The Bear is buying a house. She's terribly excited about it all, though it is quite stressful and seems to have caused a dissociative break, leading to her talking about herself in the third person.

Now all I have to do is find a surveyor, a solicitor, a plumber (the rented property has sprung a leak, it's unrelated to buying a house), a builder and someone to install a heat pump and solar panels.

Anyone got any advice, other than to back out and live with my parents for the rest of my life, so as to avoid taking on such responsibilities?

Congratulations

Advice on wher eto go for those professional services? I'll PM you a decent solicitor if you want but you would need to tell them that you got their name by going through the Golden Pages and randomly dropping your finger on them. .

I think some estate agents will provide you with a surveyor. As in a third party estate agent. Not 100% sure though.

TheBear!!!!!! Never one to go with the boring old trends.

Tell me that it is discounted at at least 35% and is the house of your dreams, within walking distance of daily needs, and that you're buying cash or have a very secure job and I'll congratulate you sincerely and go on to offer tips on solar.

Congratulations anyway and best of luck.

Congratulations Bear ! When the stress is over I hope it will bring you great happiness.

Why do you need a builder already? Is it in need of work?

Best moves for a cosy house -

Draught proofing - about 100 euros will do a lot
Extra Insulation of attic - 300 euros say, depending on size of house
Solar panel with insulated tank - about 3,000 euros
Change to condenser boiler if using oil - about 2,000 euros
Put a closed stove into any open fire place - about 500 euros.

Depending on the construction, insulating the wall cavity might be an option
Then changing any badly fitting doors and windows to double or triple glazing - expensive, so the last thing on the list.

johnfás wrote:

Congratulations

Advice on wher eto go for those professional services? I'll PM you a decent solicitor if you want but you would need to tell them that you got their name by going through the Golden Pages and randomly dropping your finger on them. .

I think some estate agents will provide you with a surveyor. As in a third party estate agent. Not 100% sure though.

A solicitor would be pretty handy. I don't have one, so I'm completely at a loss on that front.

I think the bank is recommending a surveyor, but I also just e-mailed a few from the Chartered Surveyor organisation.

cactus flower wrote:

TheBear!!!!!! Never one to go with the boring old trends.

Tell
me that it is discounted at at least 35% and is the house of your
dreams, within walking distance of daily needs, and that you're buying
cash or have a very secure job and I'll congratulate you sincerely and
go on to offer tips on solar.

Congratulations anyway and best of luck.

15% off, right beside the Luas, walking distance to my work and close to the boyf's. Couldn't have been bothered renting again. I work in the public sector, so I think I'd have to be drunk in work every day for a month for them to fire me.

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

Congratulations Bear ! When the stress is over I hope it will bring you great happiness.

Why do you need a builder already? Is it in need of work?

It needs to be dry lined, so we'll prob do the wiring at the same time. Not a huge amount of work needed, considering the state of most of the houses that were within our budget.

That sounds great TheBear. I wish you every happiness there.

Congratulations TheBear - true to your name. Maybe this is the start of the upswing in the housing market again ...

oh no

Disclaimer: This is not professional advice. If you pay somebody they will give you real advice and you can sue them for negligence/ go against their insurance if they cause you loss. Machine Nation and Zhou Enlai are not to be relied upon in these matters. With that said...

Do your budget out in full before buying. Professional fees, governement fees etc.

Don't sign contracts until you get your valuation done. Check with the bank as to whether you need to use somebody from their panel.

Don't sign contracts until you have your loan offer in your hand and you are happy with all the conditions.

Don't sign contracts until your solicitor is happy with the contracts, loan offer and title. If your solicitor has to ok a title issue with the bank then wait for it.

Chase up your life insurance directly yourself. You are told everything is fine and then they are looking for details from your GP and asking you to go for a check-up.

Know the difference between a survey for building inspection purposes and a survey for valuation purposes only. Some do both and some do only one. You need a valuation for your bank.

