When ALANNA GALLAGHERdecided to sell up on Dunville Avenue in Ranelagh, she didn't know that three neighbouring houses were also about to come on the market
EVERYONE thinks their home is special but what happens when you decide to put it on the market and before you even get to show it off, you find for sale signs popping up like mushrooms on your street?
It’s just happened to me. Having spent weeks getting my house in Ranelagh ready to sell, I took a weekend off and came back to find not one but two For Sale signs bookending our house, which has also just gone on the market. One house is right next door, the other is just around the corner.
The panic started as the signs loomed large in the taxi’s front window. I parked my bag and did a quick online check to find out what theyre asking for them and the news wasn’t good.
They were both asking considerably less than the price I had just agreed with my estate agent.
And as if three houses on the same short stretch is not enough, a fourth has popped up for sale on the road, just a bit further along. In this market that’s a lot of competition.
Granted each is offering a very different proposition from doer-uppers to turnkey condition and the selection gives househunters the opportunity to compare and contrast.
Having made a list of the pros and the cons of each of other houses, it was time to raise my game and see if there was still some room for improvement. More scrubbing, more tidying.
After that it was time to view the competion at close quarters. Along with a slew of bargain hunters I trekked through the doer-uppers to see what was to be seen.
Both properties were heaving with prospective owners all peering into every nook and cranny; thirtysomethings with parents in tow, all beginning to realise the scale of the project in hand.
Number six Dunville Avenue is a mid-terrace redbrick within spitting distance of Beechwood Luas stop. It’s asking €350,000 and is laid out in six bedsits and will need considerable work to return it to a family home.
Out front there is off-street parking for two small cars and a back garden that is 55ft long.
Around the corner number 25b Oakley Road is a semi-detached redbrick property that abuts the corner of Dunville Avenue and Oakley Road.
It too is in flats, mainly bedsits; three on the ground floor, three on the first floor and a small two-bedroom flat in the attic. It needs a lot of work. It has an asking price, of €435,000.
Both are for sale through agent DNG but were previously on the market last year with asking prices of €550,000 and €750,000 respectively.
And then the panic started to subside, just a bit. In our house, the hard refurbishment work is all done.
The front exterior is original but the rest of the three-bedroom house was virtually rebuilt 10 years ago.
An open-plan ground floor comprises of a double sittingroom, one stepping down to the other and leading into the eat-in kitchen.
A conservatory out back overlooks a lawned back garden. There are three double bedrooms. The main bedroom is en suite.
Our house measures 126sq m (1,356sq ft) and there is under-floor heating throughout. It has an asking price of €625,000 through Sherry FitzGerald.
But then it was time to view number 60 Dunville Avenue and the panic kicked off again. Remodelled in 2008 and measuring 137sq m (1,475sq ft), the four-bedroom property has interconnecting reception rooms which lead down to a large kitchen/diningroom.
The house has solar panels, a heat exchange system and oak flooring throughout.
There is off-street parking out front and a patio garden out back. It has an asking price of €735, 000, also through agents Sherry FitzGerald.
It is, as Eamon Dumphy says, all to play for so there’s still several more hours of scrubbing to be done before the open viewing on Saturday.
