Currently buying/selling a house? How is it going? READ MOD NOTE POST #1

SheepShep

Jacobs_Stripe wrote: »

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has experience getting a loan offer from Ulster bank? I’m looking for information on how long it takes from giving the address of the house to getting the loan offer as it’s been over two months for us now and I’m a ball of stress..

Thanks!

Two months? Is it definitely still in progress. We were about four weeks with KBC from submitting application, back and to stuff and then mortgage offer.

SheepShep

kalkat2002 wrote: »

Hi all,
First time buyer and sale agreed this week,deposit paid,sale advice there and now waiting to visit it.....

If we like it when is the right moment to do the structural survey,asap or just before the contract signing

Furthemore seller is also biding to move back to dublin...as this looks like a property chain can we request a mandatory closing date to avoid months of waiting
Regards

Yep you can but keep in mind unless they know their own house purchase is set in stone, they aren't going to necessarily agree to that date.

We went sale agreed in August 2020. The following month the vendors asked for deposit and exchange of contracts for a closing date four weeks later. We paid deposit (from our solicitors acc to their solicitors acc) and signed our part of the contract. Then radio silence from them and their solicitor until January 2021 when we requested our deposit back. It wasn't a power play on our part we were just beyond stressed with the lack of communication. We would have waited. It was horrible not knowing or hearing anything.

They responded asking what our ideal closing date was and moved in with family while their own purchase went through probate. We moved in March 2021. So happy ending in the end but that's my from sale agreed to closing date anecdote!

Re survey, the bank will insist on survey and valuation before they send out the official loan offer. In our case we had to pay for two valuations because the initial one "had expired."

Sheeps

Got the completion date of my house on the same day I got the news that my mortgage provider is looking to pull out of the country. Still pressing on, and by the end of the summer I should have my new home, a full year and a half after going sale agreed.

whiskeyman

kalkat2002 wrote: »

Hi all,
First time buyer and sale agreed this week,deposit paid,sale advice there and now waiting to visit it.....

If we like it when is the right moment to do the structural survey,asap or just before the contract signing

Furthemore seller is also biding to move back to dublin...as this looks like a property chain can we request a mandatory closing date to avoid months of waiting
Regards

Get survey done asap.
If there's any issues, you may need to reconsider.

Emma2019

kalkat2002 wrote: »

Hi all,
First time buyer and sale agreed this week,deposit paid,sale advice there and now waiting to visit it.....

If we like it when is the right moment to do the structural survey,asap or just before the contract signing

Furthemore seller is also biding to move back to dublin...as this looks like a property chain can we request a mandatory closing date to avoid months of waiting
Regards

Usually surveyor straight away as that could put the breaks on the whole purchase anyway.

In relation to the chain I would be asking if the vendor is sale agreed yet, and what are the plans of the second vendor e.g is it a probate sale or are they also going to be buying the house. Its probably the EA that you'll ask this to.

If they haven't even gone sale agreed yet i would probably hold off on the surveyor because you should probably still be keeping your eye out for other properties as it could take months for them to find somewhere and you may want to pull out so no point having wasted the surveyors fee. This is only if the house looks in reasonable nick though, if you're gonna have to do a lot of work its best to know how much straight away.

You can ask to have a closing date but they can delay signing or can outright refuse to sign it if they dont want to be without a house while waiting to sort their new one.

thegreatescape

Hi everyone, I've gone sale agreed on Friday (yay!) and was wondering what the process is from here on out. I'm paying my deposit tomorrow to the EA and have engaged with a solicitor and will be ready to give these to the EA tomorrow. The property is vacant so I'm hoping the sale won't take too long as it seems to be a straightforward sale. What should my next steps be?

Edit: I'm a first time buyer and the vendors are not in a chain.

Noodles81

Hi all,

I'm looking at houses in a new estate. The present phase has sold out and the next phase is currently being built at present. The EA can't say when they will be available for sale. The blocks are built but no roof on them yet.

How long roughly does an estate phase of say 25 houses take to get to completion from the block outline that I can see now?

