Buying & Waiting for Property in West Cork
When buying a property in West Cork, or anywhere in Ireland for that matter, the process involves making a deal, waiting and then closing the sale. I will explain:
When you have agreed a price with the seller (or the “vendor” to give him/her the legally correct title), there follows a period of approximately 2-3 months during which contract & conditions are thoroughly checked by solicitors working on both sides. At the end of this period, there is a closing date, when all remaining monies are transferred and ownership is transferred from the vendor to the purchaser.
This period isn’t terribly long, but for all parties concerned (not least of all, the auctioneer), it usually feels like one of the longest, tension-filled few months that they’ve ever experienced. There is a feeling of disempowerment as the contract and everything else legally associated with the transaction are pored over in fine detail, queried by letter, waited upon for a written response, etc.
So, is there anything that the buyer can do in the meantime to become more reassured? Well, the most important thing, above all else, to ensure not only the successful outcome of the deal but also to reduce one’s stress levels to virtually zero in the meantime, is to COMMUNICATE. I put it in bold letters because it’s such an important point and such a simple point, yet it’s so easy to take for granted. In fact, remembering to ensure to keep open and oiled the lines of communication is even more vital in this day and age of modern means of ultra-efficient communication. The means of communication may be superb, but that only makes people take their eye off the ball, as it were. In other words, communication is taken for granted because communication on an efficient level is always assumed to be taking place. But, conversely, and from my experience, the opposite is true: The more efficient the means, the less responsibility people tend to take to actually communicate. A somewhat philosophical point, I know, but let me clarify the practicalities by giving a very common example. A client, or solicitor, needs a copy of a map. Nowadays, he can have that map almost instantaneously, no matter where in the country he lives, right? Right: all you have to do is scan in the map and email it to him. But, what tends to happen in this scenario is the sender thinks “I’ll do that in about an hour when I’m finished doing these files”. Then, the job gets forgotten about, the person who’s supposed to do it realises that it involves, scanning, re-sizing and emailing (a bit more complicated than simply pressing a button, in other words) and 3 days later the solicitor rings again looking for the map. In the good old days, the urgency of simply copying and putting the map in an envelope would be clear and therefore more likely to be done straight away and the solicitor would have the map the very next day.
This might sound like a frivolous enough example, but you would be surprised just how often such a scenario occurs and the implications can be a delay of several days. Sound communication is the key. If there is a query, it must be asked and it must be answered. These simple steps do get taken for granted, and instead you end up with delays running into days and weeks.
So, keep communicating, know what’s happening and the whole process will be over in no time, the buyer gets the house, the seller gets his money, and the solicitors and auctioneer live happily ever after.
Harringtons – Estate Agents Bantry – 027 51553
Specialising in West Cork Property in Bantry, Glengarriff, Beara, Sheeps Head and surrounding areas
