Buying a home in Galway

Price come down - quality of life stays high

2011-01-04T14:28:00.003Z

I laugh to myself when I look at the poll we had there on the Irish housing market crashing. Little did I know.

But as these times of doom and gloom continue I have to let you into a little secret: life in Galway is still bloody amazing.

Yes, we have the same taxes, the same dodgy bankers, and the occasional ghost estate sitting on NAMAs to-do list, but when you get right down to it the basics of life in the West of Ireland are still fantastic.

All the lovely countryside is still there to enjoy, the lake, the seaside, the mountains and the bogs - all there in serene beauty. The fish still jumping in the rivers and lakes, the craic still there in the pubs (and you can find a seat unlike in the capital), and people are still living life at a pace where they will happily share a few words as they pass. I'm not trying to paint old De Valera's image of comely maidens dancing at the crossroads, but the basics are there, even if they are listening to i-Pods now.

At the moment there are job losses and lots of them, but there are also new job openings in Galway. A few new tech firms are opening or expanding and the medical devices sector still has a massive presence in the city. You are competing with a lot of people for jobs - just like in the rest of the country - but if you live here in the West of Ireland you have the bonus of, well, living here.

And then there is the core subject of this blog: homes. At the moment house prices have fallen hugely. This is not a surprise to you, and is only really good news to the first time buyer who is able to arrange one of the very few new mortgages being offered. As the saying goes - every cloud has a silver lining - and even in the collapse of all we came to know there is some positives in the housing collapse. Lets look at a few scenarios.

You may have a home in Dublin or elsewhere with hug negative equity, and need to downsize. This is actually a great opportunity to get back to the core things that it is about - home, family and quality of life. Is moving from a 5 bed in a congested city to a 2 or 3 bed in the countryside really such a bad thing? It is what a lot of us dreamt of all through the boom.

Or if you have lost a job and need to downsize and find new work - is this the time to move somewhere where you can enjoy the free wonders the West can offer? Tourist amenities like Lough Corrib, the Connemara mountains and the arty thrill of Galway city. Is it so bad to consider a job in Galway or Castlebar where you don't spend 10 hours of your week on a bus or in your car stuck in 1st gear?

And what about if you have no negative equity. No equity at all? Well, where are you going to find such a buzzing nightlife, where you don't have to fall over junkies while queuing for a taxi home? (correction: you don't even need to queue for the taxis!). Yes, Galway has it all when it comes to starting out as a homeowner, and there are truly a mass of bargains to be had.

So don't rush into anything but take some time to investigate the options; maybe a move West is just what you need to brighten up the New Year.

Galway comes alive in the Summer - Volvo Ocean Race Stopover May 2009

2009-05-13T12:12:00.005+01:00

Galway is a lively town all year round, but it really gets going as the sun starts shining.

This year is going to have a roaring start when the Volvo Ocean Race comes to town in May/June. The stopover in this International boat race is a bit of a coup for Galway - if fact, even for Ireland.

The boats will arrive in Galway after racing all the way from Boston, where they will set off this Saturday afternoon (16th May). After some rather tough sailing they will be due here in Galway on the weekend of the 23rd May (obviously they can't give exact times as this is a race dependant on wind and weather).

The stay will be for 2 weeks, with fantastic in-port racing in the middle week and departure on the final weekend of the 6th June.

Here in Galway there will be a lot going on, which will include:

For all the family - street theatre performances in the Race Village and on the Green Dragon route by Arcana, Buí Bolg, Luxe and Tumble Circus, a Promenade Beach Party, Lá Gaeilge, Galway Community Circus, the Volvo Ocean Race experience including the simulator, model boat racing, the grinder challenge and the Dome, air display by the Red Arrows and two world record attempts.

FOR CONCERT GOERS - free concerts by the Hothouse Flowers, Sharon Shannon, Aslan, The Stunning, Kila, The Coronas, Lucia Evans and lots more...

FOR ART LOVERS - trail with 18 exhibitions around the city with a maritime theme including exhibitions and talks at Galway City Museum.

FOR FOOD LOVERS - the best of West of Ireland food at the Race Village and a good variation of cuisine on offer throughout restaurants in the city.

FOR SAILORS - see the might of the Volvo Open 70's up close and your chance to see some of the world's leading ocean sailors. Take the PUMA Mast Challenge. Participate in some fringe sailing events such as the GB09 Cruiser Championships and junior sailing events. View traditional boat racing on Galway Bay.

FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN - visit Galway on your school tour and visit the Galway Atlantaquarium

Full programme details are available on http://www.galwayvolvooceanrace.com/ or on the Galway site on www.letsdoitgalway.com/

You can also download and print your own copy of the festival planner here: http://volvoocean.vo.llnwd.net/o29/u/downloads/0809/schedule/galway/galway_volvooceanrace_festivalplanner.pdf

You can follow the race as a group on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=47484745324&ref=ts

See what they have on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=lets+do+it+galway+ocean+race&aq=f

The Irish boat - The Green Dragon - can be followed here: http://www.greendragonracing.com/en/

So, yet another reason to come live in the most lively, artistic and friendly city in Ireland!

Over the coming weeks and months I'll be telling you about the other great festivals here in Galway - the International Festival of Literature, the Galway Arts Festival (Ireland’s largest), the Oyster Festival and of course the Galway Races.

How to find a house in Galway online

2008-12-16T11:43:00.002Z

Lets take it you have decided to buy a house in Galway, and you have looked and followed our steps (see list in left pane). You have four main options to use when searching: use an estate agent, use property page in newspapers, use online search, or drive around looking for for sale signs.

In this post we will just look at the option of searching online.

A number of estate agents have online websites which list their current properties, and a list of some of these is at the end of the post. There are also some big sites which list for both auctioneers/estate agents and also for individual sellers.

The first step is to decide on an area where you want to buy. Even a number of areas. If you do a search for all property in Galway you will have to trudge through a huge number of unsuitable adverts which can be both tiring and disheartining - imagine the perfect house, perfect price, and then discovering in is on an island two miles of the western coast; big let down -unless that is what you are searching for, of course!

