Let’s take a breather from the cash for a second, I don’t want you to give up all hope and move back in with the folks. So a side step to actually looking for the gaff then (note: for those of you not from Dublin, I apologise if the word gaff is now getting annoying …but listen, it’s better than ‘dwelling’ or ‘property’ and I can’t keep saying ‘house’, so I’m sticking with it).
Right, so I’ll keep it simple. The obvious and best places to look, (and if nothing else to start getting excited about buying your first home) are daft.ie and myhome.ie. I am addicted to property searching anyway, always have been – sometimes I like to play the lottery game and pretend I’ve a crazy budget with neither care nor sense to how I spend it….well that’s just me #propertyporn
In my actual real life search, I did find that myhome.ie seemed to have some extra properties, especially houses – maybe that’s a legacy thing as daft used to be all about the renting. So note to self, go on both sites even if the same stuff keeps coming up, you just never know.
Now lads, listen up…we all have social media sites – Insta, Snapchat, Facebook, and we all know how we curate, filter and edit the crap out of ourselves til we’re barely recognisable; well the world of property porn is no different.
For those of you who don’t get the above ref. it’s from Game of Thrones and I suggest you get on it ASAP.
So, the people putting up property pics online are pros, like proper pros – wide angled lenses, photoshop, filters – the whole shooting match. They suck you in so bad, you’ll be ready to buy online. So really the only way to know if a place is of any use, is go and see it. And I hate to say it to you, you will be very disappointed at least 60% of the time. I got myself proper excited about places only to turn on my heel the minute I got there.
As I say it’s no harm in the early stages of saving, go to a few open viewings, get to see the online versus reality for yourself, and at least when it comes to the time when you’re chomping at the bit, you’ll be well wise to the tricks of the trade.
In the next instalment, I’ll tackle the cold harsh world of actually putting an offer on your house – the poker face players and the ruthless bidding wars.
It’s a jungle out there kids, be careful.
The First Time Buyer's Club 