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

No doubt haha, it’s interesting to see nonetheless.

Here is an update on the timeline of our mortgage application and house purchase from November 2022 to April 2023. Just to note we had a second hand house in mind and as there were no other bidders the initial phase was pretty swift. We were then delayed with a planning issue for about 6 weeks or so. Even with a pretty straightforward purchase it took about 5 months all in all.

November 2022

W/C 14/11: First Viewing with EA, BER Certificate provided

Various emails over and back to EA with questions and queries

W/C: 28/11: Mortgage application submitted

December 2022

02/12: Second Viewing

W/C 12/12: Mortgage Application went for processing

January 2023

W/C 02/01: Mortgage Approval received, First offer submitted

W/C 09/01: Initial offer rejected

                    Seller confirmed he would go a certainly amount below asking

                    Revised offer submitted, and accepted

W/C 16/01: Instructed Solicitor of agreed Sale Price

                   Gave Solicitor details to bank & EA

                   Bank Valuation completed & paid for

                   Booking Deposit paid to EA

                   Bank confirmed valuation in order

                   Mortgage Protection organised, pending start date

                   House insurance organised, pending start date

                  Contacted EA to arrange another viewing of the property.

February 2023

W/C 30/01: Our solicitor received & reviewed Contract Documentation from Seller Solicitor.

We met EA & Seller at the house. Seller had reviewed all contents and advised that was stayed, if we wanted same. We agreed closing for 1st week April to allow Seller to get organised.

Our Solicitor forwarded on Contract Documentation and list of items of note on same. She advised to go ahead and book our Survey at this point, and provide land registry plan to the surveyor so the previous extension could be checked and also the land boundary. Booked the Survey for the following week and posted relevant documentation.

W/C 06/02: House Survey completed.

W/C 13/02: Pre-Purchase Survey Report received. All in order except one issue with planning.

W/C 20/02: Contacted EA to advise of issue raised and make contact with Vendor to rectify same. Revised Certificate of Compliance requested. Various over and back with EA and solicitor

March 2023

W/C 06/03: Revised Certificate received

W/C 13/03: Solicitor confirmed all in order

W/C 20/03: Contract signing on our end and all mortgage documentation

                     Put Mortgage Protection and Home insurance in place

April 2023

W/C 03/04: Seller signed contracts

                    Solicitor requested mortgage funds from bank

W/C 17/04:  Mortgage funds released to solicitor  

                     Solicitor advised us to arrange a final inspection of the property.

                     Transferred LPT amount to solicitor, pro-rata, to be refunded to seller.

W/C 24/04: Collected the key - Sale Closed!  

My two cents on the process of buying a house in Ireland

Everything moves really, really slowly, and it can be incredibly frustrating and stressful.

The seller wanted to be present during our viewings, I know this is not the norm, but we accommodated it, but my advice to anyone else who has this request, SAY NO IMMEDIATELY. Just try to keep it professional and its much easier just to deal with an EA and through solicitors.

You have to keep on top of everyone, including your own solicitor, to get things done. For a finish I didn’t really care who I was annoying, I just kept in contact with everyone on a continuous basis, and followed up regularly.

Issues that come up once you go Sale Agreed are incredibly common, so prepare yourself for this, and also the possibility that the issue will be more serious that you first think, and could end up in you having to walk away from the sale. I think we went into the process very naïve, and felt that once you go Sale Agreed that was everything sorted. Really that is where the hard work really starts! Not trying to put anyone off, but just to be realistic, and don’t let your heart govern your head.

Wait until your solicitor has reviewed the Contract from the seller before arranging your survey so that they can check the boundary on the land registry form at the same time.

Choose a good surveyor that gives you a thorough and honest report, an is open to queries afterwards. If I was doing it again I would have been more selective, used an engineer that came through a survey website, and he really wasn’t that great, just wanted to be paid and move on.

Whatever deadline you have in your head that the sale will close….add at least a month for comfort!  

Our timeline is very similar to this, we're buying a vacant property. We had a closing date set at 10 weeks after going sale agreed. Everyone told us that it's unlikely and you never close when you expect to but me being me I thought "nah, not us. Everything will go smoothly...".

Ended up delayed by 5 weeks due to a planning issue but funds were released to our solicitor today and we're due to get keys on Friday. Perfect timing with the BH if all goes through! :)

It is such a frustrating process but like you I pestered everyone. I was emailing or calling our solicitor every 2nd or 3rd day. If things slowed down on the vendor side I was on to the EA asking him to push it along, which they did a few times. We were lucky to have a fantastic broker and solicitor. We got multiple quotes for a solicitor, the one one we chose was in around the middle. That's not to say a cheaper one would've been slower but we're very happy with the one we chose.

Fingers crossed for Friday.

Provisionally have gone sale agreed on my house in 8 days. 3 bidders were bidding and counter-bidding before the first viewing. Had over 30 bids overall. 7 different parties bid in the last 24 hours before I set a deadline for best and final bids - I'm now proceeding to go sale agreed with the highest bidder. Still getting enquiries about viewing the house but am hoping to take it off the market as soon as the booking deposit is paid. In total I received about 60 enquiries to view the house. Dublin suburb. House doesn't need any work done and I think that's what appealed to alot of people.

New to the thread. Just my 2c so far .

Had previous credit issues , so i knew even getting approved would be a drastic struggle, but thanks to a brilliant broker and lots of patience we got there in the end.

got mortgage approval on the friday 14th april and went sale agreed on the monday 17th!!

we put in a bid of asking price a week earlier , but ended up in a bidding war and paying 12k over asking :(

So fast forward a week and we have mortgage protection ready to go and the structural survey complete with no major issues.

Valuation was done on friday but the valuer still hasnt sent me the invoice to pay despite me calling him 3 times!!

so as far as im aware things have progressed incredibly quickly so far , id imagine things will slow down now .

Currently awaiting the loan offer , hoping PTSB dont come back looking for bank statements and more payslips as we literally went sale agreed straight after receiving approval ( anyone have any opinions on this?)

Anyone know how long the loan offer usually takes? im presuming that since the guy that done the valuation still hasnt invoiced me , that the fecker still hasnt sent the valuation to the bank!!

cheers ,

ill get on to him again today if i dont see the invoice coming through.

First viewing of our house on Saturday l, it feels weird.. anyone else feel that way?

Yes, it is your private space. Even if you have guests over you are typically there with them.

What we did was rent a Nesta storage locker to put a lot of stuff in there, declutter \ depersonalise the areas for the viewing. So we were getting it halfways towards a 'show room' feel at that point.

I was in the exact same situation. We ended up closing without the LPT printout, on the basis that they guaranteed they would supply it. I just wanted an end to the whole painful process.

Probably be sorted by end of Business today - had same issue as end of year for LPT is 31-10-20** --->31-31-20**+1. i purchased house in early November.

So the seller paid it, but I reimbursed them for the full amount.

It is simple enough to pay online afterall.