Once you have decided on the area, it is often good to widen this slightly to include the neibouing townland or villages (or suburbs if searching in the city). Some listings are not entered correctly and it would be terrible to missout on your dream home because it is listed in the wrong village.

Next decide on the type of house - detached, semi-detached, farm, bungalow, apartment.

Finally, work out the upper limit you can afford. It is a good idea to put this higher than your budget, as with the current credit crunch you may find that the listed privce is above what the seller is willing to make a sale for. Who said there was no 'up side' to a recession!?

You are now ready to make a start on the search. Using one of the sites listed below enter the criteria you have listed and click to search.

If the results are too large you can narrow the search by deciding the maximum and minimum number of bedrooms. No point getting a one bedroom apartment for a family of five! Be sure to factor in how long you think you will live in the home. If you plan on staying for a decade, ask yourself if it will be large enough for planned children, or other changes that may happen.

Some sites will allow you to register, and we recommend this as it allows you to save properties to view later. You can also set up email alerts which will email you all new properties and on some sites will also allow you to be mailed the results of a search too. This can be very handy and save you time logging onto the site a searching yourself.

Once you find somewhere you want to view you can usually email directly to the seller or agent to arrange a viewing (be sure to include reference number or full address as most agents will have a number of properties in an area).

If you find a property in an area which is similar to what you want, but not ideal, it is a good idea to contact the agent and ask them what similar properties they have.

Sites that might help you:
www.daft.ie/galway/houses_for_sale/
www.MyHome.ie/Galway
www.galwayproperty.ie/
http://www.propertypartners.ie/

Auctioneer websites:
www.odonnjoyce.com/
www.cathalmoran.com/
www.mannionauctioneers.com/
www.collerans.com/
www.davidmoggan.com/
www.kmsgalway.com/
http://www.connaughtproperty.ie/

Happy searching!

Shopping in Galway at Christmas

2008-12-10T12:19:00.001Z

Galway city is renowned the world over as a vibrant, warm and multicultural city. It's a popular destination for Christmas shopping in Ireland, as it has everything - lively pubs, gourmet restaurants, plenty of accommodation, a weekly market, lots of shopping arcades and a terrific range of shops, so you'll have no bother finding those Christmas presents and last minute stocking fillers!

Galway city is especially welcoming over Christmas. It's located beside the sea surrounded by some of Ireland's most spectacular landscape, which helps to create the perfect scene.
When it comes to Christmas shopping, Galway has just as much to offer, as any other large city in Ireland.

Shopping in Galway is a pleasant experience as much of the city center is pedestrianised and you'll stumble upon quirky little shops, small boutiques and beautiful craft shops as you roam around its cobbled streets. Of course, you'll find all your usual high street stores and labels too.
When you visit Galway on your shopping break, be sure to visit the local market. It's normally open on a Saturday and Sunday all year round, but is usually open for about 10 days prior to Christmas and a visit here will definitely put you in the festive mood. Don't miss the opportunity to mingle with the locals as they gather to chitchat as well as do their shopping. This market has been taking place for centuries and is located next to St. Nicholas Church at the bottom of Shop Street. It's best known for its exclusive arts, crafts and mouthwatering foods prepared while you wait. Handmade chocolates, delicious crepes and Japanese Sushi are just some of the foods you'll find here.

Many of the shops in Galway city are situated on streets in the key shopping area in the centre of the city, while the shopping centres tend to be on the outskirts of the city.

Eyre Square Shopping Centre
Eyre Square Shopping Centre (found in Eyre Square!) has up to 100 shops offering everything from fashion, gifts, jewellery, books, sport, department stores and restaurants.
The shops pull out all the stops at Christmas with elaborate window and shop displays.
(Even if you don't buy anything - take a stroll through this shopping center and see the remains of the old city walls, which have been incorporated into the building!)

Shop Street - Galway City
Don't pass up the opportunity to saunter down the bustling Shop Street where some of the best shops are to be found. The street is a bit touristy so if you're looking for craft shops, hand made jewellery and art shops, then this is the place to go.

Latin Quarter
This street is known as High Street and the quaint cobblestoned street is filled with fascinating exclusive shops. You will find original and once off gifts here.

The Corrib Shopping Centre
There are lots of shopping centres in Galway. The Corrib Shopping Centre is not very big but is ideally located and within walking distance of Eyre Square. It has a good range of shops including Roches Stores - a large department store with everything under the one roof!

The Galway Shopping Centre
Situated on the Headford Road is the Galway Shopping Centre which has well over 100 shops including Penny's - a big hit for its trendy clothes at bargain prices. A car is recommended especially if you plan on doing lots of Christmas shopping so it's good to know there's loads of parking. If you have the kids in tow, then there's plenty to keep them occupied with the onsite Leisure Dome which incorporated a bowling alley, laser games, a play area and lots more.

Terryland Retail Park
Another shopping centre located on the Headford Road and catering for people looking for specialist shops and unique gifts.

Galway at Christmas

2008-12-10T11:56:00.002Z

If you are thinking of moving to Galway, the ideal time to dip your toes in the water is right now.

With Christmas around the corner the city is buzzing. You really get the feel for how friendly everyone is, be it the shop assistant who still as time to chat to you (unlike the impersonal rush in the capital), or the craic on Shop Street and the surrounding pubs. You can experience first hand the way Galway offers the ideal balance of life in a city, while still in the countryside.

All the small towns in the county are coming alive and welcoming back home their sons and daughter who live or work away. Pubs roar with the craic of friends and familise sharing tales of shared experiences, old and new. See Headford with it's main street lit up, Claregalway full of shoppers and Athenry with the bustle of old friends returned to visit.