Claw Hammer

Noodles81 wrote: »

Hi all,



How long roughly does an estate phase of say 25 houses take to get to completion from the block outline that I can see now?

Are they detached, semis or terraced? If terraced, how many per section?

OnlyArchie

Is there a website (or is anyone tracking) the historical number of For Sale listings on MyHome or Daft? I know there is a quarterly Daft report, but looking for something more up to date. I'm interested in Dublin, but even national would be useful. It seems they have been rising the last few weeks.

DataDude

OnlyArchie wrote: »

Is there a website (or is anyone tracking) the historical number of For Sale listings on MyHome or Daft? I know there is a quarterly Daft report, but looking for something more up to date. I'm interested in Dublin, but even national would be useful. It seems they have been rising the last few weeks.

I keep an eye on the front MyHome page (all Ireland). It bottomed out around 11,800 a while back and has been fairly steadily climbing by 100 a week or so since then. It's at 12,500 today, which is still only about 50% of where it'd normally be, but the trend is definitely upward!

hometruths

DataDude wrote: »

I keep an eye on the front MyHome page (all Ireland). It bottomed out around 11,800 a while back and has been fairly steadily climbing by 100 a week or so since then. It's at 12,500 today, which is still only about 50% of where it'd normally be, but the trend is definitely upward!

When you say what it'd normally be do you mean pre covid? - i.e when did you last see 25,000 odd on myhome?

DataDude

schmittel wrote: »

When you say what it'd normally be do you mean pre covid? - i.e when did you last see 25,000 odd on myhome?

Yep pre-COVID. I only started to pay any attention when the numbers began to drop off dramatically. From memory, it first ducked under 20k late March 2020 and had been hurtling down ever since that at a remarkable pace. I remember it dropping by 500+ per week at one stage.

The MyHome reports include snapshots. It had been bobbling up and down around 20-25k homes since 2016/17. So 12k is incredibly low. Will be interesting to see if/when it gets back towards to 20k again. Might not be anytime soon!

Edit: Figure 4 of this report, red line. It also says the numbers fell as low as 10.9k in Q1 of this year. Personally never saw it drop that low. Maybe it bounced hard from that bottom in a few days when I didn’t check it. https://media.myhome.ie/content/propertyreport/2021/q12021/MyHomePropertyReportQ1-2021.pdf

hometruths

DataDude wrote: »

Yep pre-COVID. I only started to pay any attention when the numbers began to drop off dramatically. From memory, it first ducked under 20k late March 2020 and had been hurtling down ever since that at a remarkable pace. I remember it dropping by 500+ per week at one stage.

The MyHome reports include snapshots. It had been bobbling up and down around 20-25k homes since 2016/17. So 12k is incredibly low. Will be interesting to see if/when it gets back towards to 20k again. Might not be anytime soon!

Edit: Figure 4 of this report, red line. It also says the numbers fell as low as 10.9k in Q1 of this year. Personally never saw it drop that low. Maybe it bounced hard from that bottom in a few days when I didn’t check it. https://media.myhome.ie/content/propertyreport/2021/q12021/MyHomePropertyReportQ1-2021.pdf

And 25k is pretty low anyway compared to compared long term averages I think. It's a feckin mess.

Covid viewing issues aside, there is nothing available to buy because nobody wants to sell because there is nothing available to buy.

Arghh!

awec

schmittel wrote: »

And 25k is pretty low anyway compared to compared long term averages I think. It's a feckin mess.

Covid viewing issues aside, there is nothing available to buy because nobody wants to sell because there is nothing available to buy.

Arghh!

The numbers are also likely to be a bit lower as the buying habits of the FTB have changed dramatically in the past decade.

People are now buying houses they intend to live in for a long time even for their first property. The whole "starter home" thing is not so prevalent. If you are tracking the trend in houses for sale this will surely mean it's down relative to what it was in the 00s, as a lot fewer of the FTBs of the 10s will be selling up at this stage.

