Do you need an estate agent at all?

dublinguy2004

I know I may come across as being a complete simpleton to many experienced property gurus out there, but why bother dealing with sleazy estate agents?

I've heard of houses being sold through private ads and even ebay, but is it really true that you don't get as much for your house if you don't use an estate agent?

Sites like myhome.ie et. al. are good and provide a huge marketplace for both buyers and sellers alike. Can anyone forsee a time when these kind of sites will be run independently of any estate agent in a more 'open source' (to quote a software term) manner?

I don't think it's true that you get less money for your house if it's sold privately. If there's demand for your house, you can choose your buyer. If there's not so much demand, it may take a little longer. Wouldn't it be great though if there was somewhere centralised where you could search for private properties for sale?

Once you've found your seller/buyer, then it's over to the legal eagles to sort everything out. And if you can find one of those €500 conveyancy solicitors, then you must have saved yourself a good few grand.

Am I missing something?

Culchie

Tesco are about to take on the Estate Agents in the UK !

I think the main service they provide, that you can't do, is probably vet out the time wasters from the genuine housebuyer.
You could spend alot of time showing serial house peekers around your house with no chance of a sale, look at the shopping centres on a sunday, there's a lot of weird people out there. :eek:

They will say they do alot of other stuff, but i think this is the main thing that they can do better than a 'go it alone' person can.

Then there is brand, househunters tend to head straight for the brands and their websites, so they are getting more concentrated hits of genuine punters. It will cost you alot of money to get the same marketing penetration.

Whether that's worth paying 1.5% or whatever is a different question.

Irish-Lass

dublinguy2004 wrote:

Once you've found your seller/buyer, then it's over to the legal eagles to sort everything out. And if you can find one of those €500 conveyancy solicitors, then you must have saved yourself a good few grand.

I work for solicitors and am not advertising for them, but will give a note of caution......these €500.00 conveyancing solicitors NOT ALL but SOME are cowboys....we have had clients come to us where they thought they were saving, went to sell the house and realises that their deeds hadn't been registered probably.

People go on about solicitors charging so much what you also have to take into account is that when you purchase a property a solicitor has to give an Undertaking to the bank or building society that you are borrowing from that they will register the title so that it is of good marketable value.

In order to do this the title has to be either registered in the Land Registry or the Registry of Deeds. Most new houses being built are Land Registry. The fee for registering you in the Land Registry is €450.00.....then if you are borrowing the mortgage has to be stamped there is €10.00 due for every €1,000.00 you borrow so on a €250,000.00 the mortgage duty is €250.00....also on the day of the closing the solicitors have to carry out searches to make sure that the people you are buying the proprety off have the right to do so and to make sure there are no judgements or mortgages registered on the property.....the max these searches would cost if €120.00.....so before the solicitor includes his fees we are already up to €800.00. Then of course if you are buying a house that is above the €317,500.00 price range you have to pay stamp duty, it is slightly less for first time buyers then it is for 2nd time buyers. If the stamp duty is not paid within 3 months of the date of the signing of the mortgage interest is charged. All these should be taken into account when purchase a property.

Sorry if this is long winded but like in every profession there are good and bad solicitors, its the bad ones you hear more about then the good ones.

dublinguy2004

Culchie wrote:

Tesco are about to take on the Estate Agents in the UK !

I think the main service they provide, that you can't do, is probably vet out the time wasters from the genuine housebuyer.
You could spend alot of time showing serial house peekers around your house with no chance of a sale, look at the shopping centres on a sunday, there's a lot of weird people out there. :eek:

They will say they do alot of other stuff, but i think this is the main thing that they can do better than a 'go it alone' person can.

Then there is brand, househunters tend to head straight for the brands and their websites, so they are getting more concentrated hits of genuine punters. It will cost you alot of money to get the same marketing penetration.

Whether that's worth paying 1.5% or whatever is a different question.

You'll always get the serial house peekers and there's no estate agent in the country who is able weed out all of 'em. If you're able to stand on your own two feet and sell your own house on your own behalf, then you should have the cop on to spot for yourself the Mrs. Buckets from the Mr. Quicksales.