You need a structural survey for yourself. If you buy a wreck then that is your problem. It's not the vendor's problem, not the bank's problem, not the solicitor's problem.

Keep an eye out for anything which looks like additional development and make sure the planning position is vouched by the proper person in writing.

Don't be rushed by the agent selling the property. You can't get a decent price unless you are prepared to walk away.

If you are buying a fixer upper then budget for all the work and get it done before you move in. Make sure you do not need planning for anything you want to do. I moved into a place and fixed it up while I was living in it. It was the worst decision I ever made as it made for a very stressful living environment over a long period.

Try to avoid buying a house which was previosuly show-house.

Read the contracts when they are given to you.

Check any maps carefully.

If you are buying an apartment then read the lease (particularly the tenant's covenants). Check the position re service charges, any possible claims against the management company, what you are paying for, whether you are allowed to keep pets, have wooden floors, have a satellite dish and whether you have your choice of NTL/Smart/Magnet/Sky. Don't go on boards.ie later moaning that your solicitor never told you all these things. Read the lease yourself - it's boring but easy.

Get a decent solicitor. Motivate him or her by taking an interest in the legal end and by chasing up the bank and all pre-drawdown mortgage conditions yourself. The more on top of it you are the more on top of it your solicitor will be. He or she will know there will be no delays at your end (valuation, life cover, fire insurance, structural survey, confirmation of your income, proof of deposit monies etc.) and so he/she will make sure that his/her stuff is in order and ready to go.

congrats

Zhou_Enlai wrote:

Disclaimer: This is not professional advice. If you pay somebody they will give you real advice and you can sue them for negligence/ go against their insurance if they cause you loss. Machine Nation and Zhou Enlai are not to be relied upon in these matters. With that said...

Do your budget out in full before buying. Professional fees, governement fees etc.

Don't sign contracts until you get your valuation done. Check with the bank as to whether you need to use somebody from their panel.

Don't sign contracts until you have your loan offer in your hand and you are happy with all the conditions.

Don't sign contracts until your solicitor is happy with the contracts, loan offer and title. If your solicitor has to ok a title issue with the bank then wait for it.

Chase up your life insurance directly yourself. You are told everything is fine and then they are looking for details from your GP and asking you to go for a check-up.

Know the difference between a survey for building inspection purposes and a survey for valuation purposes only. Some do both and some do only one. You need a valuation for your bank.

You need a structural survey for yourself. If you buy a wreck then that is your problem. It's not the vendor's problem, not the bank's problem, not the solicitor's problem.

Keep an eye out for anything which looks like additional development and make sure the planning position is vouched by the proper person in writing.

Don't be rushed by the agent selling the property. You can't get a decent price unless you are prepared to walk away.

If you are buying a fixer upper then budget for all the work and get it done before you move in. Make sure you do not need planning for anything you want to do. I moved into a place and fixed it up while I was living in it. It was the worst decision I ever made as it made for a very stressful living environment over a long period.

Try to avoid buying a house which was previosuly show-house.

Read the contracts when they are given to you.

Check any maps carefully.

If you are buying an apartment then read the lease (particularly the tenant's covenants). Check the position re service charges, any possible claims against the management company, what you are paying for, whether you are allowed to keep pets, have wooden floors, have a satellite dish and whether you have your choice of NTL/Smart/Magnet/Sky. Don't go on boards.ie later moaning that your solicitor never told you all these things. Read the lease yourself - it's boring but easy.

Get a decent solicitor. Motivate him or her by taking an interest in the legal end and by chasing up the bank and all pre-drawdown mortgage conditions yourself. The more on top of it you are the more on top of it your solicitor will be. He or she will know there will be no delays at your end (valuation, life cover, fire insurance, structural survey, confirmation of your income, proof of deposit monies etc.) and so he/she will make sure that his/her stuff is in order and ready to go.

congrats

Good advice. Be very careful about any hidden clauses relating to a parasitical revenue stream which has the effect of committing legal theft. I am , of course, talking about management company fees. Ask your solicitor to explain in plain English, preferably in words of one syllable, the extent of your liability to one of these state-approved leeches. Twice. Be absolutely sure of the sum you may be required to pay and ask for a detailed explanation of the service you are supposed to be getting in return, if any.