More frustration today with EA’s. House listed at 250 in November, bid under but were outbid. Fell through. House back up 3 weeks ago at 265. Back down this week to 250.

But EA denies this and says it’s the fault of the property websites. They auto updated them apparently. And the latest bid is 280. While the house has 2 current active ads on daft, both at different prices. Hard to believe a word an EA says in the current climate.

Flibble

Viewed a house last week and decided to put an offer in only to find that bidding has gone crazy- house is listed at 150k and bids are currently still climbing at 220k

Raging. The estate agent is in shock herself, and said she doubts very much that the mortgages will be approved for these prices on the house.

Feels borderline impossible to buy a house in my bracket at the moment.

hometruths

awec wrote: »

The numbers are also likely to be a bit lower as the buying habits of the FTB have changed dramatically in the past decade.

People are now buying houses they intend to live in for a long time even for their first property. The whole "starter home" thing is not so prevalent. If you are tracking the trend in houses for sale this will surely mean it's down relative to what it was in the 00s, as a lot fewer of the FTBs of the 10s will be selling up at this stage.

Yep, agreed, it's definitely one of the reasons turnover has collapsed, and I think the potential medium term impact of this is not discussed/understood widely enough. But probably a bit OT for this thread!

Jmc25

Flibble wrote: »

Viewed a house last week and decided to put an offer in only to find that bidding has gone crazy- house is listed at 150k and bids are currently still climbing at 220k

Raging. The estate agent is in shock herself, and said she doubts very much that the mortgages will be approved for these prices on the house.

Feels borderline impossible to buy a house in my bracket at the moment.

Have also seen houses sale agreed for 70k above asking, and 100k above the last comparable sale on the property price register. Not something I had thought of until you mentioned it, but what way will bank valuations work in cases like this? Is it just a case of "well there were 10 other bidders who drove the sale price to that figure, therefore that's what the property is worth"?

Personally so disheartened I'm gonna sit it out for a year or so but what worries me is that there's probably quite a few people in the same boat and while we're not the ones bidding up prices at the moment, we'll hit the market eventually and thus prices will remain high for the foreseeable.

Busi_Girl08

Currently bidding on a property and the numbers are creeping up slowly and smoothly, I just can't help but worry that another bidder is going to come in and Leroy Jenkins it with a 10k bid or something.

RichardAnd

Jmc25 wrote: »

Have also seen houses sale agreed for 70k above asking, and 100k above the last comparable sale on the property price register. Not something I had thought of until you mentioned it, but what way will bank valuations work in cases like this? Is it just a case of "well there were 10 other bidders who drove the sale price to that figure, therefore that's what the property is worth"?

Personally so disheartened I'm gonna sit it out for a year or so but what worries me is that there's probably quite a few people in the same boat and while we're not the ones bidding up prices at the moment, we'll hit the market eventually and thus prices will remain high for the foreseeable.

I've had just the same thought. The ending of bidding to view and going sale-agreed to view will certainly help, but there will still be a lack of supply. Will selling prices still shoot 20 - 30% over the asking price? I don't know, but what scares me is that I will either end up paying way over the asking price for an asset that may may decrease in value or, even worse, I end up with nothing and my savings simply deflate away.

The state's response to Covid has, among other things, broken the property market here. This is what happens when policy is a panicked reaction rather than a measured response.

Whilst Covid itself is beyond the scope of this thread, I believe personally that there needs to be a serious inquiry into the behaviour an actions of the state during Covid, with severe consequences for malfeasance. Of course, I'm old enough to well remember the financial disaster of a decade ago, so I don't expect anything to happen, but if the the state is never held to account, then these things will continue to happen.

JimmyVik

Jmc25 wrote: »

Have also seen houses sale agreed for 70k above asking, and 100k above the last comparable sale on the property price register. Not something I had thought of until you mentioned it, but what way will bank valuations work in cases like this? Is it just a case of "well there were 10 other bidders who drove the sale price to that figure, therefore that's what the property is worth"?

