Originally Posted by goosegirl

This is true. Some estate agents are great, some are not so. We went over in August to look around, well it felt like I flew around. We had one estate agent that had the personality of a dead fish and another that was like a mate that wanted to take you out to all drinking holes in the town! We emailed loads about properties before hand & got about 3 replies. Apparently they get sick of people doing it & just wasting their time. A phone call makes you seem more genuine & obviously a visit much more so! Get as much info out of them as you can, you them to your advantage & sift the truth from crap! The dead fish fella said he'd expect to sell he property we went to view in the next 3 weeks for the asking price. It's still on the market....That was said on all the properties we went to view over there. We put a offer in on one cottage which was 7 thousand euro off the asking price & the seller refused it. He said he would sell it for the asking price of 72,500 quite soon. It's still up for sale. The price we offered was good feel, but not worth anymore to us. You have go to real & not get out of your depth & silly. We have accepted an offer on our property so fingers crossed it all goes through smoothly now. We know what area we want to move to, by going over there in August. We shall rent for 6/12 months then buy outright where we want. This will give us time to settle, get paperwork,pps numbers,bank details etc & most importantly find a house hopefully in the right area & me to try and set up my business (HA HA ). I cannot advise enough though, you must go over and look at the properties you see being offered because they look great from the outside but once you walk through that door!!!! One photograph of just the house on the advert is a big clue!! We saw one and the stairway was almost vertical! You would of been dead on falling down it!

Originally Posted by DenC

Hi London2Cork
Keep at them, send them a written letter by post outlinging your frustration, ad tell them you expect to be in by christmas as you have nowhere to live! Appeal to their better nature.! Best of luck

Originally Posted by DenC

Hi there swim4good - I just had to reply to you as I really can understand your frustration.! Last year My OH and I purchased a house in Co Roscommon.
- At the very beginning I did as you did, and e-mailed agents which I found on websites such as myhome and property.ie.
I was rarely replied to, in fact I think one out of ten might have been the case. In the end, those we were very interested in we phoned the agents, some of which replied, some answered the phone with "hello", some ignored the messages, and never called back. In the end we came across an agent advertising an open w/end, so we decided to get a plane and get over there. We went to two areas, saw some modern ghost estates, and one unfinished estate.
We found a "builders finish" in a small village, and the builder was selling because the bank "asked him to".! He would not accept any offers. He sold eight houses in one afternoon out of twelve advertised.
We contacted a solicitor that had been recommended by the agents- ( all members of the same early morning business networking groups) and they warned that I will have aquired several more grey hairs by the time the process was complete. She was sooooooooo right. Solicitors do not answer emails, they do not reply to phonecalls, pleads, prayers, or blessings. They will fob you off with broken printers, emailing problems, lies, delays due to the other side having a part timer. Irish conveyancing solicitors are expensive, unhelpful, inefficient, frustratingly slow. The sale eventually completed we think four and a half months later, and only after we signed a disclaimer to say we would not sue the solicitors if they failed to get all the documents they should have, from the other side.
Never again, no wonder it takes years to sell. It is the most stressful experience ever. We have bought houses in France Netherlands and the Uk, and never had such a frustrating experience as we had trying to buy in Ireland. I am Irish, been away a long time, and should have known better, and no, they have not changed in thirty five years.
So if you want to buy in Ireland, get a rental first, very cheaply, and take it one day at a time... good luck.

Originally Posted by terrygees366

I agree entirely, I am experiencing the same frustrations and lies.
"The scanner's broken, we e-mailed a contract to you but it bounced back etc..."
My offer was accepted in early August.
I'm a cash buyer so one would have thought it should be fairly smooth
I've booked a flight and will be in Mayo on November 11 to set up a rental.
I'll then sit back and play their game from then on.

Originally Posted by sickntired

Which auctioneers are you dealing with in Roscommon? If it's Earley it will be frustrating to say the least

Originally Posted by terrygees366

No, I'm in Mayo - Ballyhaunis, at the moment.

If I continue to get the run around I'll stick to renting in Ireland and buy something in France.
Or I could adopt a 'pikey's' lifestyle and buy a caravan.

Originally Posted by sickntired

Ballyhaunis has 40% of its population not indigenous. A big asylum centre is probably the reason.

Originally Posted by Kevrev

The place im buying is near there, loughglynn

Originally Posted by sickntired

In fairness there'd be more scumbags in Castlerea than Ballyhaunis.

Originally Posted by mentalist

Having just read this thread in its entirety, my dreams of buying a nice retirement cottage in south east Ireland are slowly fading into the distance. Are all Irish estate agents and solicitors really that bad? Does anybody have any positive experiences?