[Off the point somewhat] As for the househunters heading straight for the brands and their websites: Surely if you're buying a house, you're buying just that and not are not buying in to the brand/lifestyle marketing tripe that goes on? It's amazing the amount of people that buy houses in estates in the middle of nowhere with no facilities in West Dublin and still talk about stuff they saw in the advert 'just 40 minutes drive', 'in the heart of the countryside', 'healthy, active lifestyle', blah, blah, blah...

Is it worth the 1.5%? No way! That's a huge amount of money for not a lot of work. If there were a critical mass of private buyers/sellers out there who centralised their properties in an 'open source' spirit, then people would have a choice over whether or not they 'wanted' to pay a couple of grand to an estate agent or not.

Tell me more about this Tesco service

dublinguy2004

Irish-Lass wrote:

I work for solicitors and am not advertising for them, but will give a note of caution......these €500.00 conveyancing solicitors NOT ALL but SOME are cowboys....we have had clients come to us where they thought they were saving, went to sell the house and realises that their deeds hadn't been registered probably.

People go on about solicitors charging so much what you also have to take into account is that when you purchase a property a solicitor has to give an Undertaking to the bank or building society that you are borrowing from that they will register the title so that it is of good marketable value.

In order to do this the title has to be either registered in the Land Registry or the Registry of Deeds. Most new houses being built are Land Registry. The fee for registering you in the Land Registry is €450.00.....then if you are borrowing the mortgage has to be stamped there is €10.00 due for every €1,000.00 you borrow so on a €250,000.00 the mortgage duty is €250.00....also on the day of the closing the solicitors have to carry out searches to make sure that the people you are buying the proprety off have the right to do so and to make sure there are no judgements or mortgages registered on the property.....the max these searches would cost if €120.00.....so before the solicitor includes his fees we are already up to €800.00. Then of course if you are buying a house that is above the €317,500.00 price range you have to pay stamp duty, it is slightly less for first time buyers then it is for 2nd time buyers. If the stamp duty is not paid within 3 months of the date of the signing of the mortgage interest is charged. All these should be taken into account when purchase a property.

Sorry if this is long winded but like in every profession there are good and bad solicitors, its the bad ones you hear more about then the good ones.

Can one of the mods please move this in to one of the numerous posts that already talk about conveyancy charging?

Culchie

dublinguy2004 wrote:

You'll always get the serial house peekers and there's no estate agent in the country who is able weed out all of 'em. If you're able to stand on your own two feet and sell your own house on your own behalf, then you should have the cop on to spot for yourself the Mrs. Buckets from the Mr. Quicksales.

[Off the point somewhat] As for the househunters heading straight for the brands and their websites: Surely if you're buying a house, you're buying just that and not are not buying in to the brand/lifestyle marketing tripe that goes on? It's amazing the amount of people that buy houses in estates in the middle of nowhere with no facilities in West Dublin and still talk about stuff they saw in the advert 'just 40 minutes drive', 'in the heart of the countryside', 'healthy, active lifestyle', blah, blah, blah...

Is it worth the 1.5%? No way! That's a huge amount of money for not a lot of work. If there were a critical mass of private buyers/sellers out there who centralised their properties in an 'open source' spirit, then people would have a choice over whether or not they 'wanted' to pay a couple of grand to an estate agent or not.

Tell me more about this Tesco service

OK, firstly your original post suggests you were asking for advice, but your above response suggests you have it all sussed and have completely made up your mind .... so why bother in the first place?

Now, I'm guessing that that's just the way your post came across and you didn't mean it that way, so I'll play Devils Advocate a little (I actually don't necessarily 100% disagree with you, but do have some counter arguments)

dublinguy2004 wrote:

You'll always get the serial house peekers and there's no estate agent in the country who is able weed out all of 'em. If you're able to stand on your own two feet and sell your own house on your own behalf, then you should have the cop on to spot for yourself the Mrs. Buckets from the Mr. Quicksales.

Of course they can't weed all of them out, but after a few visits to other people's house surely they can stop a fair few in their tracks. If the time wasters waste the estate agents time, then I'm sure this is enough incentive for them to try and weed these people out, and only bring legitimate house hunters to your property. They want commission from a house sale, so timewasters need not apply !
Also if there are serial house peekers, do you really want these people going through your property with no intention to buy, who's to say they are not 'sussing' out your property and seeing what nice little contents are there for their scumbag buddies, at least with an agent there is some comeback, and probably name and address etc...

dublinguy2004 wrote:

Off the point somewhat] As for the househunters heading straight for the brands and their websites: Surely if you're buying a house, you're buying just that and not are not buying in to the brand/lifestyle marketing tripe that goes on? It's amazing the amount of people that buy houses in estates in the middle of nowhere with no facilities in West Dublin and still talk about stuff they saw in the advert 'just 40 minutes drive', 'in the heart of the countryside', 'healthy, active lifestyle', blah, blah, blah...

