Recommendation for a solicitor in Swords

Hi, Anybody got a good recommendation for a solicitor in Swords or surrounding area. It's for buying a new house. Thanks,

O' Scanaill and co. 8137500 I'd ask for sinead or regina both are very good

How does one pick a solicitor when buying a house for the first time.

Is it purely a case of ringing around for the cheapest price.

Thanks

Clive

Thanks, I talked with Regina who was great but came back with a quote for 4,000 euro. I told them it was too high so no doubt they will come back with a cheaper quote. It's amazing how quickly solicitors drop their price!

doberden said:

Thanks, I talked with Regina who was great but came back with a quote for 4,000 euro. I told them it was too high so no doubt they will come back with a cheaper quote. It's amazing how quickly solicitors drop their price!

Click to expand...

Maybe that is what it will cost? If they wanted your business ( and I suspect that you made it clear to them that you knew your way around ) would they not have come in lower?

I'm all in favour of bargaining but most decent solicitors firms these days recognise the cost to them of running a sensible, cost covering, conveyancing practice. I personally will not work for what I regard as minimum wage fees. Not for the kind of hassle, aggravation and responsibility I take!

And for Kluivert - try and get someone/a few recommended to you, then ask them for a price guide and make your own mind up. The cheapest / dearest is not necessarily the one for you. Its a big transaction and a good solicitor will guide you through it. And I believe thats worth paying for.

mf

Well said mf1/

As a fellow solicitor it never ceases to amaze me how people are prepared to pay more than the cheapest in the locality for a good hairdresser/mechanic/plumber/but when it comes to the single biggest and most important purchase of ones life its all about the cheapest solicitor.

As someone who has had to clean up the mess left by a few of the cut price firms on quite a few occasions I would not go to such firms.That does not mean to say that only the cheapest make mistakes or that all the cheapest run shoddy practices..that would be unfair and untrue. BUT if I have only a set amount of time but have to do twice or three times the amount of work to make the same reasonable but not exorbitant living then somethings gotta give and its usually the quality of the work.

In the interest of fairness I would never advise anyone to pay 1% these days either unless you are buying a very cheap house or site down the country. By all means shop around but everyone knows people who have already used solicitors for a house purchase ask your friends relatives work colleagues who they used were they good/approachable/reasonable fee wise/ and if someone has bought and sold did they have any problems with the paperwork when they sold.This latter question is very relevant as problems with the purchase often only arise when the house is being sold on.

So price should be a factor but not the only one.

What annoys me is that you ask for a quote off a solicitor and they say, for example, 4,000 euro. You say that is too much so they drop it to 3,000. If the 4,000 euro was calculated based on work required then they wouldn't drop to 3,000 as quick.

I don't believe such a practice is limited to solicitors. You'll find it in just about any walk of life. It annoys some, it pleases others to have successfully negotiated a deal for themselves.

And like many other professionals, I'm sure only some solicitors will negotiate on their fee; others will stick with their original quote.

I'll give you a better example. I rang a solicitor yesterday who said it's normally 1% of the cost of purchasing a house. This equates to over 7,000 euro but as I was referred by a friend she said she would do a deal for under 2,000 euro. I'm sorry but that doesn't do solicitors any favours, I'd love to be able to give a few hundred percent discount and still make a hefty profit. Let's be honest, for the 1,800 euro it's still only a couple of hours work for the solicitor.

doberden said:

Let's be honest, for the 1,800 euro it's still only a couple of hours work for the solicitor.

Click to expand...

Really? Are you sure?

doberden said:

I'll give you a better example. I rang a solicitor yesterday who said it's normally 1% of the cost of purchasing a house. This equates to over 7,000 euro but as I was referred by a friend she said she would do a deal for under 2,000 euro. I'm sorry but that doesn't do solicitors any favours, I'd love to be able to give a few hundred percent discount and still make a hefty profit. Let's be honest, for the 1,800 euro it's still only a couple of hours work for the solicitor.

Click to expand...

Did she initially quote you €7,000 and then drop her own quote?

She just told me it was normally 1% of the purchase price.

I rang another solicitor to-day and their fee is .5% of the purchase price but they said they can offer a large discount off this.

Well in my opinion, that's just marketing.

If someone is starting a pension with me, I'll tell them that the normal commission rates can see up to 50% of their first year's contributions deducted from their fund, but we charge less than this i.e. XYZ%.

I would consider this merely making the client aware that they're getting a good deal compared with the norm. Otherwise they might not appreciate the fact that they're getting a competitive deal.

One of the perils of going out of one's way to offer a reduced price to a customer is the risk that the customer will take the price, and the service itself, for granted. To avoid this problem (which doesnt do any good for either the service provider or the customer), its never any harm to remind the customer of how good a deal they are getting. Why someone would choose to take umbrage at this is beyond me - it is almost tantamount to blaming them for offering a good deal. They can't be responsible for their competitors' pricing decisions.

posted twice...

Really? Are you sure?

>> If you mean am I sure it's only a couple of hours work the answer is no, it's probably less than that. It's such a rip off and all you solicitors out there know it. 1% of the purchase price for fees, such a joke.

Conveyancing is not unprofitable, but it is often the least profitable aspect of a legal practice. Some solicitors maintain a conveyancing practice mainly because some of those same clients will crash\die\get fired\get divorced.

The time on a conveyancing file for a straightforward purchase can be as little as three hours, but it can run to 18 or twenty hours easily too. If a file takes 3 hours of solicitor time, the solicitor is making a good profit, but you only need one 15-20 hour file to wipe out the profit on 4 or 5 'easy' files.

It would be a lot easier for solicitors to charge by the hour, but house purchasers are quite clear that they do not want this. This means that easy jobs subsidise hard jobs, but the client gets the comfort of knowing what he\she will be paying.