Like so many first time buyers, when we went sale agreed we couldn’t contain our excitement. We had trade shows, Pinterest Boards, swatches and samples coming out of our ears! But unfortunately, even sale agreed with two eager parties does not mean a fast turn around. Neither is drawing down a mortgage plus cost for renovation work, even if it seems very straight forward when you get your mortgage in principle letter.
We went sale agreed last April and were very hopeful of receiving our keys by the end of June. We were told that our closing date would be mid July worst case. This came & went. We also had to contend with reapplying for our mortgage mid way through our sale agreed as is had expired, even though we had assumed we would just continue to close the sale as we were so near to drawing down. This is something we never dreamed we would have been asked to do and caused a flurry of emails to get all wage slips, saving & bank account statements & work contracts organised. But we managed this hurdle.
Then came the engineers report advising there was a boundary issue on our property. This needed to be rectified before our solicitor would put through the sale. We also needed an independent report done through a valuation company such as an auctioneer etc as we wanted to draw down more than the asking price – the bank needs to be assured that the extra money will in fact increase the asset. Unfortunately, it is at the banks discretion to organise this & ours got lost in the cross hairs and therefore delayed for a number of weeks.
Just when we thought we were at the finishing line – paperwork in almost in order & ready to drawdown, queue AIB advising any mortgage that wasn’t drawn down by X date we would now be at a much higher interest rate that then one we were promised on paper at the time of reapplication. This was something we hadn’t budgeted for, especially with taking out a mortgage plus costs to do the renovation work needed to make the house our own. Our bank manager pushed and pushed with his HQ in Dublin and by the afternoon of the final day he advised us we were in the clear & the funds would be sent to our solicitor the following Monday.
Finally. Finally! Our auctioneer rang us at the start of August. Keys were waiting to be collected. I don’t think either of us believed it. But we both left work early & met at their offices to collect the keys. We spent most of that evening in our new home plotting out our plan of action & painting swatches in every room of the house. T-minus 6 weeks until our baby was due. Pressure was on!
Studio Moore 