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

rks

PropBuyer101 wrote: »

had you gotten to the contract stage?

No they never signed the contract even though my solicitor asked them to.

cailin.

Was supposed to view a house Saturday. Got a call from EA an hour before saying an early viewing was facilitated and a bid was made 45k over asking. We didn't view it.

It's so frustrating now as we had mortgage approval last summer and houses we missed out on then are now going for 50-100k over asking.

Red Silurian

cailin. wrote: »

Was supposed to view a house Saturday. Got a call from EA an hour before saying an early viewing was facilitated and a bid was made 45k over asking. We didn't view it.

It's so frustrating now as we had mortgage approval last summer and houses we missed out on then are now going for 50-100k over asking.

Happened to us as well a few weeks ago, seriously considering parking the entire process now until next year just to relieve the stress... Hopefully by then Fianna Fail will have done the same as they did in 2008 and crash the property market

Thargor

C14N wrote: »

If it's been on the market 3 months and you have the cash, why did you wait so long to make a move?

I knew it was coming after inquiring about a similar property with the same agent, then I got strung along with 3 months of being told it would definitely be on Daft this week/this Friday/tomorrow etc etc then today I'm told it was sold to family, I'm still raging.

Now I'm in the same position as the lady in the other thread, 175k sitting in an AIB account and another chunk in the post office, no clue what to do with it as it gets eaten by inflation.

Thargor

Red Silurian wrote: »

Happened to us as well a few weeks ago, seriously considering parking the entire process now until next year just to relieve the stress... Hopefully by then Fianna Fail will have done the same as they did in 2008 and crash the property market

Same as me now but Ireland is so completely screwed up when it comes to housing that waiting a year will just mean paying another 20k-30k :mad:

Even global economic meltdown won't change things this time, supply is flecked. Tempted to shove it all into cryptocurrency the next time it starts to tick up.

C14N

Thargor wrote: »

I knew it was coming after inquiring about a similar property with the same agent, then I got strung along with 3 months of being told it would definitely be on Daft this week/this Friday/tomorrow etc etc then today I'm told it was sold to family, I'm still raging.

Now I'm in the same position as the lady in the other thread, 175k sitting in an AIB account and another chunk in the post office, no clue what to do with it as it gets eaten by inflation.

Stick it into a diversified investment fund is the only thing I'd say. I've been doing it the past 2 or 3 years and it's been a great decision, despite a big drop at the start of 2020 making that year a bit of a wash. Most Irish banks have some kind of service to invest your money for you, or you can get it from somewhere like Davy either. It won't make any crazy big money, but it'll usually at least make your money keep up with inflation.

Necronomicon

Any other buyers just...starting to lose hope? I feel very, very down about the whole thing.

We went sale agreed in February 2020. Fell through when COVID hit because the vendors couldn't proceed with the sale. 18 months later we're still living with my in-laws (which is not a complaint; we've been tremendously lucky and saving a ton).

We stopped actively looking late last year because it was so difficult to get viewings etc. during lockdown. Only recently got back on the horse, and things have gotten much worse than I'd realised.

We had our first viewing a few weeks ago (East Cork). Saw it early, no bids at the time, lovely house. Ten minutes after returning home from the viewing, we got a call from the EA to say they'd gotten an opening bid 50k above the asking price, blowing us out of the water. A similar house went for 75k above a week earlier, which I'd optimistically put down as an aberration.

I'm lucky to be in a well paying job, but we're a single income household right now, so we're probably in and around average household salary (or slightly below). It's getting so hard to see how we'll ever be home owners the way things are trending.

Sebastian Dangerfield

We went sale agreed a few weeks ago. Contracts went out from our side the same week, followed by silence on their Legal side for a month. Survey and bank valuation have been done without issue. Meanwhile we've been trying to sort a rental so the transaction goes smoothly for everyone; we haven't found a new house and its likely to be a few months before we do - we don't want to string the buyer along and jeopardise the deal.

We're expecting to sign the contracts this week, finally they came back with a load of questions that have no bearing on a contractual discussion whatsoever, and stated they want a 15k reduction in price as a result, without waiting for an answer to the nonsense questions they asked. There are no issues relating to the house whatsoever, all speculative stuff about the general area which you couldn't even assign a cost to if they were valid issues (they're not).

My expectation is that they have waited for us to be in a purchase ourselves, so we're desperate to complete the transaction and will agree to their demands or meet in the middle. Luckily they're wrong; we went ahead with the sale before the purchase to account for exactly things like this.

o1s1n

cailin. wrote: »

Was supposed to view a house Saturday. Got a call from EA an hour before saying an early viewing was facilitated and a bid was made 45k over asking. We didn't view it.