A few of the events on in the city this Christmas are listed here:

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Galway Bay On Ice1st December 2008 - 11th January 2009

www.galwaybayonice.com

Galway Bay On Ice is back and its even better than last year. Visitors can expect to see Galway's Spanish Arch transformed into one of Ireland's premier Christmas attractions with one massive 700m2 ice rink and a festive Christmas Market to enjoy.
The kids can even fine tune their skating skills at this year's "Skate School," and become the envy of all their friends. This magical event is ideal Christmas fun for the whole family. They have full catering facilities on site too!
Open 7 days a weekWeekdays 10am - 10pm

Weekends 10am - 10pm

Nimo's Pier, Spanish Arch, Galway.

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Open Traditional Irish Music Session - The Western Hotel Galway

http://www.thewestern.ie/
Date/Time:
Every Thursday between 11 Dec 2008 and 18 Dec 2008
Email:
info@thewestern.ie
Venue:
33 Prospect Hill, Galway City

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Trad on the Prom Christmas Cabaret Dinner & Show at The Ardilaun

The Christmas Cabaret which takes place on Wednesday 10th December includes a mulled wine reception drink on arrival, 4 course buffet dinner, and 2 hours of music, song and dance, and it makes for one great evening. All for just €65 per person, tickets now available for sale at the Ardilaun. Join up with your colleagues and friends – parties of any size can be catered for, special discounts apply for group bookings and a night to remember is guaranteed. Why not check in and stay overnight with a special rate of just €105 per person sharing to include a luxurious nights stay with a Hearty Irish Breakfast to follow, or if you prefer two nights for €149 per person sharing. As space is limited, please call the Christmas Party Line on: 091-519794.

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Traditional Music Session - The Shamrock Bar, Roundstone

Date/Time:
Every Saturday between 06 Dec 2008 and 28 Feb 2009
Venue: Roundstone, Connemara, Galway
Phone: +353 95 35760

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NUI Galway Arts Office Lunchtime Christmas Concertfeaturing the ConTempo Quartet and NUI Galway Choral Society. Admission free.

Date: Thursday, 09 December 2004

Location: Bank of Ireland Theatre, NUI Galway

Time: 13.10

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Galway is such a fantastic city to visit and when you arrive here on your pre Christmas shopping break you'll know what we mean. It's a paradise of lively pubs, shops, and restaurants, with friendly faces and a warm atmosphere. And when you're finished your Christmas shopping in Galway city, you can explore top attractions like Connemara, the Aran Islands and the Cliffs of Moher.

The other type of water: rain and flooding

2008-09-10T10:37:00.002+01:00

With the current torrential downpours across Ireland I though it a good time to point out another thing that should be checked before buying a house in Galway (applies across the country too): flooding.

Galway and it's surrounding counties get a fair share of rain and this is something you should take into account when buying a house. If you are viewing in the Summer it is a good idea to walk right around the plot and see if there are swampy bits of the garden. If there are, then imagine how they will be when it has rained solidly for six weeks!

Watch out for other tell-tale risk signs - is there a river close to your house that has a soft margin (is not walled in)? Are you close to a lake which has history of flooding?

A handy way to find out about past flooding in the area is a simple google search for the place name and the word "flood".

In general you are pretty safe if your house is on an elevated site, and this usually means you have a better view too! Of course, an elevated site can be more exposed to wind too, so balance all the factors and be sure you are getting the house you want.

Water water everywhere...

2008-09-03T09:02:00.002+01:00

..but not a drop to drink. So goes the saying, and it is something to consider when moving anywhere rural.

Living in cities we can be forgiven for forgetting that the nice clean drinkable water we enjoy is not available countrywide. Due to contamination of water (by either animal or human waste) there is a boil order in place for some parts of County Galway at the moment (Summer/Autumn 2008). You can find specific details here: http://www.myspace.com/galwaywatercrisis and here http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=galway+Cryptosporidiosis+2008

I use this as an example only to emphasize that it is important that you ensure you have a good quality water supply. If the house you intend buying is going to be part of a group water scheme contact the scheme administrator/secretary and ask if there is any upgrade work due to happen, what quality the water is, and if there is or will be meters put in. And of course you will probably want to find out the annual cost, and include this in your sums to work out if you can afford to live there.

If the house has a well, it is well (sorry!) worth the cost of taking a sample and having it tested for quality. If the current owner is reluctant to let you do so, then this should raise your suspisions!

For €85 (at time of writing) you can send off the sample to this crowd for testing : http://www.acornwater.com/showprod.php?id=48

A home is a garden too

2008-08-19T11:45:00.004+01:00

When moving to Galway you need to consider maintenance when you see your new garden.

Our house is on about half an acre. That's a lot of grass. No problem. But....(there's always a but)...we never thought about a garage to store a mower, a rake, shears, etc. etc.

So, if you are buying a house consider the size of the garden, how long it will take you to cut and manage, and where you will store whatever you need to do that.

On a separate note about gardens - considering the recent downpours throughout Ireland, be sure to also check your garden and house are not in the floodplains of a river or lake. Google maps can be handy for finding what waterways are near you - http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=galway&ie=UTF8&ll=53.445535,-9.063721&spn=1.452647,3.383789&t=h&z=8&iwloc=addr

Also consider how much time you will actually get to spend in the garden. If you can't spare the time to manage it, do you want the extra expense of having to get someone in to do it?

A garden is a big commitment. This is especially true when you have just moved to a new city, or even if you just need to get your first house to the stage you can call it home. It takes time, and if you are based in Galway that means a lot of gaps between showers too!

On the other side of that, a big garden which is well laid out and maintained can add vastly to the value of your house, as well as how much you can enjoy it.

Summary: when you make your list of things to consider when finding a home, be sure to include your ideal garden - be that small or large, paved or bedded.

Change all your own addresses, and forward your mail

2008-08-06T12:20:00.003+01:00

When you buy your house, and move down to Galwya you are on cloud nine, but there are a million things to be done. Over the next while I am going to list them all.

