How to Plan for / Buy Furniture when Sale Agreed

Pivot Eoin

Hi All,

Wondering if anybody had any tips or recommendations of places that look to facilitate people buying furtniture during the Sale Agreed process.

I.e Somewhere where we can line up a semi flexible delivery date and ideally charge date which can be easily cancelled or at the worst refunded should the sale not actually take place?

Obviously like most, we want to make sure our Furniture arrives as quick as possible after we get the keys, but A - we dont want to have to store furniture in the meantime, B - We don't want to have to fully commit should the purchase not take place for any reason.

Thanks,

E.

Queenio

I bought my bed and kitchen table from Michael Murphy furniture and they are willing to hold it until December. It should take 6ish weeks to be ready. I've been to all the big retailers and haven't booked my couch yet but they are mainly saying up to 12 weeks for delivery 😭. I have asked about holding on, for most is not an issue. I haven't asked about a refund if sale falls through bc I I need to be positive these days! We should have keys in 4-5 weeks. It's an awful dose that everything moves so slowly! Covid delays are really starting to show now too on addition

Samuel T. Cogley

If it's build/made/ordered from a Chinese sweatshop to order then you don't stand much chance of getting a refund should the sale fall through. If they are willing to refund it, it's most likely off the shelf and you can go and buy it after you've closed.

Half the fun of a new house is surviving on orange boxes for the first few weeks.

antoinolachtnai

I think you have to be realistic here. A furniture store will not undertake the considerable risk of ordering stock for a house that you may or may not purchase. If you don’t take it, what are they supposed to do with it?

Any premium furniture place will be happy to hold your paid for furniture for a few weeks or maybe even for a few months. In the end though, warehouse space has to be paid for.

Pivot Eoin

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

I think you have to be realistic here. A furniture store will not undertake the considerable risk of ordering stock for a house that you may or may not purchase. If you don’t take it, what are they supposed to do with it?

Any premium furniture place will be happy to hold your paid for furniture for a few weeks or maybe even for a few months. In the end though, warehouse space has to be paid for.

Ah yeah, look I completely get it. Really I was wondering if any furniture company maybe saw this as a niche market that they could take a risk on in the hope of much more increased business... maybe that hasnt happened.

Gumbo

Pivot Eoin wrote: »

Hi All,

Wondering if anybody had any tips or recommendations of places that look to facilitate people buying furtniture during the Sale Agreed process.

I.e Somewhere where we can line up a semi flexible delivery date and ideally charge date which can be easily cancelled or at the worst refunded should the sale not actually take place?

Obviously like most, we want to make sure our Furniture arrives as quick as possible after we get the keys, but A - we dont want to have to store furniture in the meantime, B - We don't want to have to fully commit should the purchase not take place for any reason.

Thanks,

E.

I think you need to understand how the real world works in this situation.
Realistic expectations and all that.

A retail store will not order your sofa and refund you should you not go ahead. Most of these, if not all order on a one by one basis, they don’t stock 50 sofas in a warehouse.

Once you pay, your committed. They will hold it for a couple of weeks once arrived but not indefinitely. Some sofas and furniture can take 8 weeks or more to arrive and that was before COVID so you need to work out when you’ll get let’s roughly and order based around that time.

Gumbo

Pivot Eoin wrote: »

Ah yeah, look I completely get it. Really I was wondering if any furniture company maybe saw this as a niche market that they could take a risk on in the hope of much more increased business... maybe that hasnt happened.

It’s not a niche market. They wouldn’t get increased business. The risk here would far out way the gain. More people would cancel than follow through with their order.

EJC4711

I’ve been to a few retailers and the lead times for furniture delivery has been pushed out a lot since Covid. You are talking a 12 to 16 week lead time in some cases.The retailers will hold the items for you for a while.

Some retailers work on a queued system. For example, a delivery could come in and if you aren’t able to take the item you purchased, they can move down the line to someone who has ordered
the exact same item. You then essentially are first on the list for the next delivery.

You could also get a call to say someone can’t take delivery right now and you may get that sofa earlier than expected.

brisan

Pivot Eoin wrote: »

Hi All,

Wondering if anybody had any tips or recommendations of places that look to facilitate people buying furtniture during the Sale Agreed process.

I.e Somewhere where we can line up a semi flexible delivery date and ideally charge date which can be easily cancelled or at the worst refunded should the sale not actually take place?

Obviously like most, we want to make sure our Furniture arrives as quick as possible after we get the keys, but A - we dont want to have to store furniture in the meantime, B - We don't want to have to fully commit should the purchase not take place for any reason.

