Dude, I’ll see your €300k and raise you…

July 5, 2017July 15, 2017 ailbhebeirne1 Comment

Let’s jump ahead now for a second; you have your deposit, you’ve spent every god damn waking hour looking at property sites, you’ve queued in line to view them (oh did I not mention that, yeah that’ll happen) and you’ve only gone and found one. You’ve found somewhere you not only think is pretty sweet, but somewhere, something, that you’re willing to spend more money on, than anything else in your life.

When this happens remember these words…dude, chill.

Try and be less…..
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And more…
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This is the start of a process, you’ve got to keep your cool and get ready to possibly play the long game. On my journey as a First Time Buyer, I put bids in on just two houses – both very different experiences…and actually both very different properties.

“Oh, sure if it’s meant for you, it won’t pass you by” – jaysus, if I heard that once I heard it a thousand times. But you know, I kind of feel that’s what happened in the end, so get ready to hear it, smile and push on.

First, I’ll tell you about the house I didn’t get…

I viewed it on a rainy February Friday evening and got all of the feels – you’ve gotta get the feels – it was a 1930’s terraced house in D9 and needed fair bit of cosmetic work, but the bones of it were good. A decent investment. And the current offer on it when I viewed it was under the asking price…boom! For the purpose of the story we’ll say the asking price was €260k. Cool? Great.

“Sarah” – the other bidder had offered €253k and I thought I was on easy street.

Me: Yeah, so eh I’m gonna close this down, nothing to see here,€257k. You. Are. Welcome!
Sarah: €258k
Me: Alright Sarah, calm down. €260k
Sarah: €261k
Me: I don’t think you get what’s happening here love? €263k
Sarah: €264k
Me: €265k
Sarah: €266K
Me: Now Sarah, you’re starting to get on my wick. How about €270k, take it outta that!
Sarah: €271k
Me: Christ Almighty. €272k
Sarah: €273k
Me: €274k
Sarah: €275K
Me: Right that’s it, I’m smokin’ Sarah out – €280k *mic drop*
Sarah: €281k
Me: *picks mic up* Oh for jaysus sake, is this one for real. €282k
Sarah: €283k

…and on and on it went, up to €295k. €42k over the original offer and 4 weeks of mental torture against my arch nemesis. I often wonder did she curse me as much as I did her.

Sarah eventually got the house, but for one main reason – I found the house I’m currently buying in the meantime, and loved it more. In hind sight I had been in serious danger of paying more for a house than it was worth….to me anyway. I couldn’t pull out of it, I mean I could have, at any stage. I just didn’t want to.
There was no way Sarah was getting my house.

Now whilst I wasn’t about to bid more than I could afford (remember our 10% deposit sums kids?), I was slowly upping my mortgage repayment, and giving away savings that
I was going to need for a house that had a periwinkle-blue bathroom suite to replace.

Thankfully my soon to be new home came along and saved me. I saw it on a Sunday, put an offer in on the Monday, and went Sale Agreed on the Tuesday. No lie.

But that was only the start of the next eye-opening chapter in world of a First Time Buyer. Tune in, next time to see what happened then – except you Sarah, you can piss off.

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House Hunting #nofilter

July 4, 2017July 5, 2017 ailbhebeirneLeave a comment

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.

tinder

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.

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Peter Pan Syndrome

June 29, 2017July 6, 2017 ailbhebeirneLeave a comment

Pembroke Gardens

So this is the street where I live….for now. A beaut of a place nestled in the heart of Ballsbridge, with every single god damn thing you could imagine on your doorstep – most recently a Boojum (yeah, I know – drool!) It’s a beautiful house, a fabulous place and I have lived here for many amazing years with many amazing house mates – hi guys 🙂

So, why move? Why join ‘The First Time Buyers Club’? Who knows for sure, but I think similarly to the salmon who just frickin’ have to swim up stream, there is an innate sense in me to own somewhere to call ‘my own’.

I don’t drive, actually can’t drive (judge someone who cares, ok!) and I have no children, so in a way I feel I’ve been living a bit of a Peter Pan life – just floating along and never really growing up, whatever that means. It helps of course that I look about ten, ok five years younger than I actually am so can pretend I have lived less years than I actually have. But the time has come to leave Wendy, Tink and Lost Boys and do this…grow up and buy a gaff.

So this humble little collection of thoughts, learnings and let’s face it, very likely lots of mistakes, is about the journey I’m embarking on out of Never Never Land and over to my spiritual home – Dublin’s North Side, Phibsboro to be exact.

Want to come along? Cool. Will you hold my hand though, I’m a little scared!