The first is to change the addresses on all the mail you recieve. Here is a list of some you may need to change:

Bank account
Driving license
Car tax/registration
Car insurance
Friends - your Christmas card list
Tax office
AA
VHI/BUPPA/VIVAS

We decided to take the safe route and used An Post's redirection service. It lasts for 3 months and they will forward all your mail to your new address. Here are the costs from An Posts website today:

Residential In Ireland (fee per redirection)
Up to 3 months
€50.00

Up to 6 months
€70.00

Up to 12 months
€100

You can check their latest prices here : http://www.anpost.ie/AnPost/MainContent/Personal+Customers/Managing+Mail/redirection.htm

Get a forwarding address

2008-05-02T10:34:00.002+01:00

Here is something you will not be too focused on when you buy a house, but which is very important to do: get a forwarding address for the people who sell it to you.

Why do you need it?

1. For them, so you can forward their post.
2. For you, so you can ask things like 'what day are the bins collected?'
3. For the ESB, to allow you to fill out a change of ownership form for the account.
4. For telephone company if you are transfering a line.

There are a load of other reasons, so if you can at all get one. If not you can always use their solicitor.

Step 15 : Insurance

2008-04-14T16:02:00.003+01:00

Before your bank or building society will issue your cheque you will need to get two forms of insurance sorted out.

The first is life insurance,and the second is home insurance.

For the life assurance you have two main options: term insurance or life insurance. Term insurance gives you more cover, but costs slightly more. What it is is insurance of a fixed amount for a fixed length of time (usually the term length of your mortgage). If (God forbid!) you should die before the length of the mortgage the entire amount covered is paid out. So, for example if you have a 500k mortgage and take out term insurance, but over the years you'd paid back 90% and then die, whoever you leave your estate to will get 90% back as the full 500k will be paid out (so 10% to pay rest of mortgage, and 450k left over). Term insurance costs a little more, but as you can see it pays a lot more later on too.

Home insurance is very important, as your mortgage provider will not issue your cheque without it.

One VERY IMPORTANT bit of advice is to get the home insurance to be started a few days before you close the sale. We were caught with that. Our close date was a Friday and we got our insurance to start on the Friday. But on the Tuesday when our solicitor asked the bank to issue the cheque they said no, as we didn't have insurance in place. So, we had to get it moved forward to start a couple of days earlier. Not a big deal, but it was a major stress at a time when we were highly strung already.

Step 14: Contract deposit

2008-04-04T11:37:00.003+01:00

This happens at the same time as step 13, but I thought I'd make another step of it to make sure you notice it.

When you sign your contracts you will also need to pay the rest of your deposit. This is standard at 10%, but it is usually possible to negotiate it down - for example if you get a 92 or 95% mortgage you may only want to pay 5 or 8% as the deposit and have the rest come directly from your mortgage. Once you have a valid reason your solicitor should be able to agree this with the vendors solicitor.

As this is generally delivered as a bank draft (not a cheque), it is a good idea to arrange the bank draft before you sign (a day or two should be enough time, but you should confirm this with your bank as they differ).

Step 13: Contracts

2008-04-04T11:30:00.002+01:00

The next step is the first legally binding one: Contracts.

The vendors (people selling) will draw up contracts of sale with their solicitor. This is a long document - about 30 pages roughly - which has a hell of a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo which all comes down to "We give you cash, you give us house".

What they send is a draft contract, and they send that directly to your solicitor. Your solicitor will usually send you some notes on it and maybe some questions. For example, ours asked us to check the land registry documents referred to the right land with the engineer who did our survey.

Normal procedure is that you will go into your solicitors office and sign both the loan offer (see step 12) and your sale contracts at the same time in their presence. They send these back to the vendor with a bank draft for your outstanding deposit (Step 14). Usually at this point your solicitor will confirm the charge for their service - the start of your money disappearing!

Check your loan offer

2008-03-31T13:52:00.002+01:00

This may seem very obvious, but it is so important that I am writing a post about it.

You will recieve a copy of your loan offer to sign and return, along with a number of related documents. Be sure to check all the details - especially the address. We got ours the other day and realised that the address of the house we are buying in Galway was spelt incorrectly. Initial thought was that it wouldn't matter, but it turned out we needed to get the offer re-issued, causing a few days delay.

It is very important to ensure that your names, all amount, and all addresses are spelt correctly. It is up to you to do this as it is you who is signing up for the loan.
The last thing we wanted was a delay, but we are delighted to have noticed now while we have time to rectify it rather than when we are signing contracts, or even closing. Luckily we have a great mortgage adviser who was able to get it re-issued in 48 hours.

Step 12: Formal loan offer

2008-03-25T13:30:00.002Z

Once your valuation has been done, your next step is to get your formal loan offer letter from your bank or building society.

If you are using a mortgage broker they will take care of this step for you, or if you are organising your mortgage directly with a bank/building society you just need to contact them and ask them to do it for you.

At this stage they will again want to check your financial details, and may ask you for bank statements for the period between your initial approval in principle and now. It took about 4 working days for us, which I believe is normal. However it can take a little longer so allow about 2 weeks.

You will be sent a copy, and your solicitor will also be sent a copy. It is quite a big document, but it is well worth reading through it all to be sure you know what you are getting. Your solicitor or mortgage broker should be able to answer any questions you have.

The copy your solicitor receives will ask them to proceed with the legal formalities and will usually give you 30 days to do so. Hopefully your contracts will arrive about the same time as your letter of offer.

Step 11 - valuation

2008-03-04T15:28:00.002Z

So, you have got your engineers report back and it says everything is above board. Well done! You are well on the way. Maybe it brought up a few small issues - if so you can consider going back to the vendor (seller) and seeing if you can wrangle a better deal.

Next step, when you have informed your mortgage broker or building society is for a valuation to be done. This costs an average of €150 to be done and they will have a list of valuers available (they will generally select one themselves). These can be auctioneers in the area, or engineers, so do not be surprised if it is someone you have already had dealings with. Prices actually vary here, so if it is possible you can try to get a few quotes. We paid €130, but got a different quote of €180 so there is definitely a bit of difference in the prices you can get.