If I'm buying a house, do I visit a Statoil petrol station? No, I go to a property website, or an estate agents office .... how do I find you, Joe Bloggs, how do I know your house is for sale, how did you let me know your house is for sale? How much money did you spend getting me to know your house is for sale?

The second part of your comment about people falling for marketing 'guff' is fine, but there's no legislation for some people's stupidity, but from a sellers perspective, didn't the agency do a great job selling all these houses in the middle of nowhere? What would you say, my house is 40 mins from Dublin...please buy it.......... or my house is in the middle of nowhere, please buy it?

dublinguy2004 wrote:

Is it worth the 1.5%? No way! That's a huge amount of money for not a lot of work. If there were a critical mass of private buyers/sellers out there who centralised their properties in an 'open source' spirit, then people would have a choice over whether or not they 'wanted' to pay a couple of grand to an estate agent or not.

Again depends on circumstances. Databases of prospective house buyers is a great asset that agents have.
Business models such as 'For Sale by owner' and such like have not been successful in the UK or USA....probably a good reason why not.

Tesco will be trying to adopt this approach, I heard that they will charge £150 per listing

MorningStar

dublinguy2004 wrote:

I know I may come across as being a complete simpleton to many experienced property gurus out there, but why bother dealing with sleazy estate agents?

They aren't all sleazy and they provide a service with experience.

dublinguy2004 wrote:

I've heard of houses being sold through private ads and even ebay, but is it really true that you don't get as much for your house if you don't use an estate agent?

Yes this is true

dublinguy2004 wrote:

Sites like myhome.ie et. al. are good and provide a huge marketplace for both buyers and sellers alike. Can anyone forsee a time when these kind of sites will be run independently of any estate agent in a more 'open source' (to quote a software term) manner?

Incorrect use of the term you are more likely to mean open market if anything. It is possible that the market becomes more open but people will always be willing to get other people to do the job.

dublinguy2004 wrote:

I don't think it's true that you get less money for your house if it's sold privately. If there's demand for your house, you can choose your buyer. If there's not so much demand, it may take a little longer. Wouldn't it be great though if there was somewhere centralised where you could search for private properties for sale?

THere are loads of property websites which have property for sale by the owner. There is no centralised property website for estate agents either. Myhome is close .

dublinguy2004 wrote:

Once you've found your seller/buyer, then it's over to the legal eagles to sort everything out. And if you can find one of those €500 conveyancy solicitors, then you must have saved yourself a good few grand.

Am I missing something?

Yes you are missing something the main things is some people are better at sometimngs than others. Not everybody can sell things it is a talent/skill. You might not rate it highly but others do.
Watch a program like "selling Houses" and you can see how a good estate agent should act. Somebody should actually tell you that the curatins and carpet need to be replaced to sell for the max price etc... I have seen property sell months later after little work with huge profits which the original owner could have gotten.
I don't like agents of most type but the fact is they havve a value and only the inexperienced don't know that and therse are the people likely to try and sell on their own and most likely need most help.

angeldelight

When my parents were selling our last house they didn't use an estate agent! Well, we got a free valuation done, to which my dad added a few thousand (pounds at the time).

Then he told a few people in shops in the town that we were selling, and we had about 10 different people come and look at the house. 3 of those 10 started bidding on it and we got almost 15,000 over the asking price. Basically my dad just told each of them what the highest bid so far was, they all trusted him too rather than wondering if he was just trying to raise the price, as they knew us.

Yes it was a pretty small town but it still worked! Final bid was accepted 3 weeks after my dad told the people in the shops

However if we were selling this house I think they'd use an estate agent purely because this estate always has people waiting to move in so estate agents know who's waiting on a house to come up and can have the deal done within a fortnight

AndyWarhol

MorningStar wrote:

Incorrect use of the term you are more likely to mean open market if anything.

The term 'open source' wasn't used incorrectly; obviously he was using an analogy.
And no, he didn't mean 'open market'; surely he can write for himself?