It's so frustrating now as we had mortgage approval last summer and houses we missed out on then are now going for 50-100k over asking.

I had a weird phone call with an estate agent a couple of days ago.

Really dismayed by the above happening over and over, I thought I'd give it a go myself. Rang up and offered 25k over asking before any of the viewings took place on a house we really liked.

Was told by the EA 'no no, don't offer that much, that's silly! wait until you view this week and if you really like it, offer the asking price. You have to leave yourself some wiggle room'.

The call ended and I sat there with the phone in my hand beyond confused!

C14N

Necronomicon wrote: »

Any other buyers just...starting to lose hope? I feel very, very down about the whole thing.

We went sale agreed in February 2020. Fell through when COVID hit because the vendors couldn't proceed with the sale. 18 months later we're still living with my in-laws (which is not a complaint; we've been tremendously lucky and saving a ton).

We stopped actively looking late last year because it was so difficult to get viewings etc. during lockdown. Only recently got back on the horse, and things have gotten much worse than I'd realised.

We had our first viewing a few weeks ago (East Cork). Saw it early, no bids at the time, lovely house. Ten minutes after returning home from the viewing, we got a call from the EA to say they'd gotten an opening bid 50k above the asking price, blowing us out of the water. A similar house went for 75k above a week earlier, which I'd optimistically put down as an aberration.

I'm lucky to be in a well paying job, but we're a single income household right now, so we're probably in and around average household salary (or slightly below). It's getting so hard to see how we'll ever be home owners the way things are trending.

Had a bit of a similar deflation last week after a house we had bid 100k over asking price on still had someone else outbidding us. Made the whole thing feel just so pointless, and definitely was starting to lose hope.

Managed to bury that feeling a bit over the weekend though and started going mad setting up viewings. Have 7 set up for this week alone. My reasoning with this is that the market isn't perfect, and some houses will end up going way over asking, and some others won't. The more offers you put in, the better odds you have of finally happening upon one that you can actually win on. We'd been taking it fairly slowly and only setting up a viewing now and again that we said we'd really try for, so I think it's time to change that strategy.

I was being a bit pickier before too but dropped a few things from "must have" to "nice to have" to cast a wider net. I think pretty much every one I have setup this week I'd be happy to take, so I'm going to try to make quick offers on most or all of them assuming viewing goes okay, and hope that the seller wants to move fast, or that other viewers just aren't that interested. I see some properties on the PPR still going for reasonable prices in places we want this year, so I just have to find those for myself. I don't know if it'll actually work but I'm not ready to give up without at least putting up a fight.

o1s1n

C14N wrote: »

Had a bit of a similar deflation last week after a house we had bid 100k over asking price on still had someone else outbidding us. Made the whole thing feel just so pointless, and definitely was starting to lose hope.

Managed to bury that feeling a bit over the weekend though and started going mad setting up viewings. Have 7 set up for this week alone. My reasoning with this is that the market isn't perfect, and some houses will end up going way over asking, and some others won't. The more offers you put in, the better odds you have of finally happening upon one that you can actually win on. We'd been taking it fairly slowly and only setting up a viewing now and again that we said we'd really try for, so I think it's time to change that strategy.

I was being a bit pickier before too but dropped a few things from "must have" to "nice to have" to cast a wider net. I think pretty much every one I have setup this week I'd be happy to take, so I'm going to try to make quick offers on most or all of them assuming viewing goes okay, and hope that the seller wants to move fast, or that other viewers just aren't that interested. I see some properties on the PPR still going for reasonable prices in places we want this year, so I just have to find those for myself. I don't know if it'll actually work but I'm not ready to give up without at least putting up a fight.

This, every time.

It's really really awful at the moment and as much of it is the current situation with so much uncertainty, buying in general is just a pain in the backside.

I've bought a couple of properties before too, one in 2013 and one in 2015 - both of the experiences were long and protracted with much heartache, endless viewings, losing out on places we think we should have been able to afford etc. The sense that we'd just never get something.

Keep trucking away and you'll get a call one day where you expect it to be yet another outbid notice, but will instead have an EA offering to go sale agreed.

C14N

o1s1n wrote: »

This, every time.

It's really really awful at the moment and as much of it is the current situation with so much uncertainty, buying in general is just a pain in the backside.

I've bought a couple of properties before too, one in 2013 and one in 2015 - both of the experiences were long and protracted with much heartache, endless viewings, losing out on places we think we should have been able to afford etc. The sense that we'd just never get something.

Keep trucking away and you'll get a call one day where you expect it to be yet another outbid notice, but will instead have an EA offering to go sale agreed.