There is very little for you to do in this step. Provide the mortgage broker with the selling auctioneers details (or if it is a person selling directly their details) and they will sort out a time to do it. Generally this takes up to a week. This is very important as it tells the mortgage people that the house is worth what you have said it is - making sure their money is safe!

When this is done, the valuer will send the valuation to your mortgage people and they will let you know. At that stage they will start the process of moving your approval in principle to be a formal offer.

Don't keep contacting your Solicitor

2008-03-04T15:21:00.002Z

When you are sale agreed (if not beforehand too) you will be in contact with your solicitor. This is an essential part of the process, but you should try to cover as much ground every time you are in contact.

Solicitor costs are one of the big costs of buying a house, so it is important to keep them as small as possible, and you will be charged fro EVERYTHING they do - be it a photocopy of a document, or sending you an email. For me, working in IT I am used to sending and receiving hundreds of emails every day, so would tend to send them without thinking. Until I realised that each individual reply I get I will be charged for.

Now, by this I am not suggesting you don't make proper contact, just that if you are mailing to tell them the sale is agreed, maybe include the contents list in the same mail, the engineers report if you have it already, and maybe the auctioneers details or the vendors details - basically, whatever info you have at hand. The more concise and detailed you are the less communication needed and so the less costs incurred.

Also remember the solicitor is working for you - so get them to do what you want, but at the same time, be sure to tell them all you want done as many will not take it upon themselves to do so without being told.

Details for auctioneer when sale agreed

2008-02-28T11:08:00.004Z

When you reach an agreement on a price with the vendor (people selling - although you usually negotiate with the auctioneer and don't actually negotiate with the seller directly) you then need to provide the auctioneer with some details:

1. A cheque for the deposit (some take a bank transfer or bank draft but mostly it will be a cheque. You should send this by registered post, unless you can easily deliver it in person.

2. Give the auctioneer your full name(s) for contracts. This is important especially if you have an abbreviated first name (Joe = Joseph) or a hard to spell surname. I'm sure you get the idea! This can speed up the contracts.

3. Your current address.

4. Your solicitors details.

Then you should get an engineers report done and inform your bank or mortgage broker that you have agreed a sale.

View 'em all!

2008-02-25T13:12:00.003Z

We took another trip down to the West, and were blessed with some excellent Sun for the 5 days. Over 4 days (no viewings on Sundays) we managed to squeeze in 14 viewings.

Phew! Bloody exhausting.

But I would recommend strongly doing the same, especially if you are buying in a different location to where you are based. For us, it was getting very tiring to go up and down from Dublin to Galway every weekend or two, to see one or two new places, so we build up a load and made a proper, trip out of it.

What should you do if you are viewing a load of places?

Print out everything you can get on each place. You may not be near a computer/printer while viewing.

Staple it together (you'd be surprised how many sheets of paper are now floating around the back of my car!).

Staple a list of questions and feedback space to each. We did a standard set and photocopied for each viewing.

Space the viewings so you have about half an hour to sit, think and discuss each one - but still allowing yourself enough time to drive the distance between viewings.

Draw a floor plan after the viewing and fill out your notes on each one before the next. It may seem fresh in your mind but after 5 in a day they soon start to merge together!

See them all. I can't emphasize this enough. We thought we had decided after the first two, but changed our minds on the last day when we saw an unexpected last house on the last morning and decided we loved that more than any of the others.

Don't rule the rest out if you decide on one. My next post will explain that one.

Stay calm and if you are a couple buying together then remember you are a couple and don't get mad with each other because you are tired etc., as it is very very exhausting.

Do spend the few quid to stay in a hotel as you need the rest and luxury to keep focused on the task at hand.

And best of luck with it!

Book early to view

2008-02-12T11:59:00.001Z

We are planning a few days of looking at places to buy at the moment and one thing we have realised is that you can't turn around on a Wednesday and book to view that Saturday.

You'd think sellers would be falling over themselves to make it easy for you to view and possibly buy their houses, but in actual fact there are some places we have been trying to confirm bookings with for over a week now. So - if you want to make the most of your viewing time it is best to try to book well in advance.

For timing, we have also found the optimum timing is to make the bookings 1.5 hours apart (unless they are over 30 mins apart in distance). This allows an hour for viewing, which is a lot but you have to allow for the estate agent being late! Then it is good to have about 10 or 15 mins to write down your feelings and observations on the place, and answers you got for your questions. DO write this down immediately as there is nothing worse than spending a day viewing 3 or 4 places and finding that by the evening you can't remember which had that big bathroom or the smelly farmyard downwind.

Hope you find what you're looking for!

Make a wide search and close it down

2008-02-06T12:28:00.001Z

If you are (for example) looking for a 3 bedroom detached house, 10 miles from Galway, then you would probably find about 10 to 30 houses fitting this criteria.

We have been trying to find an exact match to our criteria, and while we initially found it (one sale fell though) it is now proving harder.

To solve this issue what we have tried now is to widen the search - say for the above example, we would be going 5 to 15 miles and 2 to 4 bedrooms, and including semi detached and bungalows. This would instead bring a result of maybe 200 properties.

So, now you have 200 properties and still no match? Well, not exactly.

Going through all 200 will take time, but lets face it - this is our home we are talking about so a few hours or days is small potatoes.

What's the reason? Well, as you go through 200 properties you do a few things;

Find out what you like in each house

Find new things you like that you had not thought of

Get a good idea of what is available for what price range (You'd be surprised how many 5 beds cost the same as 3 beds!)

Maybe reconsider your options - maybe you can afford a bigger place, or will be happy in a smaller, and maybe 5 miles further out is worth the saving

While you go through the larger search you eliminate what is not to your liking, and eventually (many hours banging head against wall later) will have cut it down to a small enough number to be able to go see them. My bet is that the shortlist will have some that would not have been on your initial list.

