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

That’s terrible behaviour. Appalling

@D n G i thought I’ve heard and seen the worst here but your experience is unbelievable. That is an acceptable behaviour of the vendor and their solicitor.

Oh my goodness that's horrendous. I'm so sorry to hear that happened to you.

Best strategy for bidding? Match the current bid? go up in 1k increments, 2k increments?

Is it cheaper to pay Mortgage Protection insurance monthly instead of annually?

My broker told me this but shouldn't it be the other way around?

Solicitors usually dont charge when the sale falls through if you say you'll use them for the next house. Unless they've done lots of time consuming work.

Advertised my apartment today in a fairly high demand area. EA got an offer within 2 hours of 5k under asking. Is it normal in the current climate that people are bidding immediately without even viewing the property!?

Yes annual should be cheaper

Thought I would post an update to my own situation.

We finally got our keys! Never thought the day would come. We were 6 months between going sale agreed and closing. The delay was on the seller's side, they were resolving a dispute with the council.

The last week or so before close was very frustrating. It was hard to tell what had actually happened and what needed to happen - had our solicitor actually drawn down, had the vendors signed and sent final documents, etc. The close date was moved out by a week because the vendor's solicitor wasn't ready. However, I knew that these issues are common, so tried not to completely lose my mind.

I want to thank all the regular posters on this thread and forum. We started our search over two years ago and I've been following this forum for three years. The advice and anecdotal stories have been really useful. It has also been great to see some regular posters get to their purchase. It was good to see that it's still possible for some people, even with the state of the market.

Observations:

Bank:

• We went with BOI and they were great all along the process. We bank with them so they had access to our accounts and histories, which meant less printouts and paperwork to give them. They released the funding on time and were very responsive.
• We were first approved (AIP) in July 2020. Due to the property crisis we ended up needing extension after extension to the approval - every 6 months we needed an updated salary cert and bank statements from accounts held outside the bank (proof that we continue to have repayment capacity) and that was all.
• They were pretty tight on exemptions in early 2021, but offered us one in late 2021 - at that stage we didn't need it. If they don't fulfil the exemptions quota it seems they will release some later in the year.
• They also offered a top up on the mortgage to help get works completed on the house. We went with this as it was a much cheaper interest rate (bundled with the mortgage) than if we were to take a personal loan to get the cash. The plan is to save up and pay off that piece from the principal loan as soon as possible.
• Overall they made the experience really easy (if you can say that, with all the paperwork that's needed!) so we were pleasantly surprised.

Solicitors:

There are great solicitors and there are appalling solicitors. The vendor's solicitor was working for a major firm and behaved terribly (rude, lazy, etc). The big firm branding may mean nothing. Try to get recommendations for solicitors, small local firms may give you better service and be better communicators. They may also give you a better price on fees.

Vendors:

• Vendors have all the power in the market at the moment, and some of them will take advantage because they know it.
• We were sale agreed, signing contracts etc and discovered they had actually made significant damage to the house we were buying after we had gone sale agreed. They wouldn't negotiate at all on the price then to compensate, even though the changes they made would mean between a 5-10k fix for us. We were told we could 'take it or leave it', because every month that we were sale agreed, they could have been getting even more from a new buyer.
• In the end of it all, knowing the way the market is, and the fact that we loved the location, we decided to go for it anyway. We don't regret the decision now, but that's because we knew this could be a house for life.

Surveyors:

Our surveyor was recommended by a friend who works in property, and also was recommended by the bank. They were very reasonable despite being a well known Dublin based firm (we assumed they would be pricey). They threw in a few extra pieces pro bono and were very responsive by email. We were delighted with their service. If anyone needs a recommendation, feel free to DM me.

Agents:

We had some heartbreaks before we found this house. In one instance, we were bidding on a house that was up for sale with a well known local-type agent in South Dublin. All the mind games in the world were used on us to try to get us to bid higher, mixed stories coming about the house, and why it had fallen through so many times, etc. After that we really hoped we would never have to deal with that agent again - thankfully, we didn't. The house we bought was being sold by a bigger, well known firm, and they were a lot more professional and actually friendlier. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them again either.

General Advice:

• Having all your ducks in a row before applying for the mortgage really helps. Generally you need to be able to show that you have the repayment capacity for the mortgage, plus a bit extra to allow for interest rate changes. We made sure to show capacity for mortgage +30%. And we made sure to show that evidence for at least 6 months.
• Expect to be asked for lots of documents, e.g. 6 months - 1 year statements for your accounts, salary certificate, proof of rent being paid, etc. If you have all these lined up and in order, the approval process can be done quickly. Every time you are asked for another document, you've to source it and send it back, and it takes them more days to review and approve it.
• There is often a lot of panic about your bank statements and what you can be seen to be doing with your money, how much of an eye the bank keep on your spending, etc. From my experience, the bank isn't going to question your take away habits, your pub habits, your hairdresser appointments, etc., unless it seems that these things are hindering your ability to meet repayment obligations.
• To make our repayment ability clear, we set up separate savings accounts and transferred repayment capacity +30% every payday, so it was sectioned off and off limits. We were saving for the deposit too - and this went into those accounts also. They will want to know the sources of your funding early on, so make sure your finances are organised or that you are able to tell them where you will be getting your deposit.
• When you're searching for your property, make a list of your priorities, and mark those that you are willing to compromise on. It can be hard when there's two of you and you have different criteria. It took us nearly a year just to agree on an area that would make both of us happy. But we knew of other areas we would go to if the market didn't allow us to buy in the area we wanted.
• For the first 1.5 years of the search, I kept a list of any property of interest, asking prices vs selling prices, etc. to help draw a picture of what was happening in the market. Towards the end, we were razor focused on specific locations and types of properties, and this list became less important, but it was really helpful as an exercise to .
• View as many properties as you can - sometimes the ones you think aren't for you end up being very interesting.
• When you're bidding, identify what you think is a reasonable price for the house but also identify your point of no return. This helped us not to make mistakes, we knew where the line was. This happened with two houses which we thought we had really wanted, but the bidding wars went pretty crazy high. Eventually they got to a point where you may feel "I think I would feel like an idiot for paying that much for this property" and that's where you know you need to walk away!
• It's likely you will have a heartbreak moment, when you don't get the house that you've convinced yourself is for you. That's the nature of this awful market at the moment. It's going to happen. Just keep telling yourself you're going to get the one for you, eventually.
• I don't envy anyone who is trying to purchase right now. Still hoping for an ease and for more properties to arrive on the market as the pandemic fear eases.
• Switching electricity and bins on closing day was way easier than I thought, all online. All you need is your MPRN for the electricity - the agent should give this to you just before close.
• I think that's all I wanted to share, hope it may be helpful to some house hunters.

Now... that's one part of the journey over... on to the renovation on a shoestring 😂

3 houses we looked at but went sale agreed before we could bid (so sale agreed between January and may last year) have come onto the market again. One in particular we were very keen on. Thankfully we ended up with a house we prefer (at a better price) but just had a look today for interest.

It really does seem like a lot of sales fall through

If both parties have not signed the final contracts, then no. Even if both have signed the contracts I'm not 100% sure, but it's most likely no also. Any party can pull out of the sale before the contracts are signed for any reason they want. Neither party is responsible for paying the other party's costs.

Maybe I'm reading your post incorrectly, but are you saying that the seller paid for the survey report?

Ah ok I was confused when I read it, I thought you meant the seller paid for a survey and I was going to say that was very unusual as it's usually the potential buyer that pays for it. Nevermind.