This is one of the reasons I left Ireland.

If it is a house in need of repair it is unlikely to have a management company associated with it. Anyway, a decent solicitor will be acting fully on your behalf and will point it out to you.

Talk to a solicitor, you really don't need multiple voices on the issue .

Slim Buddha wrote:

Good advice. Be very careful about any hidden clauses relating to a parasitical revenue stream which has the effect of committing legal theft. I am , of course, talking about management company fees. Ask your solicitor to explain in plain English, preferably in words of one syllable, the extent of your liability to one of these state-approved leeches. Twice. Be absolutely sure of the sum you may be required to pay and ask for a detailed explanation of the service you are supposed to be getting in return, if any.

This is one of the reasons I left Ireland.

...and read it yourself. The clauses are detailed and, just like a novel or an academic article, you lose parts in the summaries. You are spending a lot of money and there is work involved on your part if you want to do it right.


Johnfas is right though. Your solr will be able to tell you all this (provided you are wiling to pay enough for him to take the time to do so). I know a solicitorr in Australia. The clients have to sign off that they are only getting advised on A, B and C and not on X, Y and Z because they are only paying for limited advice.

Your own sourced life assurance will probably be a good bit cheaper than any offered by the bank too.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Congratulations TheBear - true to your name. Maybe this is the start of the upswing in the housing market again ...

oh no

Perhaps, the fall in house prices is at its slowest pace yet this year. We could be seeing price rises before long if TheBear's decision is anything to go by.

Comhgairdgeas, TheBear, I hope it's everything you wanted in a house and you'll be happy there. You're buying well into the slump so it should've increased in value by the time you go to sell again.

Check out the zoning, planning policy and objectives in the local Development Plan and in any Local Area Plan for yourself. Check out any planning permissions near your house - you can almost certainly do this onling on your local council's web site - easiest to do it on their GIS planning system.

Don't forget to try to milk the taxpayer for energy grants. And watch out for the cowboys Ted

Are you not too young to be buying a house?

Congrats to you though!

cookiemonster wrote:

Are you not too young to be buying a house?

Congrats to you though!

Maybe I am, but my brother had two kids by the time he was my age. Anyway, my older man (the boyf) is at a perfectly reasonable age for house purchase.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Don't forget to try to milk the taxpayer for energy grants. And watch out for the cowboys Ted

Did you know you can only get one grant per house, even if you're installing more than one technology? At the moment, we're not sure if we'll be able to afford the solar panels and a heat pump (we've moved away from the biomass idea, as most of the systems would be too big for the house we're buying), so we may be waiting a year or so before that project starts.

Also, this week's weather has made me happy to say that the house is on top of a hill.

Congrats theBear.

Since the men and cactus are giving you all the Important Information, I'll just say...

Don't buy anything for it until you move in - or you'll be left with lots of things that you thought would be great but aren't. I just gave my mother several hundred quids worth of curtains that I bought in a sale before we moved in and which are completely incompatible with the house and the way we live in it.

If you're getting work done inside, think about plugs. You probably need more.

If it's a two storey house, you probably need a light switch for the landing outside the main bedroom door.

If they can make your hotpress bigger, let them - and get them to shelve it properly.

If you have a back kitchen, make sure that it's plumbed to take your washing machine so you never have to have washing in the actual kitchen. Easily done if you're getting other buildery work done, but a nightmare to do afterwards when everything has been plastered.

We built our own house and planned it pretty meticulously - I could tell you to the inch the size of every room and their aspect.

Speaking of which...

... don't buy it if the sun doesn't shine in the main living areas where you'll be spending most of your time; wait and a better, warmer house will turn up on the sunny side of the street. Most other things you'll learn to live with, but a house where the sun don't shine is a travesty.