MorningStar

Revealing another one of your names Dublinguy so who else are you? Are you stalking me over to other forums too? Go away and grow up

(Incase anybody is wondering Andy there just kept refering to it as what "I" said and then edited it afterwards)

JWE

Dear Dublin Guy 2004, yes it is possible to sell your property without an Agent, I come across it daily, and the obvious benefit to the Vendor is that I have over 10 years of experience behind me in dealing with all aspects of Residential Sales and Letting.

I am familiar with property values, and with marketing and presentation or properties, more so I am familiar and experienced in dealing with buyers and sellers of property, each of which have their own unique tastes and requirements to carter for.

More and more property is being sourced over the internet through the various sites, and mainly when people want to look for property they turn to the well known sites.
Then they look at the papers and then the look for the For Sale signs and then they call to the Estate Agents Office.

So already there has been a switch away from the old formula, this has led to owners selling them selves, some times if they are un successful they get an agent other tines they just take it off the market as they feel that they are not getting sufficient or that the offers are not as they wanted or expected.

The reason some one wants to sell with an agent is to get some one to do the sales work, marketing and negotiation to achieve a price they are happy with. I for one don’t chase the private sellers market any more as they are usually people who had bad experiences with and agent and there fore will end up giving the decent agent nothing but grief and a headache or the second group are people who are those just testing they market and finally those who are looking for what can only be described as funny money for their property, i.e. a figure they themselves decided upon that exceeds market values for reasons of their own design.

If people cut out agents from the process, fair play to them if they can achieve the price desired and save a few quid, but for the most part the Irish and especially Dublin sales market is strong and vibrant with sufficient new instructions to keep most people happy and busy.

AndyWarhol

JWE wrote:

Dear Dublin Guy 2004, yes it is possible to sell your property without an Agent, I come across it daily, and the obvious benefit to the Vendor is that I have over 10 years of experience behind me in dealing with all aspects of Residential Sales and Letting.

I am familiar with property values, and with marketing and presentation or properties, more so I am familiar and experienced in dealing with buyers and sellers of property, each of which have their own unique tastes and requirements to carter for.

More and more property is being sourced over the internet through the various sites, and mainly when people want to look for property they turn to the well known sites.
Then they look at the papers and then the look for the For Sale signs and then they call to the Estate Agents Office.

So already there has been a switch away from the old formula, this has led to owners selling them selves, some times if they are un successful they get an agent other tines they just take it off the market as they feel that they are not getting sufficient or that the offers are not as they wanted or expected.

The reason some one wants to sell with an agent is to get some one to do the sales work, marketing and negotiation to achieve a price they are happy with. I for one don’t chase the private sellers market any more as they are usually people who had bad experiences with and agent and there fore will end up giving the decent agent nothing but grief and a headache or the second group are people who are those just testing they market and finally those who are looking for what can only be described as funny money for their property, i.e. a figure they themselves decided upon that exceeds market values for reasons of their own design.

If people cut out agents from the process, fair play to them if they can achieve the price desired and save a few quid, but for the most part the Irish and especially Dublin sales market is strong and vibrant with sufficient new instructions to keep most people happy and busy.

Hey thanks for that insight. I guess if people didn't have to pay the 1.5% (or whatever it is) to estate agents, they'd have 1.5% more money to spend on their house which would mean (given that property's a supply-demand game) that house prices would go up by 1.5%.

Or maybe there are just too many levels of logic in that deduction...

Dellgirl

I heard one agent ( I know her )telling another on the phone that she had asked for incermental comission - ie - 1% up to ..lets say €480,000 and 1.something after that and 2% after that. She was laughing because she had an offer of €530 odd and was stringing the vendor along saying the houe was proving tough to sell and making up negotiations.

I was really shocked. I asked her if this was normal practise and she said it was.

Thomond Pk

I dealt with a situation where a remax agent sold a house and didn't interpret a particular planning document. The solicitors missed it and the purchaser was under the impression all was fine; then came the enforcement notice. 20k at the minimum to rectify.

If anyone falls for a dodgy agent then more fool them.

B I'd be interested to see you name and shame this individual.

Irish-Lass

what is also normal practise is money under the table.....where say 2 people are bidding for a house, the estate agents suggests a sweetner like well if you gave them €4,000 cash that would swing it your way.....that is also a common practise among estate agents.

