We had an opinion piece on mortgages published in the Irish Examiner yesterday, you can see it by clicking on the image above or here.
Ways to reduce the asking price when buying a property (part 1)
Today we will cover some very practical tips which may help you get a better price when you are looking at a property. We suggest you take this list and print it, then as you are looking at a property check the various sections and use it as a rationale for your asking price, there may be things that were overlooked as well, so at worst this will help to ensure you don’t make unnecessary errors in deciding whether or not a certain property is good or not.
1. Is the garden in need of work? – If so you could ask that they either correct it or that you want more money off, a garden is generally a good selling point so if it is not well presented it can be a ‘red light’ telling you to go through the place with a fine toothed comb.
2. Does the fencing/walls need repair? – again, if there are any issues ask that they are remedied or they can discount the price by what it may cost to put the issue …
The credit crisis visualised
This is an interesting animated film on the origins of the crisis, it holds with the view that banks were only ever a part of the problem and not necessarily the sole cause. Central banks have a lot to answer for, as does all of society because when you stop saving and instead spend somebody else’s savings it means that eventually, when it comes time to repay your loans that not only is the money not there, but the productivity has likely suffered as well – income based on lending gives the artificial appearance of wealth but it is a mirage.
part 2
Approval in Principle, the flaws.
Our firm [and I am sure many brokerage firms] are witnessing a conundrum in the market which is causing both clients and the broker a huge amount of heartache. It is that of the ‘AIP’ or ‘Approval In Principle’ not being honoured by banks over short periods of time. One lender in particular [we can’t name names] is doing that on so many cases that we no longer consider their approvals as holding any relevance.
What is an approval in principle (A.I.P. is the broker-speak we use to describe them)? It generally means that you have given a bank enough information to make a strong [and yet preliminary] decision on a case, sometimes it is subject to further documentation, or they want to get a valuation report before making a full offer, in any case an AIP is NOT a loan offer but it is as strong an indication as one can get without dealing with solicitors, in the past an AIP was honoured almost exclusively and they were seen as fundamental to …
The end of ownership
I had an interesting conversation with an Estate Agent recently who has been in the industry for over thirty years and he said that he felt he was seeing the ‘end of ownership’ in the young people today. That really got me thinking.
‘What do you mean by that?’ I naturally enquired, and basically he said that he was seeing a trend in young people not feeling any incentive to buy a house, not only in the short term but ever, ‘why would they buy, kit a place out and go to all the expense when they can just rent a place ready to go and any problem is the landlords?’ was his response. And one must admit that there is a large dose of common sense in that. Renting is no more dead money than mortgage interest is dead money, however, what it could mean for the future is that we become a nation of landed and un-landed citizens, which is ironic given that land ownership has played such a strong part in …