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

This is a great example of some items you can reduce costs on if you're prepared to take the work on yourself.

We're near to purchasing a house that's in an awful state. Just had the survey, and while he noted that it needed a lot of work, he pointed out how much we could do ourselves. But we know there will be a significant cost in refurbishing it, and we're trying to plan cost for it as best we can now.

I don't think people who buy houses in bad nick are being naive in general, they're just being hopeful and perhaps prioritising location against walk in quality. You do have to put in a lot of thought when viewing and bidding to understand as much as you can about what's needed. We know we will need professional help with things like re-wire, re-plumb (even the pipes need to be replaced), new boiler but we're taking on everything we can possibly do ourselves to keep the costs down. As for covering those costs - begging, borrowing, stealing, eating baked beans for the next year if needs be! And not being afraid to get our hands dirty - we know it could take a long time to actually get in to the house.

Am aware not everyone has that luxury - i.e. they don't have the time to wait before moving in and have kids to worry about etc. But for us, we prioritised buying in the best kip in the best location we could afford because then we'll want to stay there for the long run, and we'll eventually get that value of the great location out of it over the long term.

definitely delay is with the underwriters. They’re taking 6-9 working days to respond/answer new queries on accounts.

How long is it currently taking with PTSB to drawdown? We got 5 working days after the solicitor cheque request as initial update - it is day 9 today and we are still waiting.

Has anyone any experience in the bank needing to “qualify the title” on a new house and how long that can take? Have come up against it, and it’s a small issue so hopefully not complicated, but know it will take time but no idea how long?

Any tips on how to annoy the EAs enough to get a pre-sales viewing?

Also, what were the price ranges of these developments?

We are preparing ourselves for a new development launch, so any advice is welcome!

Gosh, I wish I could give sound advice here but I went against everything recommended to us. I sent our AIP, and as FTB, ready to go and as we didn't know the new phase price it was a gamble. The EA was waiting on contractor to give a date, so after that I 'checked' in to see status and if houses were ready for viewing. On the day beforehand I phoned and got to speak over phone. The house we reserved 440k 1460sq st, the first phase it was 390k. The next phase is 465k for same house type. We were at our max, we liked area & were happy as our rent exceeds mortgage. We had done similar with a new build in Dunboyne, it didn't work and someone else had gotten preview emails hours before us. The EA say they are being fair as lots of people who are unsuccessful in first phase and hang on seem to be given priority. Another friend has been successful by registering similar details for cancellation. Best of luck

We had similar delays with Haven, took almost 7 weeks to get from submitting everything to loan offer with Haven, even though it was a “straightforward application” directly following a previous full approval and loan offer...

My guess is your solicitor wants to save their own time, and possibly yours also - its just a easy to sign both sets of documents at the same time in one visit. they will charge you a certain amount either way, usually upfront, of say 2 or 300 euro and then the balance on drawdown, so they will be careful of the number of hours in that time.

If you have a "subject to loan" clause (and you would be mad not to in my opinion) there's no issue with signing a contract without having your loan offer.

In the current market they'll probably tell you to get lost. But talk to your surveyor about the seriousness of the issues before continuing with the sale. Ultimately if they're big issues that are going to show up and turn off every set of buyers that get a survey then eventually the vendor will have to take a discount.

Unfortunately if this is the first time it's been sale agreed the vendor is likely to just try the next highest bidder if you do pull out. If two or three parties pull out because of the issues then at that point most vendors would consider a discount.

But talk to the surveyor and get a sense of the seriousness.

Yes, we were 24 working days waiting with Tsb (even longer from the original request but we had to resubmit a valuation so counting from when we submitted that).

All very frustrating and now we may have a legal issue so has to go to their legal team and god knows how long that’ll take. Nothing is easy with house buying!

Seeing a lot of places come back on the market in the last few weeks, that were previously sale agreed. Anyone know why these sales are falling through?

My wife and I are getting seriously annoyed with our solicitor, we can't get past the first person answering the phone, calls are not responded to, and emails are not responded to. I don't know, everyone tells me this is normal for a solicitor, just seems really odd to me.

I'm super tempted to switch solicitors but I suspect that's super annoying and if my solicitor is bad anyway, the process won't be easy

id say that depends on whether it’s underwritten AIP or just the throw away type you can get with AIB in 10mins with yes/no questions… plus a lot can change in the time from formal AIP to the time you’re ready to draw down - financially, health wise etc etc

It,s gone crazy now,a house I was interested in in bettystown has just gone up 130,000€, that's from 425 to 555,000€.

If you are borrowing from a chinese bank, certainly