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

On our house i was told that the previous bidder who was sale agreed asked for 30k off to get new windows in and knock down a shed about 2 weeks before it was supposed to close. The vendor told them to get lost and took it off the market and point blank refused to deal with the person again. The next door neighbor told me all this. Said there were tears and threats to sue the vendor and they even increased their offer, but he said once a messer always a messer and he wasnt dealing with them. Eventually he put it back on the market which is where we came in.

It doesnt need new windows and i knocked down the shed myself in an afternoon and cut up the wood for the stove.

Actually now I think about it, later there was a buyer on that apartment I sold who ended up being the top bidder for over a week and wouldn't go sale agreed despite us being happy with their offer. They told the EA that they were mulling it over and were worried they were paying too much for the property. We resumed viewings and very soon got an offer from a new buyer 2k over the previous highest bid, and told the EA to accept. The previous bidders were told it was now sale agreed and desperately came back to us with a higher bid again but I had absolutely no interest in dealing with them at this point. A property deal has a long long way to go from sale agreed to sold and you don't want to be dealing with somebody who looks like they're going to waste your time. This kind of behaviour might work in a buyers market but it's definitely not the time to be doing it now.

What's the alternative?

2008 was a once in a lifetime event, probably.

It's just what houses cost now. As depressing as it is.

I'm not having a go, but seriously what's the alternative? Buying is cheaper than renting.

Not really, like 1100 a month isn't that much when you think about it. Anyone with a mortgage should have six month emergency fund which should be plenty of time to find a new job and their increasing job seekeers to benefit to 450 a week for something like six months lately as well. I have a years worth of minimun mortgage payments in Revolut savings and won't be touched throughout my mortgage, gives me peace of mind.

I am selling to my letting house under market value. No guarantee I would have got more, no guarantee it wouldn’t have been on the market for some time running up marketing expenses etc. money is due to come through from their account this coming week.

Thats the housing crisis, a lot of people are in the same boat. If you can afford a property its a no brainer to buy. A lot of people take out a 35 year mortgage but overpay to bring it down to 20 years.

250,000 property with a 25 deposit is 1010 euro over 35 years while 20 years its 1379 a month, 15 years its 1679 a month. I myself pay the 20 year rate as don't want a mortgage past 50.

If i get redunancy etc. I have 10k in a revoult savings fund account to cover the mortgage minimun payments and gives me plenty of time to get a new job. Its probably overkill but at least its earning interest. Have seperate account again for savings again. There also bringing it the 450 euro a week job seekers benefit for six months which is also extra comfort.

I'm single person with own mortgage by the way.

Started looking to move house in April. Talked to broker who gave us an idea what we could afford mortgage wise. Talked to a few EAs about what we could expect to sell for, they all agreed about the same asking price as a starting point which matched a valuation we had done a few years ago for a mortgage switch.

Got the house ready for sale and started viewing properties. The second weekend of viewings we found a house we liked and started bidding, within a week we were sale agreed about 7% over asking even though we explained to EA we weren't sale agreed on our house yet. Have had a couple of viewings on our house and there isn't much interest for some reason, not many are viewing and bids are below asking. We don't think it's overpriced but there is a lot of much older, smaller and cheaper houses for sale in the area in the last few months which may be attracting the first time buyers we expect to be interested in our house. EA is saying hold strong, the right buyers will come soon. I'm stressing though because vendor for the house we're sale agreed on wants contracts signed soon and we need a least asking price for ours to cover works needed on the house we're looking to move to.

I really thought when starting this process that selling our house was going to be the easy part 😅

Yeah Dublin. We're lucky in the sense that if we need to we can move in with in-laws after selling our house and before getting keys to our next house. I'd really rather not though as it's so risky even after signing contracts it's not 100% guaranteed our purchase will go through. That's a worry for the future though, need to actually get our house sale agreed first

I would generally agree with you but we were looking for a particular sized house in a relatively small area. Looking at the property price register only 3 that would have matched our criteria were sold last year and there is lots of demand for them. Also we were upfront with the EA telling them our situation and had managed our expectations that vendor may go with some other bidder in a better position offering the same or even less. Until we sign contracts the sale may fall through or vendor withdraws and that's something we have to expect too

Scottish system is way different. In Dublin you are at the mercy of the Estate agent!

I wonder for how long so, nothing lasts forever and we had a very hot market for a while.

Thats only the starting service charge :) Bet you withing a few years after all the houses are sold it will be up over 3k a year and rising.

You probably need to be related to the agent to get that gig :)

I paid €425 + VAT for a survey of 3 bed semi in April 2023. Used Kellehers and found them brilliant. Report was with us in about 7 business days.

https://www.kelleherassociates.ie/

Do vendor contracts say moving out date or ballpark when it'll be?

Went sale agreed in March and our solicitor has contracts now and mentioned about the vendor possibly being in a chain. He's doing searches and don't want to interrupt him, but we need info. soon and wondering if typically they state a ballpark date to move out on the contract.

We ought a house with the same thing. Converted garage and no planning. We could have waited for the vendor to get planning, but we applied for it ourselves after we bought it.

Its very common. It might concern some people but its no big deal. Apply for it yourself anyway. If someone is interested in buying the house solicitors will hammer something out for the unlikely event that either yourself or a buyer dont get planning for it.

In a case i know of there was a large shed in the garden. Another shed was 25sqm so planning was needed for this one. The solicitors arranged for the vendor to remove the roof for the sale to go through. I dont think the roof was ever really removed.