Research the area you plan move to

2008-01-22T12:44:00.000Z

If like us you are moving to a new city or town, it is very important to research the area well. This would seem like an obvious one to me, but the more I have talked to people who have moved to new towns, the more I find out just upped and went without checking what they were letting themselves in for.

Our destination is Galway, so we have used the Internet to start. Sites which we found good are -

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=951 (Galway forum on Boards.ie)
http://www.galway1.ie/directory/dliving.htm (Directory of handy Galway links)
http://www.galwaycity.ie/ (City council - handy to find out about developments)
http://www.galway.ie/en/ (County council - as above)
http://www.ccprecruit.ie/movewest.htm (Recruitment - for that all important job!)
http://www.lookwest.ie/index.php/galway.php (Super site on moving to the West)

These and other sites will give you a good start, but also drive around the area you want to live in. Be sure to try both on and off peak - you don't want to move in and then find it is the biggest traffic bottle neck in the country at rush hour!

Check for farms if you are rural. The noise of a creamery or smell of a pig sty can ruin your dream country get-away.
If you are in the city, maybe drive through on a weekend night to check there are not a gang of kids drinking at the end of your road.

When you have found the right house, be sure to check that it has the essentials you want: water (mains or group scheme, and if group scheme how much per year?), electricity, phone, broadband (you can check the line with the phone number on BT and Eircom sites) and also see if the heating is solid fuel, gas, or oil.

OK, I could go on forever with the list. My point is - research pays off hugely.

I think there is definitely going to be something that we will discover after we move, but at least if we invest the time now you will not see too many pasts here titles "Why did we move???" in a few months!

No emotions without keys

2008-01-10T10:02:00.000Z

I am speaking from experience here.

Don't let yourself get emotionally attached to a property until you have the keys in your hand. With our house we were already planning where we would put furniture, and thinking of layout/colours. Even the way I just said 'our house' shows how easy it is to get attached.

For us the issue is to do with planning laws, but everyone I have talked to has a story of sellers deciding not to sell or selling to someone else for higher price. It is heart-wrenching to be so close to owning a home and starting on that adventure, only to find you have to go back to the drawing board.

It is hard, but try to separate yourself emotionally from the purchase until you have closed the sale and have keys in your hand.

Step 10: Engineers report

2008-01-09T14:38:00.000Z

This is something you do not need to do, but our experience has shown it is vital you do.

An engineers report is where you hire an engineer to check the property you are going to buy. They give it a thorough run through and also check the property matches the planning application.

We had been told this was going to cost us between €400 and €650 euro, but when we actually called up a guy he did it for €200 and has done an excellent job. (If you need on in the Galway area contact me and I will send you details).

Anyhow - our experience is a bit crap.

Yesterday the engineer rang to let us know he did the report and it was in the post. Apparently the planning laws for large parts of Galway and the West tie new builds to a clause where they must be owner occupied for a number of years (in our case 10). As the house we want to buy is not that old we can't simply buy it. Instead the seller would have to sort it out that they can sell it. So - the relatively smal expense of getting an engineers report meant we saved a hell of a lot of costs later, and so have withdrawn our offer.

There were also some other details which didn't match the planing application so all in all I would highly, highly recommend getting an engineers report.

Step 9: Get a solicitor

2008-01-07T10:01:00.000Z

A very important step is to get a solicitor. Once your offer is accepted you will need to have this sorted out pretty fast, so you may want to do it earlier. I am just telling you what we did....

There are two sorts of solicitors as far as I can tell. Those who do a fixed cost and those who are more variable. At the end of the day you usually get what you pay for. We had picked out a couple of fixed cost ones - average basic fee was 1000 and outlays (what they have to pay on your behalf) of about 700. So, we were looking at around 1700 with them.

But after talking to a few people we were told that this was the basic service and they would charge us for every little thing and it would be much higher. In the end we decided to go with a firm who have a good reputation. I got a quote and it was about 500 higher, but so far we have found them very good. Of course we have not even signed contracts yet, so it is a bit soon to say for definite.

Whatever road you decide to go for, be sure to do it in time. Both the auctioneer/estate agent, and also your mortgage provider, will want to know who it is.

Step 8: Pay the booking deposit

2008-01-04T12:34:00.000Z

When the offer is accepted you will be asked by the estate agent to pay a booking deposit. This is totally refundable (or should be, so make sure!) and acts as a sort of goodwill gesture to the seller. However, it does not guarantee the sale. This is the point where people are 'gazumped' - meaning the seller sells to another buyer for a higher price even though you have paid the booking deposit. I am not aware of a method of stopping or safeguarding against this, but I guess a speedy signing of contracts is the best bet.

The booking deposit can be anything from €2000 to 3% of the buying price. I am not sure what the rules or standards are here. We were asked for 3%. I have heard that it is good to do this through your solicitor - I guess for more formality.

We had not chosen our solicitor so just transferred directly to the estate agent. We have not signed contracts yet so I can't tell you much more yet...

Step 7: Tell the banks and solicitors

2008-01-04T12:32:00.001Z

When you make an offer (AND IT IS ACCEPTED) you have to tell the people you are getting a mortgage off - a bank, or else a mortgage broker.

You also need to find a solicitor (if you don't have one already) and tell them your offer has been accepted.

Step 6: Make an offer

2007-12-19T17:14:00.000Z

I am not sure what to advise here. What we did was go to see a place again and double check we liked it. Then we went to a hotel and sat over a coffee and decided to put in an offer and decided what we would offer, and what our max price we'd pay was. (As it turned out both were the same).

We rang the agent and said that we would like to make an offer. He said he doubted the owner would accept it. We said to ask them anyhow, it was the only offer we would be making.

He told us it would be 2 or 3 days before we heard.

He rang after 4 and told us they would sell for an extra X thousand. We stood our ground and said thanks and goodbye. They said hold on, we want to think about it for 24 hours. They took 36 to come back and accepted our offer.