Thomond Pk

I suggest you report this to the IAVI, IPAV, Vendors, Fraud Squad and Revenue Commisioners if you have actually encountered it.

AndyWarhol

Thomond Pk wrote:

I suggest you report this to the IAVI, IPAV, Vendors, Fraud Squad and Revenue Commisioners if you have actually encountered it.

Even if you did come across this kind of activity, it's near impossible to prove anything. Plus, your dream house would probably be long sold by the time the matter is 'investigated'.

Thomond Pk

The real crime here is not against the purchaser but against the vendor as the 4 grand could alternatively been paid in the form of the highest price acheivable which is what the agent is ethically bound to acheive for their client it is a professional relationship.

AndyWarhol

Thomond Pk wrote:

The real crime here is not against the purchaser but against the vendor as the 4 grand could alternatively been paid in the form of the highest price acheivable which is what the agent is ethically bound to acheive for their client it is a professional relationship.

That's an interesting perspective. So effectively purchasers should not think they're being ripped off in handing over a bit of wedge since they'll be getting the property for cheaper!

Would it not be possible for the seller to appoint more than one estate agent who would then have to compete with one another to achieve the best price?

Anyway this all goes back to the point of 'Do you need an estate agent at all?'. Can they be trusted to sell your property for what it's worth? Will they scare off potential bidders (stories about dry rot, planning permission, etc.) and tell their mates/relatives to turn up at the auction?

Thomond Pk

Andy unfortunately you can't have it both both ways. Make an accusation and back it up with fact or retreat. It's ur choice

Irish-Lass

Ok to clear this up we purchased out house in 2001 - we out bidded another couple who were looking at it...the long and short of it is our financial insitution when they carried out the inspection didn't value you at what we had bid so we offered a lower bid, I really wanted the house, the estate agent suggested we make a cash payment which we did......we were instructed to make the bank draft payable to both vendors (they were spilting up) and we were given a copy of the cheque and so were the vendors, the estate agents held onto the cheque until the sale closed and then handed the cheque over to the vendors......this is a very common practise amoung estate agents....the problem being for four grand did I want to loose the house I had my heart set on the answer is no.....so we did, yes I could have reported the estate agents for the carry on bit I wanted the house more. The estate agents we bought through aren't just a local estate agents they are a very well know estate agents, it goes on its just people choose not to pay attention

RainyDay

Hi IrishLass - It's a bit rich for you to be complaining about the estate agents when you were prepared to play their dodgy game. If you had a real ethical concern about their approach, surely you would just walk away. It's a bit like the junkie complaining about his dealer breaking the law.

AndyWarhol

Thomond Pk wrote:

Andy unfortunately you can't have it both both ways. Make an accusation and back it up with fact or retreat. It's ur choice

Well if you follow the Accommodation/Property thread, you'd hear about such horror stories involving estate agents. And besides, it's not as if we're all writing for the Irish Times here and what you read on an internet forum is to be consumed with a pinch of salt.

The reason this thread was started was in response to the stories that people have reported on boards.ie. Indeed friends of mine have had similar underhand experiences with estate agents. Anyway, is it not useful to provoke a discussion as the the actual usefulness of estate agents and whether we really need them at all?

1huge1

not all estate agents are bad you know they dont deserve the bad reputation they have
its like lawyers in america everyone seems to hate them but they do nothing wrong
my dad is a real estate agent and i find it quiet offensive when you call them all sleezy etc

AndyWarhol

1huge1 wrote:

not all estate agents are bad you know they dont deserve the bad reputation they have
its like lawyers in america everyone seems to hate them but they do nothing wrong
my dad is a real estate agent and i find it quiet offensive when you call them all sleezy etc

Of course they're not all bad. The point I'm trying to get at is; can you trust them? It's such a huge financial committment buying/selling houses and is the current system that we have where one pops down the road to their local estate agent's office the best way to do things?

By letting an estate agent sell your house on your behalf, there is a huge element of trust. People might say well only deal with the 'reputable' companies, but this is not good enough in my opinion given the kind of shady business that does go on. Obviously there are no facts and figures on such dodgy transactions, but there's no denying that it does go on and people do have horror stories to tell with regard to bribery and corruption.

