Home Buyers Guide

Chapter 1: The 10 Steps to Buying Your First Home:

Step 4: Hire a Solicitor

You should appoint a solicitor, as soon as you place a booking deposit on a property.

Once you’ve done that, give the solicitor details to your mortgage broker (or to your bank if you’ve arranged your
mortgage directly) so they can issue your letter of offer and to the estate agent who’s looking after the sale.

Solicitor fees can be quite expensive. Traditionally, solicitors charged a professional fee in the region of 1.0% - 1.5% of the purchase price (plus vat) and legal outlay.

However, some solicitors will now negotiate the rates they charge, so it’s important to shop around. It is not unusual for one solicitor firm to charge thousands of euros less than another.

Choosing a low cost conveyancing service can save you a lot of money.

For example, Moving.ie offer legal fees of €847 + vat and legal outlay through a Dublin based legal firm.

Example:

Paul and Sarah have just agreed to buy a home for €350,000 and have given the estate agent a booking deposit.
They have been quoted conveyancing fees of 1% of the property plus 21.5% vat, amounting to €4252.50
Instead, if they use a low cost conveyancing service (from Moving.ie’s for example) they’d pay €847 plus 21.5%
vat, amounting to €1029.11 – a saving of €3224.39

For more info see: moving.ie/conveyancing

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