How long did it take you to buy your first house?

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sun_sparks

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Just wondering how long it took everyone to buy their first house? (Or even their second.)

We have been looking seriously now for about 5-6 weeks, visiting Lucan every weekend and during the week. We have now seen or are about to see EVERY house in Lucan. We have had offers on houses that have just gone too high.

Am I being too rushed? Everyone I know who's bought has got new property, which is obviously a completely different scenario, and the only people I know who bought second hand didn't have to enter bidding wars...

Plus coming in to winter now, it's slowing down (the Times had only 1 section in today's supplement). Am I fooling myself by thinking I'll get anything soon?

(Yes, I am probably just looking to be cheered up! But honesty is the best policy...) :)
 
Second time around - it took us at least a year to find the house we wanted.
First time around - about 4 -5 months.
 
Took us about 2 months, once we had motivated ourselves to look in earnest- but that was over six years ago and there was less choice in terms of the range of new builds on offer. Now there's a lot of choice on the market and if we were shopping again it would probably take us longer.
 
After 4 months of looking for a 2nd hand house I saw a new development advertised one day, visited the site and got details the next day and put down a deposit the day after.
Most new developments I inquired of had waiting lists of over 500 so it was a bit odd to be in at phase one and get a choice of houses from which I picked a South facing one.
 
Started to look for a house early September 1999, had accepted bid on 14 Oct 1999 and moved in on 20 November 1999.. So, that 's about 2 months from start to finish..
 
We half looked, realised that either we couldn't afford anything or they were already sold out. We gave up and just stumbled across our estate when we were out for a drive and paid the deposit 2 days later. Took around 10 months for it to be built, which was 2 months earlier than we'd been told.
 
sun_sparks said:
We have had offers on houses that have just gone too high.
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Are you actually sure they sold? there is so much b u l l s h i t going on with these informal biddings, that it is hard to know... Did you follow up & found out by how much you were outbid?

Everyone I know who's bought has got new property, which is obviously a completely different scenario, and the only people I know who bought second hand didn't have to enter bidding wars...
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May be you need to be more assertive when dealing with EAs?
i have read your posts for while now, starting from this odd-shape house, and it seems to me that you guys are really not sure about whether you should buy or not/what you are lookign for/where/etc.... please do not be offended, and take it as a constructive comment for you to sit down with your BF and assess the situation.
You need to select a property, bid the max you can (or what you deem the property to be worth to you), state you will no enter bid process and are ready to close quickly, and set a expiry date for your offer. (yes, easier said than done.) ...
From my other post, you will read that i closed in 5 weeks, no mess or time wasting but may be some will say that was in 1999...true,and even worse, property were into the +15/+20% per year, so months delay meant increase price)
I hope it helps (a bit)
 
Bacchus, I appreciate your reply and your advice. Yes, it does all seem confused.

We have always been certain that we are buying. We are also certain of the following:
1. Lucan
2. 2nd hand (given the lack of alternatives in the area!)
3. Our maximum budget (which has increased by €35,000 since we started looking - a reflection of house prices rather than our budget)

Your advice about the EAs is interesting. I suppose it does take courage to deal with EAs like that. At the moment we seem to get drawn into increasing bids by 1,000 or 2,000. I would just be terrified of paying well over the odds. But your advice makes sense. Mind you, if you haven't got something else and need to deal with that estate agent again, will you be cutting off your nose to spite your face?

However, I would say that I've seen a house go on the market at €340,000, and watched the second person in bid €360,000 and then called again and was told that it was €365,000. I sometimes wonder whether by jumping up in large increments you simply push the price up faster?

And, yes, I AM the most indecisive person!!
 
sun_sparks said:
which has increased by €35,000 since we started looking - a reflection of house prices rather than our budget
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waoouhh, scarry attitude.. "reflection of house prices" is not paying your mortgage, you & BF will be for the next 25/30/35? years...
Buy something you can afford long term as you are in for the long haul.... but do not try to buy something you can not afford because somebody else can afford it. That's receipt for disaster...