Now, I have heard a million stories about the whole offer process and here are my thoughts:

Decide your max before looking at houses and don't increase it because the house is especially nice.

Offer under the asking price. Especially now in the current market, but do so anyhow. What have you got to loose?

Don't be scared by there being another offer in. There are lots of houses to go around and the chances 50/50 on most offers actually existing.

Stay in control. It is you who has the money, so you call the shots.

Also remember - I have never bought a house before (or this one yet) so this is only my thoughts after my vast experience - decide for yourself.

Once your offer is accepted you have a few days to sort out getting your booking deposit to the estate agent. If you have already sorted out a solicitor you may want to do this through them.

At his point you should let your Bank or mortgage adviser know.

Step 5: Start (or continue) looking for a house

2007-12-16T15:51:00.000Z

After about eight working days our mortgage adviser rang to let us know we had approval for two different amounts - the amount we wanted to borrow, and one quite a bit higher. The higher one was (as far as I can guess) the most we could borrow. We had not asked for this amount at all.
I figure the mortgage adviser was just adding it to encourage us to borrow more - remember, although they are paid by the banks they still get more if you borrow more. I just mention this as it means that as it is in their interest for you to borrow more, they are less likely to give you advice against over borrowing.
Well, we know what we can afford so decided to stick with the lower figure (which is still a hell of a lot of debt to be getting into!). As we got our approval the housing market was showing very few sales, and quite a lot of price drops. We found this out by a mixture of watching houses we liked over a number of months, from general newspaper articles, and also fro the lists of price drops online at http://www.irishpropertywatch.com/
I've put a number of links at the side which may come in handy when searching for a home in Galway (and other parts of Ireland). We tended to be searching through daft most evenings, and also every week we would look at Douglas Newman Good and Sherry Fitz. There were a lot of other sites we looked at but those are the ones we spent the most time on.
If like us you are living a few hundred miles away from where you are buying you will want to pick out a handful of places for each visit. We generally looked at 2 or 3 a day. Any more than that and it just gets confusing.
Once you view a house write some notes, or even better - write as you walk through it. You may think you will remember it all but once you have been around a couple it all gets muddled in your mind.
Also, make a list of things you want to ask -
Water mains or group scheme.
PVC/wood/double glazing windows.
Septic tank and/or sink tank.
Oil or gas cooker, and heating.
Back boiler.
Date built.
Rented or owner occupied.
Attic insulation.
Schools, buses, trains.
Quality of wiring.
Water pressure.
Number of sockets.

You can ask all this afterwards, but it is a good idea to get a lot out of the way as early as possible. It means you can look at the property with that in mind, and not be left wondering about a place only to find it does not suit for some fundamental reason. Decide what are walk away issues and what you will be willing to accept if the price is right.

Then try to book the viewings and fit them all in. Ring a few days, to a week, ahead of going down. Then ring to confirm the day before you go to view. That way you are not going to be left hanging around. We came across a mix of different estate agents. Some were totally not interested and were no help at all. Others were 'not in charge of this account. Just showing it for another girl'. (Disgraceful carry on!). Then you have the really nice ones who will give you lots of info and follow up with answers to your questions. Even these ones you should watch out for - double check everything - it's your life savings on the line and you can't bring a spoken word to court!

Step 4: The waiting game

2007-12-15T13:04:00.000Z

This is a pain in the bum.

I've never found waiting so hard. All our hopes and dreams were really dependent on the answer to the mortgage application. Are we staying in Dublin? Are we moving to Galway? Will they blame a refusal on my missed credit card payment back in 1992? Will she dump me because of that? Where will I live if we split up over my missed credit card payment causing us to be refused a mortgage? Will I loose my job because I descend into madness with all this infuriating waiting?

Yes, it really got me over thinking! I would suggest you try to get away for a couple of days while waiting for a mortgage to be approved. I don't mean blow all those savings, I just mean something to occupy your mind. We just went down to Galway for a weekend and looked at some areas to give ourselves a bit of a mind map of the area we could refer to later when looking through property listings.

The other small bit of advice is to ask the mortgage advisor or lending facility how long it will be before you hear anything back. If they say 5 working days, make it 7 in your mind because that way you will not be crawling up the walls by lunchtime on day five.

For us it took 5 days to hear back, but about 8 working days to get full details. After 5 the mortgage broker rang to tell us that we had been approved by 2 so it took the sting out of the rest of the wait. You may want to ask yours to do the same (I'd advise it).

Step 3: Decide how you will apply

2007-12-14T12:31:00.000Z

There are two ways to go about this - you can go to each individual lender and apply yourself in person, or you can get a mortgage broker to do it for you. I am not aware of any other way, but if you are put it as a comment and I will edit this.

We decided to go for a mortgage broker, as it is going to be our first time buying a house so we need all the help and advice we can get. There are a lot out there and we selected Homeloans who seem quite good so far (keep reading and I will keep reporting). They allow you to apply online at - http://www.homeloans.ie/
I have not figured out why they have the online application forms as they called me back and sent out forms where we filled out the same details. I mention this as if you use them you may want to just ring and get the forms rather than fill out the forms twice.

We actually found it quite good as it pointed out the information we needed. Of course you can just look at my previous post and find out!

Things I hadn't known:

Mortgage brokers are paid by the lenders, not by you
You get approval, but the lender may still turn you down later if they discover something new about you
How scared you become about that overdue credit card bill from 10 years ago

Once we had all the right forms filled out and documents gathered we sent them on to the mortgage broker. We sent them by swiftpost which cost a few euros but it would have cost a lot more to replace the documents if they were lost.

Step 2: Documents, Documents, Documents

2007-12-13T17:37:00.000Z

Having started on the saving street we found ourselves broke with nothing to do and had to pass the time while spending no cash. We decided to get ahead of schedule with the documents for our mortgage application. It is surprising what you need so I thought I'd list some of what we had to provide:

12 months bank statements.
That's worth keeping in mind when you start saving, or even beforehand. If you do not have the statements from 12 months previous, you will be a little peeved when you find out how much the banks charge you for replacements. I was hit with a €6.80 charge from Bank of Ireland for a single statement copy. I was furious and wrote a letter of complaint but have not heard anything back other than a standard issue letter telling me someone was looking into it.

