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

I’m in this position at the moment, from the other side. I’m a first time buyer and have gone sale agreed on an apartment- have been waiting for contracts for 4 months now.

The only advice I would give is to be as upfront as possible from the beginning about exactly what “waiting” means. I may have thought twice if I had realised that “waiting” means my vendor won’t even exchange contracts, much less sign them, until she finds another place. It’s a constant source of anxiety and stress for me, and I should have been more clear from my side too about what my expectations were. But hey, I’m new to this!

It’s just frustrating when every bit of communication is via the agent. I’m sure you’ll have no problem finding someone to buy your house in this market, but just be really clear about how long it might take you to find somewhere else. It’s just an absolutely appalling market out there right now, for everyone.

Looking for a bit of advice.

Never thought I’d be a home owner. Single 39yo. Left my last job just under 3 years ago. Money was dreadful. Got a small bit of a redundancy to help me kick start a deposit.

New job better paid and load of overtime. So i saved up enough for a deposit and then some as the banks dont take all overtime into consideration. So paying about 30% up front.

Went to a broker in April to see how much i could borrow. Got approved in principle. But that was it despite asking on a regular enough basis will the firm offer be coming so i can start looking.

Broker said they are just really busy but everything is fine and you can start looking now.

Found an apartment went sale agreed last Monday told the broker paid the booking deposit arranged a solicitor the works.

Last Thursday i got an email from the broker to say the bank were looking to ask 2 questions.

One was why i earned so much in the last 8 weeks of 2018 ( redundancy) and the other was money going to an account. Was to current landlady for bills. All grand provided pay slip for the redundancy.

So on Friday followed up with the broker to ask if everything was ok. He replied that it “should” be and will speak very soon.

Nothing since.

Anyone any advice of what to do next. The should word has be a bit worried. Absolutely love the apartment which is currently vacant and ready to be moved in to recently renovated. Just needs beds ect but good to go.

yeah im 99% sure its the bank. Should i still get on to the broker.

Has anyone else looking noticed that the difference in asking/sale agreed prices between equivalent properties where one is in relatively ok condition and the other is in absolute bits is basically zero?

The really nice ones will go for more but the absolute rotters and the kinda ok ones go for nearly the exact same price, despite the former needing a seemingly unquantifiable investment in modernisation etc.

When you say equivalent properties are they in same estate or area? Where I live one house went for 30k more even though it needs a lot of modernisation works but it has a massive garden compared to same house on the street in turn key condition with extension but the extension took half of the garden. So maybe some people is willing to pay a premium for a massive garden.

Got Approved in Principle in June. Says the expiry date on that is 21/9.

I don’t really mind how long it takes. I was one to them once a week while i was approved in principle to make it a more concrete offer and was told everything will be fine and when i got Sale approved then they start asking the questions. So just want to make sure alls okay. I’m not in any great rush thankfully.

yeah, can see that it won't matter as much for some cases; in my estate there was an ok house (had tenants before) that got a very good price over asking early in the summer; think some of the ones that followed were superior (as they were owner occupied), and I think there is no way they could have got a much better price as second hand Semi-D's (knowing how much newly built Semi-D's are in the area now).

lot depends on the buyer profile too, unless you got lucky with a cash buyer ...

Anyone know how long PTSB take to deposit Cashback after drawdown?

Yep, PTSB was 6 months as well or us.

I have seen some absolute wrecks selling for strong money, not sure if its people who don't really understand how expensive and time consuming it is to refurbish a house these days or people with large amounts of cash who don't care how much it costs and would prefer to start from scratch.

Me personally I think a lot of people assume the house 50k below others in the area is a bargain fixer upper like on TV until they are 80-100k in on refurb costs, so many potential unknowns that can spiral into tens of thousands!

Was helping my brother work out valuation for our late Da's house in late 2019 and saw one nearby similar in all regard but good bit bigger house. 3 bed semi, 1 bath, good sized (110 sq m if memory serves), BER D2 obviously an elderly person had lived there - work needed. House was listed for €150,000. Then it was taken off the market, tidied up (mainly emptied) and put back up for €160k in May 2020. It's on the PPR as sold in Dec for 165k. But, I have since seen it listed as a pension investment property priced at 298k.

Now, they did gut it and seem to have done a great job. BER is B1. But I do wonder how much it cost to do the work as now it's priced higher than any other property in the development.

we've been waiting months and months for a specific new build estate in Swords to be ready for viewing. finally got the email yesterday from the estate agents that viewings are this Friday and Saturday. I replied to the email within 4 minutes of receiving it to book an appointment for viewing. They got back to me today to say all appointments were allocated and that we didn't get one.

to say we're devastated is an understatement. maybe i'm being a bit naive in thinking that we'd get a viewing having replied so quickly. no idea how long we'll be waiting now for the next batch of viewings to come along

Cheers! That’s good to know, was thinking lunchtime at the latest, so I guess now won’t be renting any van that day anyway to be safe!

Yeah seems to me is that we will have to put our house up for sale first and then look, scary times. I suppose the only thing is that you just dont sign contracts on your sale until your other new house is secured, could roll on for months but ho hey better to be patient and get the right house I suppose