goosegirl

I was saddened to hear a rough comment from a young lad who has come over to the UK to work from Galway. He's living with a neighbour of ours. My husband was chatting to his landlord and he came over for a chat too. Husband said about our forthcoming move over etc, house prices, etc. The Galway lad said, Oh the prices advertised are for the "English". If you put an offer in for a property the estate agents wont budge because once they hear your accent. I thought WTF!! Now I don't expect to be great friends with the estate agents, we've got to get a good deal!

Now this is the first time we've ever had anything like this ever said to us. My husband is of Irish decent and me, well a mixed bag! I couldn't care less where people come from, be nice to me and im nice back is my motto. But to ? raise prices according to where a person came from?? I've no time for politics, we just want to live in a beautiful country and contribute to it/semi retire. Ireland will give us more quality of life than whatever England can offer us which is why we are choosing it. Just saddened to hear that. Hopefully it is a minority.

We have emailed a few estate agents with a couple of questions on some properties and havent had any replys from them. Perhaps he's right?

Any others opinions or experiences would be great to hear, if you've experienced any resentments etc. We are looking at moving to Cork/Waterford. Shall be visting in August for a gander which i'm really looking forward to. xxx

sickntired

I can tell you as fact that auctioneers will take money from anyone who has it regardless of nationality, colour, creed etc.

Also the asking price is a starting point to be negotiated, no one pays that price, not even us stupid English.

The point on not receiving replies from emails is fairly common, they love yapping on the phone though. They think you are more genuine if you phone them.

auctioneers are greedy and conniving, but the end of the day all they want is commission on the sale. They would sell to Jack the Ripper if he had the money.

sickntired

I can tell you as fact that auctioneers will take money from anyone who has it regardless of nationality, colour, creed etc.

Also the asking price is a starting point to be negotiated, no one pays that price, not even us stupid English.

The point on not receiving replies from emails is fairly common, they love yapping on the phone though. They think you are more genuine if you phone them.

auctioneers are greedy and conniving, but the end of the day all they want is commision on the sale. They would sell to Jack the Ripper if he had the money.

goosegirl

Thanks sickntired for that. Are estate agents called auctioneers then? Excuse me being thick but I didn't realize that estate agents and auctioneers were one of the same being! Learning fast 'ere. We've learn't pretty fast that the estate agents here are conniving gits, so I don't expect much difference anywhere else! We had one woman come in, looked at our ceilings-put the fear of god into us because she said we had asbestos in it - la la la. Advised us to get it skimmed over, if we didn't the buyers wouldnt get a mortgage and she would get it sold for us really quick. It wasn't at all - it was just textured plaster we later found out. Thank god I knew a asbestos surveyor & ordinary surveyor because I was having heart attacks of the purse as soon as the A word was mentioned! NIGHTMARE!

Thanks for the tip about the price of a property. What would be a rough amount to come down on a property then? Say it was 80 thousand euro.

I will give them a ring then, thanks for that.

Is a property engineer like a surveyor in the UK? I've read you need a engineers report?? So presume its the same.

sickntired

Yes they call themselves Auctioneers, they have the licence, and can hold auctions on farming equipment etc.

On an 80k property offer 60k and see what they come back with. If they come back with 70k all well and good. If they just say no go up another 5k if it's still no, leave them to sweat for a week and go up in increments of 2k. But don't pay more than 72k. It's a buyer's market, they need you, more than you need them.

Property Engineer = Surveyor.

If you are buying outright for cash you wouldn't need a survey, but unless you know what you were doing it would be wise. And get one from a different Town to where the Auctioneer operates. Ask the Auctioneer has the property got a BER Certificate? And if so what is the rating? This may make him think you know what you're at.

goosegirl

Thanks - now I know.

Great, that gives us at least 10 grand to knock off any asking price hopefully.

Yes, we'll be buying outright with cash, so I hope that will give us more power to negotiate. Yeh, we just had a energy performance cert done here. As to the surveyor thing, I would prefer one as we're not totally green about things, we've done a lot of construction work to our current house in the UK ourselves but the Irish housing market is new to us. I don't want to buying a pig in a poke! This will be our last move really. Thanks for mentioning about getting a out of town fella, I wouldn't of known that.

Thank you SicknTired, you've been really helpful.

jonboy

Here is another scenario, 10 years ago we put a house on the market for 100k eventually after all offers were considered we sold for 150k. So, it is what the market will stand and not always that the price will go down. I am no lover of estate agents, but the way they operate in Ireland is somewhat different than the norm in the UK. Not better and not worse.

sickntired

I can assure you that in 2013 there are more sellers than buyers and there won't be any bidding wars as of celtic tiger years. Also there will be a lot of repossessions coming to the market in the next 12 months which will soften the market further.

Of course if you offered more than the asking price I'm sure thick Paddy would consider it lol.

goosegirl

Well im buying and I have the cards and theres no way im paying over the asking price. I may be green but im not cabbage lookin. I think its going to take a long time for ireland to return to those celtic tiger times again.

Latemover

We have just agreed to buy a property in Co Roscommon. Found the auctioneers were very helpful and keen to negotiate. But you have to go and see them, let them know your situation and they will try their best to find something to suit you. Remember, there are plenty of properties for sale - if your offer is turned down on one, you'll probably find a better one so don't rush the bidding! BUT do your viewing online, via maps and streetview, and only when you are on your way to Ireland and in a position to make a bid if you find the right property do you involve the auctioneer, otherwise he will rightly consider you are wasting his time. And no matter what our views on estate agents in general, its a very lean time for them in Ireland particularly at present and the best way to get them on your side is not to cause them too much unnecessary expense.

sickntired

Where is Roscommon are you moving to?