For the average Joe soap buying/selling his house, he doesn't have regular experience in dealing with estate agents so already they're, by default, vunerable given their inexperience with the market. I really think that transactions ought to be conducted in a more open and transparent way. Joe Soap doesn't really have much choice apart from going down the private sale route. Hopefully this new fixed rate estate agent service from Tesco will rattle the extortionate 1%-2% charges that current estate agents demand.

Irish-Lass

RainyDay I wouldn't even have thought that such a thing went on until the estate agent suggested it to us.......and are you telling me if you fall in love with a house that you would give it up for the sake of £4,000.00.........well sorry I wouldn't and didn't, I'm not complaining about it just merely letting people know that this goes on.....as it happens we had the money and I was prepared to do it, as for whether what I did was ethical or not, sorry the way I justify it is, I got the house I wanted at the end of the day and we have been happy for the last 4 years so I put it down to as an investment in our future.....its only money

I'm not saying all estate agents are bad I know quiet a few that are good but its the ones you least expect that can turn out to be ones to watch.

rooferPete

Hi,

The estate agent, auctioneer or valuer they have various titles but most important the majority of them especially the smaller agents have knowledge and skills.

I wouldn't expect many people who have paid the 1.5% to complain about the extra €20,000.00 the agent negotiated for them because he / she remained professional and not emotionally involved.

The people who believe their property is worth unrealistic amounts could very easily take offence at the low or no offers they are receiving from all the viewers.

On the other hand they could set a guide price and accept the first offer they get that meets or slightly exceeds the guide price, whereas the professional can sit back unimpressed by the amount and negotiate a much higher price from the same buyer.

I think the people (if any) who should be annoyed are the purchasers because of the way their offer can be rejected in what can appear to be thoughtless way.

BTW, any transaction that has hidden or disguised payments can render the entire process including the contract as null and void, this could leave any purchaser with no redress if the property turns out to have an incomplete title.

Also any payment made to avoid stamp duty like paying cash to stay within the first time buyers exemption limit is a revenue offence that could result in having the contract declared null and void not to mention the substantial financial penalties or even a jail term.

As to the amount of property for sale, I must disagree because anyone who is looking to buy a home will find the agent's window full of photos, but the majority have either sale agreed or sold marked on them some for quite a while back.

Negotiate your fees with the agent and if you find that process easy then maybe you are the type of person who can negotiate their own sale for the highest price.

lomb

rooferPete wrote:

As to the amount of property for sale, I must disagree because anyone who is looking to buy a home will find the agent's window full of photos, but the majority have either sale agreed or sold marked on them some for quite a while back.

Agreed, theres very little quality properties on the market. period properties in dublin city have gone up 25% in the last few months because of a shortage in D6, and D4.
there are alot of apartments out there for sure, but i wonder are people lgrowing tired of leaseholds and service charges and crap management companies and common areas?

at the end of the day with property continuing to rise at amazing rates who in their right mind would be selling in this market? not to mention that whereas b4 peoples kids emigrated and properties were sold when the owners dies now there are 2-3 kids that want their parents house.

whats apparant is the growing shortage of high class properties, and sadly one has to be a very successful businessman to afford one now within reach of the city

AndyWarhol

lomb wrote:

Agreed, theres very little quality properties on the market. period properties in dublin city have gone up 25% in the last few months because of a shortage in D6, and D4.
there are alot of apartments out there for sure, but i wonder are people lgrowing tired of leaseholds and service charges and crap management companies and common areas?

at the end of the day with property continuing to rise at amazing rates who in their right mind would be selling in this market? not to mention that whereas b4 peoples kids emigrated and properties were sold when the owners dies now there are 2-3 kids that want their parents house.

whats apparant is the growing shortage of high class properties, and sadly one has to be a very successful businessman to afford one now within reach of the city

Agreed too! Getting back to the point though: Do you need an estate agent at all?

rooferPete

Hi,

There is no law preventing you from advertising your home / property for sale and acting on your own behalf.

The only difference may be the deposit will be paid into your Solicitors client account subject to contract as you are not bonded to hold clients funds, bear in mind the buyer may request their deposit back if they can't get loan approval or some other valid reason.

Other than that no problem, an old saying comes to mind "the lawyer who defends himself has a fool for a client nothing personal it just came to me.

SparkyLarks

www.privateseller.ie

Though there was a very nice house on sale in cork for 600,000. it's now contract pending but it's been for sale for ages. 4 or 5 months at least.
Any estate agent would have sold it faster.