Thanks,

E.

Look for free stuff on DoneDeal or facebook when you move in and then order new stuff
If it’s a new build be careful
The measurements of the show house May not be the same as the house you buy

woodchuck

The only thing we've ordered is a mattress, because it's pretty vital that we have something to sleep on. We're getting this from EZ living and they're flexible about holding it until we have the keys, within reason. It was also the only item that we're confident about measurements - it's the same size as the current/previous owners mattress (measured when viewing), so we know exactly how it will fit in the room.

I haven't heard of anywhere that will provide a full refund for a change of mind. We've been browsing a lot of furniture, but realistically we can't place any orders until we're in the house and can do all the measurements to make sure things will fit nicely.

The wait time for a lot of these places are scary though!! I think it was EZ living that told us in August that if we want a couch in a colour that's not on the floor, we'd be waiting until January Our parents are willing to loan us a few bits that they can live without for a while (e.g. patio table, patio chairs and 2 slightly more comfy chairs). And I think we'll try to get a couple of flat pack desks from Ikea or Argos as soon as we move in, as we're working from home. But for the majority of stuff, we're just going to have to wait until we're in the house and then put up with the ridiculous delivery times. I'd rather get it done right than get it done fast.

Samuel T. Cogley

Got a couple of great mattresses from EZLiving. They're also willing to issue a credit note for cancellations, less a restocking fee.

AngryLips

The other thing to consider is you might want to hold off buying the small furniture until the big furniture has arrived and you've had a chance to see it inside the room it's going in. Stuff like sofa and bed you almost need to see it in the room first before you go pairing other bits of furniture with it, otherwise you could end up getting other stuff that's disproportionate to the room and it'll make the room feel too big/too small.

Leozord

I wanted to do the same, have been looking for mattresses and found some superb ones but although I'm already on sale agreed, I will buy them just when I grab the keys

we never know what could happen during the process... if the solicitor finds something dodgy or the seller decided to pull out...

Leozord

woodchuck wrote: »

The wait time for a lot of these places are scary though!! I think it was EZ living that told us in August that if we want a couch in a colour that's not on the floor, we'd be waiting until January

mad isn't?

was checking here their "sofa madness" like assuming they got some available already - this one for eg is just during mid-nov: https://www.ezlivingfurniture.ie/3-seater-grey-reclining-sofa-baxter.html

awec

AngryLips wrote: »

The other thing to consider is you might want to hold off buying the small furniture until the big furniture has arrived and you've had a chance to see it inside the room it's going in. Stuff like sofa and bed you almost need to see it in the room first before you go pairing other bits of furniture with it, otherwise you could end up getting other stuff that's disproportionate to the room and it'll make the room feel too big/too small.

This x100.

When we moved in, we had bought a sofa, a kitchen table and a bed, because these are things you are certain you'll need. We bought a cheapo coffee table from Ikea for like a fiver to tide us over.

The rest of the rooms will take you ages to kit out. We had an interior designer in for some ideas and she recommended that you focus on one room at a time, rather than buying for the whole house. And not to buy furniture / decorative items in isolation.

into_the_wild

Sorry as I'm very new to this but Is Ikea not a great place to order stuff from?

ebayissues

Is the APR really 0% on Ezliving?

Supercell

We used a deck chair for a while after we bought our house. Great craic altogether, herself was 6 months pregnant too, guess who got the chair!! The alternative seating was a small step ladder. I wouldn't sweat it OP !!
Thankfully we had bought an IKEA bed for our previous rental which we could take with us so there was that

awec

ebayissues wrote: »

Is the APR really 0% on Ezliving?

Yes.

awec

into_the_wild wrote: »

Sorry as I'm very new to this but Is Ikea not a great place to order stuff from?

Ikea is grand. Obviously at the cheaper end of the market, and flat pack furniture would be of lower quality.

But they do have some nice stuff.

If you order loads from Ikea then your house just ends up looking like an Ikea catalog.

into_the_wild

awec wrote: »

Ikea is grand. Obviously at the cheaper end of the market, and flat pack furniture would be of lower quality.

But they do have some nice stuff.

If you order loads from Ikea then your house just ends up looking like an Ikea catalog.

hehe i dont mind that as long as its good value for money and decent quality.
I guess I'm being lazy and just want to go there once/twice and get the whole lot pre-ordered.
Anyone here knows how long is the waiting period for deliveries at IKEA lately?

awec

into_the_wild wrote: »

hehe i dont mind that as long as its good value for money and decent quality.
I guess I'm being lazy and just want to go there once/twice and get the whole lot pre-ordered.
Anyone here knows how long is the waiting period for deliveries at IKEA lately?