Personally so disheartened I'm gonna sit it out for a year or so but what worries me is that there's probably quite a few people in the same boat and while we're not the ones bidding up prices at the moment, we'll hit the market eventually and thus prices will remain high for the foreseeable.

Banks will approve them alright.
If there are multiple bidders near the price, then thats the value.

Its when there is a crash that it will all come out in the wash.

odyssey06

JimmyVik wrote: »

Banks will approve them alright.
If there are multiple bidders near the price, then thats the value.

Its when there is a crash that it will all come out in the wash.

A 20% deposit is a bit of a cushion for the banks in that regard.

DancingDaisy

thegreatescape wrote: »

Hi everyone, I've gone sale agreed on Friday (yay!) and was wondering what the process is from here on out. I'm paying my deposit tomorrow to the EA and have engaged with a solicitor and will be ready to give these to the EA tomorrow. The property is vacant so I'm hoping the sale won't take too long as it seems to be a straightforward sale. What should my next steps be?

Edit: I'm a first time buyer and the vendors are not in a chain.

You've probably gotten all the details you need at this point but I just said I'd throw by two cent in as I'm coming to the end of this process.

Next steps for you should be to get a surveyor in to check out the house, make sure there's nothing weird.

Not sure where you are with the mortgage process, or if you've used a broker, but you'll need to send on the details of the house to the bank for your loan offer, and get the bank valuation set up. I'd suggest doing this after you've gotten the surveyors report.

You'll also need to get your mortgage protection insurance and house insurance in place. I'd suggest getting the quotes for that sorted as early as possible, I know some people have had issues with mortgage protection insurance.

Your solicitor will be waiting for the contracts to be issued from the sellers solicitors, and that will hopefully give you a ball park idea as to what the closing date will be. You may not have certainty on that until the sellers counter sign the contracts though. When you have a ball park date, you'll need to make sure that you have the insurances in place for a day or so before the mortgage drawdown date, and our solicitor advised us to have our drawdown date set at 3 working days before the closing date. This means that there shouldn't be any delays. I'm sure your solicitor will advise you as best for your situation though.

For us, it's taken us 11 weeks from going Sale Agreed to getting keys. A big part of that was because the sellers are in a chain, and also our AIP was withdrawn just as we started bidding, so we had to go back to the beginning of the mortgage process! If the sellers weren't in a chain, we could have closed within 6 weeks.

JimmyVik

Was just speaking to a friend who went sale agreed a little while ago.
She sent what amounts to a snag list from the buyers from their surveyor.
There must over a hundred items on it and it is presented in a "please get these things fixed before we buy" sort of manner.
Things like clean the gutters. A chip out of the corner of a windowsill. The gate needs new hinges. The outside door to the boiler is rotting at the bottom. They even asked her to get a new boiler.
The worst one that you might actually want to get fixed right away, and its not even that bad, is that a couple of the drains need blasting as they are blocked with silt and bits of trees.


I just told her to go back and say take it or leave it and let her know within the next day.
If they dont come back tomorrow with whether they want to go ahead with the sale or not then bin it and ask the EA to approach the next bidders and tell them what happened.
With that kind of demands straight off i think there is only delay and trouble down the line.

houseyhouse

JimmyVik wrote: »

Was just speaking to a friend who went sale agreed a little while ago.
She sent what amounts to a snag list from the buyers from their surveyor.
There must over a hundred items on it and it is presented in a "please get these things fixed before we buy" sort of manner.
Things like clean the gutters. A chip out of the corner of a windowsill. The gate needs new hinges. The outside door to the boiler is rotting at the bottom. They even asked her to get a new boiler.
The worst one that you might actually want to get fixed right away, and its not even that bad, is that a couple of the drains need blasting as they are blocked with silt and bits of trees.


I just told her to go back and say take it or leave it and let her know within the next day.
If they dont come back tomorrow with whether they want to go ahead with the sale or not then bin it and ask the EA to approach the next bidders and tell them what happened.
With that kind of demands straight off i think there is only delay and trouble down the line.

