping it is a lot quicker than the previous.

I save around 1K a month so I hope to continue saving to cover the Solicitors.
Would the Solicitor be the one to organise the survey, valuation and the bidding?
I am hoping to email a Solicitor on Tuesday.

Have you considered talking to people? While having a record of agreements etc is important it is dependent on the other party reading the emails.

Your solicitor would handle the legal side, you are responsible for bidding, valuation and survey.

RealistSpy

athtrasna wrote: »

Have you considered talking to people? While having a record of agreements etc is important it is dependent on the other party reading the emails.

Your solicitor would handle the legal side, you are responsible for bidding, valuation and survey.

Ah I was just thinking that email would count as a record but I will give the EA a call on Tuesday and call a Solicitor then as well. What would a general order of events be?

Bid
...
Offer accepted
Solicitor
Survey
Booking Deposit
Bank Assessments / valuation
Sign Contract

Around 3 month process?

Archaeoliz

RealistSpy wrote: »

Ah I was just thinking that email would count as a record but I will give the EA a call on Tuesday and call a Solicitor then as well. What would a general order of events be?

Bid
...
Offer accepted
Solicitor
Survey
Booking Deposit
Bank Assessments / valuation
Sign Contract

Around 3 month process?

An email will count as a record but it will depend on how long it takes to get hold of the vendor and then how long they take to decide on a reply.

The process can vary in length widely! We have had a solicitor ready to go since before we started any bidding at all. Although we have bought and sold before we are currently going through the process again. We had an offer accepted about a fortnight ago. The same day we organised to pay our booking deposit to the agents. As soon as they had that, they then formally informed the vendor and our solicitor of the sale and our solicitor has written to the vendor's to request contracts, title and all other paperwork. Our offer was made "subject to survey, contract and the usual conditions" to cover ourselves, but until you sign a contract you can still walk away. While that has been going on we have applied and received approval on our mortgage (full loan offer on a previous property had expired but under new CB rules so we were confident of finance). The bank can't issue our offer until they have conducted a valuation which will happen in the next week or two. We have also commissioned and had completed a full engineer's survey which we've had a verbal report on and will get a written copy in the next 5 working days. It highlighted a couple of issues which luckily for us are not strictly structural but processual (boundary line is wrong so it's going to need sorted out).

There can be lots of concurrent activity if you want to get this done within a 3 month time frame. Next for us will be pushing the mortgage valuation and offer, hoping the vendor's solicitor gets contracts out so that ours can send back queries, and get the couple of issues from the survey rectified. Searches will need done by the solicitor and checking legal title etc which can take several weeks to complete. Then you get to signing the contract and paying a 10% deposit where you have exchanged. The mortgage company will need to arrange with the solicitor for a draw down date (can take them a week or so from memory to arrange this). When the money changes hands you have completed and you can get the keys.

3 months is do-able but it really depends on both solicitors, how much you're prepared to push and how motivated the vendor is. We've done it in 4 weeks before and hare hoping for 8 weeks this time to be in before Xmas but we're not going to know if it's going to happen for another few weeks yet.

We also have to give 6 weeks notice to our landlords, but pay rent in advance and will pay mortgage in arrears so we're not too worried about an overlap. That may also apply if you're a FTB.

Good Luck!

riclad

The bank may require a survey, to give you a mortgage.
if house is 20 plus years old you may want to get a structural survey, cost 300 plus.
TO  check for faults like rising damp, dry rot, major faults that would need to be fixed.
Bad insulation, leaks.
IF house is over 30 years old the bank may not wish to give you a mortgage.

Archaeoliz

riclad wrote: »

The bank may require a survey, to give you a mortgage.
if house is 20 plus years old you may want to get a structural survey, cost 300 plus.
TO check for faults like rising damp, dry rot, major faults that would need to be fixed.
Bad insulation, leaks.
IF house is over 30 years old the bank may not wish to give you a mortgage.

