Buying a home at short-notice

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PoundMan

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Afternoon folks, a small house that I have admired for a number of years has just gone on sale for €150k. I wasn't originally planning to buy, as I had hoped to rent but there has been no affordable rentals available in the area. Although my plan was to rent, this feels like an opportunity to buy that I wasn't anticipating. I would have savings in place to be able to put down a decent deposit of around €50-80k. The house has been vacant for 5 years so it's a bit of a fixer-upper but would possibly be elligible for the €50k vacant property refurbishment grant from the government.

Is it possible to obtain a home loan / mortgage at short notice or am I wasting my own time on this idea?
 
PoundMan said:
Afternoon folks, a small house that I have admired for a number of years has just gone on sale for €150k. I wasn't originally planning to buy, as I had hoped to rent but there has been no affordable rentals available in the area. Although my plan was to rent, this feels like an opportunity to buy that I wasn't anticipating. I would have savings in place to be able to put down a decent deposit of around €50-80k. The house has been vacant for 5 years so it's a bit of a fixer-upper but would possibly be elligible for the €50k vacant property refurbishment grant from the government.

Is it possible to obtain a home loan / mortgage at short notice or am I wasting my own time on this idea?
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Why does it have to be short notice? put in your offer & start getting your paperwork together. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
 
PoundMan said:
Would I not already need mortgage approval before making an offer though?
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No, unless the estate agent insists.

Nothing unusual about this at all. At most, potential buyers who need a mortgage will only have 'approval in principle' (AIP) before bidding. They still need to go through a formal mortgage application once their offer is accepted on the specific property. You should start the AIP process to strengthen your hand in bidding. It shouldn't take long to get AIP.

In this case, to get a full mortgage might be tedious. If the house needs work to be habitable, a bank might need formal estimates of the cost involved. I haven't seen one for a little while, so I'm not sure of the exact process with each lender, but your preferred banks mortgage advisor should be able to walk you through.
 
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Hi Poundman

Make sure to apply to your local credit union who might be more flexible than the banks.

And don't rule out family either. If this is a very good opportunity, do you have a relative who has money on deposit earning nothing?

Of course, there is a risk that this causes family friction, but it's a risk well worth taking to put an affordable roof over your head.

Brendan
 
+1 for the family / friend route. Treat it as a joint business investment and have a clear exit route for the other party.
 
Right Winger said:
+1 for the family / friend route. Treat it as a joint business investment and have a clear exit route for the other party.
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I'm not so sure.
@PoundMan seems to want to buy this property as their PPR.
In that case wouldn't it be better, if going the family loan route, to arrange a loan from the family member (supported by an appropriate loan agreement between the two) and then @PoundMan buys the property solely and repays the loan to the family member as per their agreement.
Buying jointly with somebody else would seem to complicate things unnecessarily.
 
Certainly, I was envisaging a loan rather than any other type of investment.

But I suspect that Right Winger means to treat it very formally - draw up a formal loan agreement, with a schedule of loan repayments.

Brendan
 
I would intend to purchase the property as my primary residence although my girlfriend would also be moving in with me. She currently works on a part-time temporary basis but she will be starting her first full-time permanent contract this upcoming September. Even though I'm the only one currently employed of a full-time permanent basis, would it still be worth doing a joint application or would that not even be a possible option in such circumstances? If I had to apply as a single applicant, would she be allowed to contribute towards the deposit or would that be classed as a gift to myself and therefore liable for tax?
 
In addition to my query above, I'm also wondering if I am better off taking advantage of my first-time buyer status and leveraging a 10% deposit instead of putting down a larger deposit? This way I'd still have savings left over to use towards the necessary renovation work as I'm told the vacant property refurbishment grant wouldn't be paid out until after the work is completed and paid for through my own personal finances.
 
PoundMan said:
This way I'd still have savings left over to use towards the necessary renovation work
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Do you have any idea how much these renovation works will cost?

Is the house habitable as it is? Have you had anyone with experience look at it for you?
If its in bad repair, it might not be mortgagable, so needs a cash buyer.

Unless you've a rough cost plan, it's impossible ti say what's 'best' approach.
 
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