Yeah I had a friend of a friend that this did happen to. They had done the bidding war on about 10 or 12 houses, all of which they really liked, before managing to finally close the deal. I remember a similar thing back when I was looking for jobs out of college. I was doing so many interviews and getting passed over that it really started to feel a bit hopeless, but just kept at it and eventually wound up with around 3-4 different offers at the same time.

I hadn't gotten better as it went on, you just eventually find the company that is having a harder time with their recruiting and you get lucky. If I was to pick out any one of the ones I'm viewing this week, I'd say my odds of it actually going for a price I can afford will be low, but collectively the odds improve and maybe one of them will come through. The harder part will be keeping my partner's head up if none of them pan out. She's both less optimistic than me, and is more inclined to want to look elsewhere in places that might be cheaper, but that I'm not mad about the prospect of, so I'll see how that goes.

o1s1n

C14N wrote: »

Yeah I had a friend of a friend that this did happen to. They had done the bidding war on about 10 or 12 houses, all of which they really liked, before managing to finally close the deal. I remember a similar thing back when I was looking for jobs out of college. I was doing so many interviews and getting passed over that it really started to feel a bit hopeless, but just kept at it and eventually wound up with around 3-4 different offers at the same time.

I hadn't gotten better as it went on, you just eventually find the company that is having a harder time with their recruiting and you get lucky. If I was to pick out any one of the ones I'm viewing this week, I'd say my odds of it actually going for a price I can afford will be low, but collectively the odds improve and maybe one of them will come through. The harder part will be keeping my partner's head up if none of them pan out. She's both less optimistic than me, and is more inclined to want to look elsewhere in places that might be cheaper, but that I'm not mad about the prospect of, so I'll see how that goes.

Jobs and houses, like busses eh? Best of luck with the current batch of viewings!

I've another 3 viewings myself this Thursday. One we'd really love but I can see us being outbid very quickly, another one I'm a little bit more hopeful with...myself and the missus have almost collectively looked at 50 properties since mid May. :eek: I'd say we've put bids on at least 15 of them.

I find splitting it up has helped a good bit, I'll view some, she'll view others - We're pretty much spot on with what we want so I'm happy for her to put down bids and vice versa.

tobsey

o1s1n wrote: »

I had a weird phone call with an estate agent a couple of days ago.

Really dismayed by the above happening over and over, I thought I'd give it a go myself. Rang up and offered 25k over asking before any of the viewings took place on a house we really liked.

Was told by the EA 'no no, don't offer that much, that's silly! wait until you view this week and if you really like it, offer the asking price. You have to leave yourself some wiggle room'.

The call ended and I sat there with the phone in my hand beyond confused!

I think the agent is trying to avoid fake bids, not saying that’s what you’re doing. They don’t want people bidding who’ll subsequently pull out. They’d prefer to see you view the house to see if they tell if you are actually committed to it or not. It’s not in their interest to accept an offer from the top bidder and then have to go back down through the list when it falls through.

o1s1n

tobsey wrote: »

I think the agent is trying to avoid fake bids, not saying that’s what you’re doing. They don’t want people bidding who’ll subsequently pull out. They’d prefer to see you view the house to see if they tell if you are actually committed to it or not. It’s not in their interest to accept an offer from the top bidder and then have to go back down through the list when it falls through.

Most definitely. Knowing the area they'll probably know it'll get well over asking too.

Was just a bit of a weird experience offering an EA extra money and being told I was being silly and to offer less instead!

Wheety

Sebastian Dangerfield wrote: »

We went sale agreed a few weeks ago. Contracts went out from our side the same week, followed by silence on their Legal side for a month. Survey and bank valuation have been done without issue. Meanwhile we've been trying to sort a rental so the transaction goes smoothly for everyone; we haven't found a new house and its likely to be a few months before we do - we don't want to string the buyer along and jeopardise the deal.

We're expecting to sign the contracts this week, finally they came back with a load of questions that have no bearing on a contractual discussion whatsoever, and stated they want a 15k reduction in price as a result, without waiting for an answer to the nonsense questions they asked. There are no issues relating to the house whatsoever, all speculative stuff about the general area which you couldn't even assign a cost to if they were valid issues (they're not).

My expectation is that they have waited for us to be in a purchase ourselves, so we're desperate to complete the transaction and will agree to their demands or meet in the middle. Luckily they're wrong; we went ahead with the sale before the purchase to account for exactly things like this.

Bit mad, in this market, that they're playing games like that. I'd just go back to them and tell them to pay the agreed price or withdraw their bid.