The bank WILL require a survey to give you a mortgage but it's a valuation rather than a structural survey to assess their risk. It won't check for faults like rising damp etc. The structural survey will check for those and we had one done on Monday costing us €600. As far as I know the going rate is €500-€800 and we went with a company we had encountered before and knew them to be professional and reliable, so were happy to pay a little extra than the minimum for it.

The age of the house is not really relevant for the mortgage, it is checking that the value is accurate compared to the price you are paying for it. The bank survey is undertaken by an auctioneer and valuer not an engineer.

We're in the middle of the process at the moment.

RealistSpy

All these sounds so scary , so much work.

Ursus Horribilis

It can be pretty stressful, no point in saying otherwise. The thing that struck me as I read this is that you're leaving yourself very tight for money by buying right now. As well as paying the solicitor's fees, searches etc. you'll also need to pay property tax and insure the apartment before you get the keys. Have you a way to lay your hands on extra money if something unforeseen arises? Like the cooker or washing machine in your apartment kicking the bucket? You breaking a tooth and needing emergency dental treatment?
House purchases can go through faster than you think too. Mine took 2 months and part of that was a delay involving probate .

Archaeoliz

RealistSpy wrote: »

All these sounds so scary , so much work.

Like everything take it step by step and it's not nearly as scary as you think.

Also this is an online forum - ask the professionals (Mortgage advisor / Broker and your solicitor who are working for you) they'll guide you through it.

RealistSpy

Odus fell down wrote: »

It can be pretty stressful, no point in saying otherwise. The thing that struck me as I read this is that you're leaving yourself very tight for money by buying right now. As well as paying the solicitor's fees, searches etc. you'll also need to pay property tax and insure the apartment before you get the keys. Have you a way to lay your hands on extra money if something unforeseen arises? Like the cooker or washing machine in your apartment kicking the bucket? You breaking a tooth and needing emergency dental treatment?
House purchases can go through faster than you think too. Mine took 2 months and part of that was a delay involving probate .

I was thinking about this and if the process takes 2 - 3 month I believe I should have extra money to take care of the extra fees.

Butters1979

OP, this might help you. It explains the process well. Also talk to people you know or work with who have gone through the process.

http://www.consumerhelp.ie/buying-a-home-step-by-step-guide

Basically you will need to start the mortgage approval process first as until that is accepted it will delay everything else. Anything below €220K should only require 10% deposit but you would need more than that for legal fees etc.
Your solicitor will only deal with the contracts, the rest is down to you.

RealistSpy

Thanks All,

Got in contact with a solicitor that gave me an estimated figure.
I have to call in the survey and put in a booking deposit and contact them after that to take care of the rest.
The total amount:
10% + Solicitor's fee (stamp duty, searches etc) + Survey (I have to look for one) and I believe property tax.

The results of the bid will also come back in few weeks.

Ursus Horribilis

Seeing as the apartment is so cheap and is owned by the banks, have you done any research into who else is living there? What's the story with the management company? I hate to rain on your parade but I know of apartment blocks where several of the apartments were bought up by the council and used to house some utter scobes. Tread very carefully...

RealistSpy

Odus fell down wrote: »

Seeing as the apartment is so cheap and is owned by the banks, have you done any research into who else is living there? What's the story with the management company? I hate to rain on your parade but I know of apartment blocks where several of the apartments were bought up by the council and used to house some utter scobes. Tread very carefully...

A friend of mine was actually living in the same building. It was lovely the only problem was the students but since I am actually a graduate myself it does not bother me much and apparently things have changed.

In regards to Council I do not know, how would you find that out?
I am trying to get more information about the management company but I don't know where to begin but I believe the owners of each apartments makes the decisions.

dearg lady

is it a 1 bed apartment? Some banks require higher deposits for these. AIB told me 25%

RealistSpy

dearg lady wrote: »

is it a 1 bed apartment? Some banks require higher deposits for these. AIB told me 25%

It is a 2 bed apartment, the building itself is 10 years old but the apartment is new. I believe it is the last one left the previous was sold early this year.

Santy2015

Anybody affected by Kbc today? They seem to have gone overboard with their exceptions percentage