One grant per house? But that grant size depends on the amount of technology you're putting in there, shirley? So it's best to put in a lot I suppose. I'd recommend a bit of creative plumbing - during the 70s oil crisis a lot of people put in solid fuel stoves and linked them in with their rads. You can do that for a fair price if a plumber thinks you know what you're talking about. Heat is one thing in Ireland but dampness is the worst. 28mm Sheets of Kingspan dry lining are chape and I put them on once with expanding foam - seemed to do the job. The auld caravan is damp-free now. Rolls of glass fiber are chape too and very effective but rough to handle.

Is your house just inside the M50 ?

Auditor #9 wrote:

One grant per house? But that grant size depends on the amount of technology you're putting in there, shirley? So it's best to put in a lot I suppose.

Link to SEI site. So if you're getting solar panels and a biomass boiler, the max grant you can get is €2500.

Auditor #9 wrote:

I'd recommend a bit of creative plumbing - during the 70s oil crisis a lot of people put in solid fuel stoves and linked them in with their rads. You can do that for a fair price if a plumber thinks you know what you're talking about.

My bluffing repertoire must be expanded so.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Heat is one thing in Ireland but dampness is the worst. 28mm Sheets of Kingspan dry lining are chape and I put them on once with expanding foam - seemed to do the job. The auld caravan is damp-free now. Rolls of glass fiber are chape too and very effective but rough to handle.

Yeah, the dry-lining has been planned, and attic insulation will also be invested in. We had a problem earlier this year with a damp in the house we're renting, so we're not willing to take chances on that front.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Is your house just inside the M50 ?

No, it's between Milltown and Dundrum, 3.1 miles from O'Connell Bridge as the crow flies.

Kate P wrote:

Congrats theBear.

Since the men and cactus are giving you all the Important Information, I'll just say...

Don't buy anything for it until you move in - or you'll be left with lots of things that you thought would be great but aren't. I just gave my mother several hundred quids worth of curtains that I bought in a sale before we moved in and which are completely incompatible with the house and the way we live in it.

No storage space for anything in the place we're renting, so that's not a problem at the moment.

Kate P wrote:

If you're getting work done inside, think about plugs. You probably need more.

If it's a two storey house, you probably need a light switch for the landing outside the main bedroom door.

If they can make your hotpress bigger, let them - and get them to shelve it properly.

Good thinking. I'll add them to the list for the builder, given that the wiring and electricals will be done anyway.

Kate P wrote:

If you have a back kitchen, make sure that it's plumbed to take your washing machine so you never have to have washing in the actual kitchen. Easily done if you're getting other buildery work done, but a nightmare to do afterwards when everything has been plastered.

It's currently in an external block-built shed. Hadn't quite decided where it was going to, as we were planning on putting the main freezer there.

Kate P wrote:

We built our own house and planned it pretty meticulously - I could tell you to the inch the size of every room and their aspect.

I would love to be able to do that, but there are so few sites available in Dublin for anything under a million that it's just not feasible at the moment.

Kate P wrote:

Speaking of which...

... don't buy it if the sun doesn't shine in the main living areas where you'll be spending most of your time; wait and a better, warmer house will turn up on the sunny side of the street. Most other things you'll learn to live with, but a house where the sun don't shine is a travesty.

South facing, 60' garden, and the living room is at the back, so hopefully that won't be an issue.

I was unaware that the usual protocol in this situation was to congratulate the buyer of a house. If I ever buy a house feel free to host an American wake for me. I'm reminded of Danny in Tortilla Flat, who's aquisition of property led to his miserable decline and timely death.

Never mind me, I'm still grieving for the old house. Eh, congratulations on the whole bricks and mortar front.

Why is it that I feel the title on this thread paints the wrong picture?

When I hear 'good news' it always makes me think of 'little bundles of joy'.

Congratulations on buying your house, TheBear. It's hard work and costs a lot of money to own your own house but it beats renting by a mile. There's nothing as good as not having to worry about the landlord.