LastStop

Gone are the days of trying to find your dream house. At present a lot of people, myself included are in the mode of Just Get Somewhere.

JoeA3

Hi guys,
I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing delays with closing a sale, if its the norm in the "current climate" or not?

I am selling an apartment. The sale was to close last Friday but didn't. Via my solicitor and the estate agent, I'm getting reports that the buyer's mortgage provider (Finance Ireland, who I must admit I'd never heard of until this week) are being particularly fussy and keep asking for documentation that they've already been given, hence they haven't released the funds yet. So its all just dragging on, and I'm not getting much assurances that its just "Red tape" and will be resolved any time soon.

Starting to get nervous about it now as it's been a painful process, selling it through the lockdowns and just when I thought it might be done, its dragging out.

jimmytwotimes 2013

JoeA3 wrote: »

Hi guys,
I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing delays with closing a sale, if its the norm in the "current climate" or not?

I am selling an apartment. The sale was to close last Friday but didn't. Via my solicitor and the estate agent, I'm getting reports that the buyer's mortgage provider (Finance Ireland, who I must admit I'd never heard of until this week) are being particularly fussy and keep asking for documentation that they've already been given, hence they haven't released the funds yet. So its all just dragging on, and I'm not getting much assurances that its just "Red tape" and will be resolved any time soon.

Starting to get nervous about it now as it's been a painful process, selling it through the lockdowns and just when I thought it might be done, its dragging out.

Our selling/buying process being dragged out too. Mostly on the bank side with stupid questions on a straightforward application costing us at least 6/7 wks in delays so far.

Sebastian Dangerfield

Wheety wrote: »

Bit mad, in this market, that they're playing games like that. I'd just go back to them and tell them to pay the agreed price or withdraw their bid.

Yeah Ive told them contracts and deposit this week or we're moving on. All legal matters are closed, so just the nonsense left to resolve.

I should probably remove emotion from the process but my current feeling is that Id sooner take 5k less from the underbidder than even 1k less from someone acting in bad faith.

JoeA3

jimmytwotimes 2013 wrote: »

Our selling/buying process being dragged out too. Mostly on the bank side with stupid questions on a straightforward application costing us at least 6/7 wks in delays so far.

Yeah, the solicitor and Agent keep reassuring me its "normal"... the banks, never the most efficient at the best of times are particularly bad at the moment. Doesn't help my nerves though, just want it done! I'm annoyed too that the closing-date was pretty much ignored by the buyer. I had to chase it up and find out what was going on.

jimmytwotimes 2013

JoeA3 wrote: »

Yeah, the solicitor and Agent keep reassuring me its "normal"... the banks, never the most efficient at the best of times are particularly bad at the moment. Doesn't help my nerves though, just want it done! I'm annoyed too that the closing-date was pretty much ignored by the buyer. I had to chase it up and find out what was going on.

It definitely annoying but have had to take a mental step back from it all and just accept its gonna take what it's gonna take.

Closer to the finish than when we started and better than starting all over again in an overheated market.

Mad_maxx

Dodge wrote: »

There’s a house in Inchicore. Went up for sale. Went way over asking. Got in all the papers. Went sale agreed for near 700k

Then went for sale again and has now been removed from the all the sites. Not listed as sale agreed. Just removed

my sister and her husband were bidding on a gem of a place on inchicore road kilmainham five weeks ago , they withdrew at 660 k , last they heard after they dropped out was that the top bid was 680 k

vendors then decided to withdraw the property

SMdPP87

LastStop wrote: »

Gone are the days of trying to find your dream house. At present a lot of people, myself included are in the mode of Just Get Somewhere.

Fact. No such thing as the ‘property ladder’ either. ‘Property Lifeboat’ is more appropriate.

C14N

tobsey wrote: »

I think the agent is trying to avoid fake bids, not saying that’s what you’re doing. They don’t want people bidding who’ll subsequently pull out. They’d prefer to see you view the house to see if they tell if you are actually committed to it or not. It’s not in their interest to accept an offer from the top bidder and then have to go back down through the list when it falls through.

That's a good point. If they get an advanced offer over asking, they'll usually want to inform anyone coming to a viewing that the current offer is higher. Probably don't want to drive off loads of serious bids on someone who is just making verbal offers over the phone, especially since the low time-investment means that they could be doing this to many other houses at the same time.

LastStop wrote: »

Gone are the days of trying to find your dream house. At present a lot of people, myself included are in the mode of Just Get Somewhere.