The quality varies a lot. None of it is terrible but most things are obvious flat pack to look at.

I think their online delivery is a bit of a mess at the moment, I am not sure if it's any better if you order in-store.

You could look at hiring a van for the day, that's what we did. We bought a bed for the spare room and a few other things that wouldn't fit in a car. Used GoCar, was actually a reasonable price.

woodchuck

into_the_wild wrote: »

hehe i dont mind that as long as its good value for money and decent quality.
I guess I'm being lazy and just want to go there once/twice and get the whole lot pre-ordered.
Anyone here knows how long is the waiting period for deliveries at IKEA lately?

I'm not sure of the delivery times, but make sure to check online first to see if the items you want are available. It tells you if they're available to buy online and/or available to buy in store. We know someone who bought a house very recently and planned to get a lot of stuff in Ikea, but when they went to the shop, there was very little in stock. We went there a couple of weeks ago and the stock didn't seem too bad, but it's just hit and miss depending on what you want and what colour.

Also FYI, we were queuing for about 40 minutes to get in a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday afternoon. This was just before the restaurant reopened, so I imagine the queue might be even longer now, as people are likely to spend more time there getting their lunch or dinner too (one out, one in system).

jmBuildExt

Pivot Eoin wrote: »

Hi All,

Wondering if anybody had any tips or recommendations of places that look to facilitate people buying furtniture during the Sale Agreed process.

I.e Somewhere where we can line up a semi flexible delivery date and ideally charge date which can be easily cancelled or at the worst refunded should the sale not actually take place?

Obviously like most, we want to make sure our Furniture arrives as quick as possible after we get the keys, but A - we dont want to have to store furniture in the meantime, B - We don't want to have to fully commit should the purchase not take place for any reason.

Thanks,

E.

Kian furniture (kylemore) are great - (not sure they would fully commit to the refund part but worth talking to)... they held a couch for me that was on sale in their shop (ready to takeaway) for over a year - and delivered with a day or 2 notice.

They allowed us borrow/bring stools/cushions home to see how they suit the house - really helpful and nice to deal with.
I've gotten lots of stuff from them as a result.

Other thing is to wait til you have signed the contracts. (i.e. both parties are fully committed at that point) There's usually enough time between then and move in date to organise furniture.

brisan

https://www.arnotts.ie/whats-on/warehouse-sale/

Woshy

Michael Murphy held something for months for us. I wasn't impressed with other aspects of the purchase but that was pretty good of them.

As for a couch, we ordered one in DFS in Feb, juts before Covid hit and it took 6 months for us to get it. I think there is still a good wait for customised items like that

Pivot Eoin

brisan wrote: »

https://www.arnotts.ie/whats-on/warehouse-sale/

Dreadful Prices for a "Warehouse Sale"

brisan

Pivot Eoin wrote: »

Dreadful Prices for a "Warehouse Sale"

I agree
Previous warehouse sales where out in the IKC premises near swords
Proper sale
However I imagine Arnotts are hurting big time and cannot afford to rent the premises and cannot afford to heavily discount stock
They probably do not need the space as they will not be buying a lot of new stock with the recession coming down the tracks

Pivot Eoin

brisan wrote: »

I agree
Previous warehouse sales where out in the IKC premises near swords
Proper sale
However I imagine Arnotts are hurting big time and cannot afford to rent the premises and cannot afford to heavily discount stock
They probably do not need the space as they will not be buying a lot of new stock with the recession coming down the tracks

Funny you mention that, was in Power City yesterday on the Appliance hunt and he basically said a lot of factories stopped producing units (Fridges, Cookers etc.) both because of COVID and then the expected turn down from the resulting recession.

CuriousKarl

ebayissues wrote: »

Is the APR really 0% on Ezliving?

We received our loan pack and sent off 0% finance application with DFS only to then chase them and cancel it out of fear that banks will run a credit check before drawdown - does anybody know if a credit check is in fact carried out again before drawdown?
lots of retailers offering tempting finance which would make the whole transition into a new home that bit easier, but I don't want to risk it if the loan amount will be reduced or even pulled..

brisan

Pivot Eoin wrote: »

Funny you mention that, was in Power City yesterday on the Appliance hunt and he basically said a lot of factories stopped producing units (Fridges, Cookers etc.) both because of COVID and then the expected turn down from the resulting recession.

I know when the lockdown hit Power city and D.I.D ran out of chest freezers within a couple of days