At the moment we seem to get drawn into increasing bids by 1,000 or 2,000.
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In my particular case, the "bidding" increments were £1000 (in 1999) and regular. I broke the pattern with my last bid (increment of £3000) and say to the EA "that's it for me, you take it or you leave it". You could be playing a mind game with the EA... Though, i am 99.99% sure there was no other bidder, but that's a different story

A last thing considering the difficulties you are encountering... Have you ask yourself if you are playing in the right league??
I like auctions...when i have €100 in my pocket, i generally do not start bidding on an object which has a starting price of €100... (i may but knowingly that if somebody goes €101, i am out)
Same thing with houses. If you have say €350k max, go and see houses which are say €320, so that you have a margin of €30k for bid increments. Considering how the market is at the moment, you would be wasting your time viewing properties advertised for €350k, as they will go (most that likely) for more.
Good luck...
 
Sorry - forgot to add that we ARE actually looking at houses for €330 or €335. We wouldn't dream of looking at anything for €340k or €350k for exactly the reason you stated.
Anything less than €330k is in Foxborough or Earlsfort in Lucan, where, with all due respect to people who live there of course, I'm not sure I want to live. Mind, these are also priced at €317,500 and getting €330,000 upward.

Also, we have mortgage approval for €400k, so we're not maxing (well, not with the mortgage anyway...)
 
sun_sparks said:
Anything less than €330k is in Foxborough or Earlsfort in Lucan, where, with all due respect to people who live there of course, I'm not sure I want to live.
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Is that not typical nowdays of many people (especially FTB i found from reading on AAM)?
no money, can afford to buy there, but do not want to live there, not good enough.... want to live where can't afford to buy.
And BTW, once i have got my new house, want to buy a new car (a BMW not a nissan micra) and go on holidays to The Carlton Inter Continental for 6 weeks...


Set your expectations accordingly to your finance...

I have been looking for a 10-bed victorian house in D4 for the last 10 years and my budget is €100k....... I should really be living there because i would fit in the environment considering my background, yeah... but my wallet is not tick enough.... I am still looking...
 
Bacchus, I don't think that is fair. You could find yourself living, because of what you can afford, in a situation that turns out to be a nightmare. Teenagers hanging out on corners intimidating you might only be the tip of the iceberg. A single mother I know ended up having her windows smashed by the local yobbos as they thought she should be giving out sexual favours - after all, she was unmarried and had a kid, so what's another slice off the loaf, was their attitude.
 
To answer the original question, we bought our house in 1996 after looking at about 30 houses. We started looking in April, made offer sometime in June I think, closed in August.
 
Gordanus said:
Bacchus, I don't think that is fair. You could find yourself living, because of what you can afford, in a situation that turns out to be a nightmare. Teenagers hanging out on corners intimidating you might only be the tip of the iceberg. A single mother I know ended up having her windows smashed by the local yobbos as they thought she should be giving out sexual favours - after all, she was unmarried and had a kid, so what's another slice off the loaf, was their attitude.
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so, why not renting in a so-called "good area" until you can afford to buy in an area " good enough " for you..???
Is cost of renting not going down these days? ...and the biggest decrease in rent has been registered in D4..
 
Bacchus, while I have really appreciated your advice and acted on some of it, I was a little taken aback by your scathing comment.

My personal situation is this: I don't particularly want to live in Lucan AT ALL. I would prefer to live in Glasnevin/Drumcondra on the NS, but work and financial constraints mean that this isn't possible. However, I won't apologise for my comments about some areas of Lucan where I just don't want to live. We have been offered a mortgage of up to €400k and are, in my opinion, being sensible in limiting ourselves to €350k. However, I refuse to take the notion that I should be looking at the cheapest areas just to save money. You wouldn't buy a banger of a car when you knew you'd have to replace it in a year or two, would you? You'd buy a car at the most that you could reasonably afford (unless you got a right bargain) and hope that in a couple of years, it would prove to be a better investment. The same applies, IMHO, to houses - I want to buy something that is an investment, as well as being located in an area I WANT to live in in case the worse happens and I can't afford to move in 5 years or so. It's not about buying in a "good area", but about making the best of an area you might not want. I'm not going to apologise for that.

As for renting... are you having a laugh? Yes, it's the old debate about living like Continental Europeans, but I'm not comfortable with that, nor am I comfortable about putting money into a landlord's pocket.
 
Well if the term is short enough you may find that renting is the more financially sensible than buying.
 
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