I feel the same. I had previously been looking around thinking "if I take this ok house I might miss out on one I really want", but that's gone and now just worried about getting nothing. Any port in a storm. As long as it looks passable, is in an ok location, and is in budget.

ec18

LastStop wrote: »

Gone are the days of trying to find your dream house. At present a lot of people, myself included are in the mode of Just Get Somewhere.

You need to be sure that you have a set of red lines though. Otherwise you'll find yourself in a similar situation in a few years. When we bought there were a few things we over looked that should have been deal breakers (for example own driveway, garden size, detached etc ) and now 4/5 years later we're looking at selling and buying. Luckily we have a decent chunk of equity and savings but the lack of the type of house we're looking for is our concern.

errlloyd

ec18 wrote: »

You need to be sure that you have a set of red lines though. Otherwise you'll find yourself in a similar situation in a few years. When we bought there were a few things we over looked that should have been deal breakers (for example own driveway, garden size, detached etc ) and now 4/5 years later we're looking at selling and buying. Luckily we have a decent chunk of equity and savings but the lack of the type of house we're looking for is our concern.

And with Ireland being Ireland, negative equity is always a threat. My test was always "would I be happy here for a decade?".

I went sale agreed in February (of this year) and bought an apartment in Dublin 8 for 30% less than what the vendor had paid for it in 2006. Albeit he bought it new. But the poor guy lost a grand a month on it for 15 years and was barely out of negative equity when I bought it.

Dodge

LastStop wrote: »

Gone are the days of trying to find your dream house. At present a lot of people, myself included are in the mode of Just Get Somewhere.

Hasn’t this always been the case? The ‘property’ ladder isn’t a new term

There’s clearly a smaller supply than usual but some people need to learn to manager expectations too. I’m not talking about you specifically but how many people end up in their ‘dream house’ straight away? Must be a tiny proportion

C14N

ec18 wrote: »

You need to be sure that you have a set of red lines though. Otherwise you'll find yourself in a similar situation in a few years. When we bought there were a few things we over looked that should have been deal breakers (for example own driveway, garden size, detached etc ) and now 4/5 years later we're looking at selling and buying. Luckily we have a decent chunk of equity and savings but the lack of the type of house we're looking for is our concern.

I agree, although dealbreakers are not always the same for everyone. My personal deal-breakers are largely based on location and condition of the property. I really, really, don't want a huge commute, so being close to work (or potential future jobs) and public transport is highly important. At the same time we have a few "black spot" areas we don't want to be in. Also don't want a house that is very old and needs a lot of work.

Previously, there were some "requirements" we had that have fallen by the wayside. Used to be looking for B-ratings or higher. Now we've dropped that, and we'd take as low as a D (lower than that usually comes with houses that are aging a lot in general in our experience). Used to be looking for 100+sqm space, and we've started looking for things smaller than that. Needing a small amount of work (i.e. stuff that we can largely do ourselves) is also not a dealbreaker anymore.

Personally, I'm not that concerned about being detached at all. Happy enough to have a terraced house provided the neighbours seem okay (although I will check them out before drawing down any deal). My parents recently moved out of a nice terraced house they were in for years, and aside from rennovations next door making noises they loved the place. In any kind of urban area, I think being fully detached is a pretty big luxury that isn't really feasible on a large scale. I'd rather have the extra space inside the house than a gap between them.

As long as there's enough garden space for a shed, hosting a BBQ, and putting in some flowerbeds, I think we'll be happy too.

ec18

C14N wrote: »

I agree, although dealbreakers are not always the same for everyone. My personal deal-breakers are largely based on location and condition of the property. I really, really, don't want a huge commute, so being close to work (or potential future jobs) and public transport is highly important. At the same time we have a few "black spot" areas we don't want to be in. Also don't want a house that is very old and needs a lot of work.

Previously, there were some "requirements" we had that have fallen by the wayside. Used to be looking for B-ratings or higher. Now we've dropped that, and we'd take as low as a D (lower than that usually comes with houses that are aging a lot in general in our experience). Used to be looking for 100+sqm space, and we've started looking for things smaller than that. Needing a small amount of work (i.e. stuff that we can largely do ourselves) is also not a dealbreaker anymore.

Personally, I'm not that concerned about being detached at all. Happy enough to have a terraced house provided the neighbours seem okay (although I will check them out before drawing down any deal). My parents recently moved out of a nice terraced house they were in for years, and aside from renovations next door making noises they loved the place. In any kind of urban area, I think being fully detached is a pretty big luxury that isn't really feasible on a large scale. I'd rather have the extra space inside the house than a gap between them.

As long as there's enough garden space for a shed, hosting a BBQ, and putting in some flowerbeds, I think we'll be happy too.

Oh yeah I was referring to some of ours specifically as examples