6 months salary slips.
Another one people will tend not to hold onto. And for me it was a pain as ours are sent electronically. Point to note: there was no issue that they were printouts by me and not the company - as in, they were black and white. Remember that your salary will need to match what your salary cert says so don't make any plans to spoof your earnings!

P60
Something you should have kept safe anyhow. Be sure to hold onto this and not leave it with the local video store as proof of address.

A salary certificate.
We are using a mortgage broker (more about that in another post) and they gave us a template one which we both had to get our employers to fill out. Worth taking this into consideration when estimating times. If your HR are very slow to get things done this can be an unforeseen delay to getting your mortgage application in.

Proof of savings.
As you will remember from my last post we used rabo direct for our savings, so were able to generate and print offaccount statements from there for free. However, you may nto save this way so remember to hold onto any statements from your savings accounts as you will need at least the latest one to show you have savings. Generally speaking, the more info you can provide the quicker a bank/building society will approve you.

Proof of Identity
This can be a photocopy of a driving license or passport. Not usually a hard thing to come by, but if you have neither you may want to check early on with a mortgage adviser for what alternatives are acceptable.

Other stuff -
You will also need to fill out a pretty long form, and provide details of any loans being paid off by the mortgage, as well as documents relating to any previous mortgage you have.

I know it was early on for us to be getting all our documents together, but it was well worth it. We had them all in a 'house' file and so when we came to apply we didn't have the headache of running around searching for the standard hard to find document. In my case that was the very expensive re-print of a bank statement (I mean - what the hell??? Was it printed by hand in gold leaf?).

Step 1: Save money

2007-12-13T15:07:00.000Z

This is the start of it all.

Even if you are going to go for a 100% mortgage there are a lot of expenses so you should start saving as soon as possible. It is surprising how quickly the time goes by while you are saving, and how much you have to get done in that time.

We found that the step from saving to looking for a house flew by, although we were looking online almost from day 1. As they say - no harm in looking.

1. Keep savings separate

When saving it is a good idea to keep your savings separate from your day to day cash. In month one I had everything in one account and found it way too easy to spend an extra couple of euros on lunches or a pint with friends. After that I had a separate account where I put my savings each pay-day and so found it easier to manage my day to day spending separately from my savings.

2. Save first thing when you get paid

Don't be tempted to put the savings away at the end of the month. I was tempted to do this, thinking I could add the extra I saved to the main bit and so save more. It is better to save it first thing when you are paid. If it is not there you don't spend it. You can always add a little more when you have it.

3. Be interested in the interest

Over about 5 months I managed to add about €150 to my savings by choosing an account with a high interest rate. There are lots of options out there so look around before choosing one - and be wary of charges. What's the point in picking an account with high interest only to find they will charge you more than the interest in charges?
We decided to use rabo-direct, which is a Dutch Bank that trades under that name in Ireland. They are a 100% online bank which is a bit strange at times, but once you have your account set up and get used to their digipass (shown) it is plain sailing. They are currently giving 5% on balances up to 10K, although you are best checking the rate when you go to open your account. Their url is - http://www.rabodirect.ie/

4. Where do you shop?

When trying to get a lot of money together in a short time it is well worth shopping around. We have all ready and heard Eddie Hobbs go on about finding the bargains in rip-off Ireland, but half of it is just to stop buying. I laughed as I read Eddie Hobb's mag 'yo and your money' and saw advert after advert for products I am not going to buy. Why? Because I want to keep my money. Obviously the mag needs to make money through advertisements, but the true way to take care of you and your money is not to spend your money on you.

While most Irish have become accustomed to their expensive pamper goods and stopping buying that starbucks coffee on the way to work may save a few euros, the biggest saving I noticed was with were we do our shopping. We have been doing a weekly shop in ALDI or LIDL once a week, and avoiding any other shopping other than milk and bread. This means for two people we are able to live on food costs of under €50 a week, so under €25 each a week, which if I am not wrong would be about two large lattes a day!

It can take a while getting used to the products you are not used to, but when you are sitting in a lovely home of your own it will be well worth it (I write while still renting!).

5. Just the one? No.

Your friends are your friends if you are there or not, so when if you have to skip a few events to save some money it will not matter. I am terrible for being tempted out for a pint, but with a bit of discipline have managed to save that few quid extra too. Give it a try, and if it proves too hard stay home and have your friends round. It'll still be far cheaper than the pub.

6. Stick with it

No more details on that one. Just stay saving.

So, give that about two months so you are aware of your expenses, earnings and savings. Now you get to do the fun part - work out how much you will have saved at what point. Make a chart of the next few months and then you can mark your progress against it. Try to be realistic - remember Birthdays, Christmas etc. It is worse being disappointed missing a goal, than it is to have a lower achievable goal in the first place.

At this stage you can look into any other methods of making some extra cash. Maybe sell those old X-Box games on E-Bay, or design a web site for your bosses wife. Who knows, but you do know there are a few euros out there waiting for you to earn them!

About this blog

2007-12-13T14:42:00.000Z

Buying a home is one of those life-changing moves that almost everyone does. If you have done it already you are aware of how mind blowing nerve wrecking and nail biting it is.

You are most likely also aware of how many things you have to juggle and arrange in order to secure it all. If you have moved to a different city while securing your first house you will be aware of how near impossible that juggling act can seem.

At the moment myself and my partner are in the process of trying to move to Galway city on the West coast of Ireland, from Dublin city on the East coast of Ireland. This involves securing our first mortgage, buying our first home and sorting out finding new jobs or relocating our current ones.

My intention here is to provide both a time-line story of our experience, and more importantly provide as much useful information for anyone who may choose to do the same as we have.