I've never heard of that happening here. Asking for a discount to cover the cost of new boiler etc., yes, but not demanding it's all done before the sale. I think that might be common in the U.S. though? Maybe the buyers are coming from a different market where that's the norm? Either way, I agree with you, take it or leave it. 100% not worth your friend's hassle when they buyer could back out after the work is done anyway.

ELM327

Generally that's used to negotiate price downwards - they won't actually expect the work to be done!

JimmyVik

houseyhouse wrote: »

I've never heard of that happening here. Asking for a discount to cover the cost of new boiler etc., yes, but not demanding it's all done before the sale. I think that might be common in the U.S. though? Maybe the buyers are coming from a different market where that's the norm? Either way, I agree with you, take it or leave it. 100% not worth your friend's hassle when they buyer could back out after the work is done anyway.

I thought she was over reacting at first, but she sent it to me. I couldnt believe it when I saw it. You wouldnt get it on a snag list for a new build.

I told her to just tell the agent the price is the price and she doesnt care what issue come up in reports. Its take it or leave it and the price is the price.
She wanted to avoid a long drawn out sale and this will not be quick if she lets them call the shots at this point

theboringfox

JimmyVik wrote: »

Was just speaking to a friend who went sale agreed a little while ago.
She sent what amounts to a snag list from the buyers from their surveyor.
There must over a hundred items on it and it is presented in a "please get these things fixed before we buy" sort of manner.
Things like clean the gutters. A chip out of the corner of a windowsill. The gate needs new hinges. The outside door to the boiler is rotting at the bottom. They even asked her to get a new boiler.
The worst one that you might actually want to get fixed right away, and its not even that bad, is that a couple of the drains need blasting as they are blocked with silt and bits of trees.


I just told her to go back and say take it or leave it and let her know within the next day.
If they dont come back tomorrow with whether they want to go ahead with the sale or not then bin it and ask the EA to approach the next bidders and tell them what happened.
With that kind of demands straight off i think there is only delay and trouble down the line.

Best of luck to them. Surprised if they get anywhere. If buying second hand home it is being sold as is. I think if theres major unseen issues that were not disclosed like damage to roof, drains need repairs or electrics not wired properly than fair enough. I expect that seller will be getting a response that's largely no. If it was me I would move onto next bidder

ElBastardo1

Anyone thinking when they are buying second hand home in Ireland that they can get a seller to fix everything are delusional. I find it's a surveyors report that covers everything can cause the issue. OK if the heating system is fecked you may try approach the seller as the price needs to reflect this. In this current climate there is very little chance of that making a difference. We bought a while back and the house had multiple issues, which the EA made clear to us "We are aware of said issues, but the price is the price" regardless of what came up in the survey the price was not to be questioned. Then if the bank get their hands on that report showing the issues they can revalue what they are willing to lend with the issues.

Jmc25

JimmyVik wrote: »

Was just speaking to a friend who went sale agreed a little while ago.
She sent what amounts to a snag list from the buyers from their surveyor.
There must over a hundred items on it and it is presented in a "please get these things fixed before we buy" sort of manner.
Things like clean the gutters. A chip out of the corner of a windowsill. The gate needs new hinges. The outside door to the boiler is rotting at the bottom. They even asked her to get a new boiler.
The worst one that you might actually want to get fixed right away, and its not even that bad, is that a couple of the drains need blasting as they are blocked with silt and bits of trees.


I just told her to go back and say take it or leave it and let her know within the next day.
If they dont come back tomorrow with whether they want to go ahead with the sale or not then bin it and ask the EA to approach the next bidders and tell them what happened.
With that kind of demands straight off i think there is only delay and trouble down the line.

I sold recently and the buyers came back through the estate agent after the surveyor report asking for a discount over three very minor issues. The estate agent advised that I tell them to get lost so I did. Estate agent never heard back in relation to the issues and sale was completed within a month or so.

Personally I would have thought that unless the issue is likely to cost thousands to fix and put others off purchasing the property, there's no point even raising it with the seller.