Home, sweet, home
Janine and Gerard Nowlan share their home-buying story
With rent prices rising and a new baby on the way, Janine and Gerard Nowlan knew the time was right to get onto the property ladder. Here, they tell their story to Clodagh Dooley
“A couple of years ago, myself and my now husband, Gerard, were renting an apartment in Dublin,” says Janine Nowlan. “Soon after, I became pregnant with our son, Jesse, and around the same time, the price of rent skyrocketed to about €1,700. We had no choice but to move in with Gerard’s parents to both raise our child and save enough money for our own place.”
Janine (31) and Gerard (33) met over 14 years ago and their story is a very interesting one. After being set up by friends in their late teenage years, both Janine and Gerard decided to move to the UK in 2012. Gerard was studying Sports and Exercise Sciences in the University of Chester, while Janine was working in the legal industry.
“In 2015, we planned a trip to Las Vegas with our friends,” says Gerard. “It was during our 10th anniversary, and it was for this reason, that we took the plunge and decided to elope. We just thought, ‘why wait?’ I was probably one of the only crazy people to get married when I was still in college, but it was the best decision we ever made!
“A year later, job opportunities brought us back to Ireland, so we started renting an apartment together in Dublin. I began a new job at Sport Ireland, which directs the development of sport within Ireland, and I’m still there today. Meanwhile, Janine began working as a legal secretary.
“Then, Jesse came along! So, we started really thinking about getting on the property ladder.”
MAKING A MOVE
With childcare costs to consider when Janine went back to work, along with the increase of rent prices, the couple had no choice but to move in with Gerard’s parents.
“We thought we had a good bit of savings, but when we started looking at houses, we realised that we would need to sacrifice more and be careful with what we were spending,” says Janine. “Even though the rent price was high, we were earning just enough money to pay it, which also shows we would be able to make mortgage repayments in the future. It was mainly having the cash for the deposit, that required us to move in with Gerard’s parents and save hard to get the money together.”
Gerard says, “It was a difficult couple of years, being back with my parents. We were very grateful for their generosity, but it is hard moving home in your 20s after becoming newlyweds, with a new baby, starting our own family.”
“We had it very good there, but you do miss your own space, and I’m sure that Gerard’s parents missed their own space too!” laughs Janine.
However, Gerard advises anyone in the same position not to feel discouraged about moving back in with parents until enough money has been saved.
“A lot of my friends have done it too. Even Janine’s sister is living in her parents’ house at the moment, but she has it a little worse than us. Because there is less space in Janine’s parents’ house, her partner has to live in his own parent’s house, so they’re apart from each other. Whatever your situation, it will all be worth it in the end when you have the key to your new home in your hand.” SWITCHING IT UP When it came to searching for a suitable mortgage provider, KBC Bank came out on top for Janine and Gerard, even though they were not existing customers.
“We were both long-term customers of different banks, but Gerard did some research into the rates and benefits that other banks were offering,” explains Janine. “KBC Bank appealed to us the most, even with little things, such as being open during convenient hours and receiving calls back a lot quicker. There was always someone at the end of the phone to answer questions, and they reassured us that no question is silly.
“After living in the UK and getting used to not having any bank charges to pay over there, it was difficult coming home to pay expensive bank charges every quarter on a joint account and two current accounts. We noticed with KBC’s Extra Current Account that as long as you lodge €2,500 every month into your account, there would be no quarterly maintenance fees which was welcome. In hindsight, it would only be a small amount that you are paying every month toward bank charges. But when it is two separate accounts, it’s a bit of a blow seeing this money being taken, especially when trying to save.”
Janine and Gerard visited KBC’s Blanchardstown Hub and Janine says making the switch over to the bank was easy.
“It was the part I was a bit apprehensive about – I was even considering keeping my accounts with the other banks because I thought it would be a hassle changing years of direct debits, standing orders and bank cards set up with other online accounts. But the process ended up being straight forward.”
Their first mortgage appointment went just as smoothly, says the couple.
“I was surprised by how easy the process was. I was expecting to be very overwhelmed, but they detailed exactly what we needed to do over the next week and what documents we needed in order to apply for the mortgage.
“Applying for our mortgage with KBC was actually the easy part. Decorating the house turned out to be the part causing me a headache!” laughs Gerard.
“But it can be a fun part too!” says Janine. “We also initially worried about if we would qualify for a mortgage, based on our bank statements. I had heard from friends who bought houses that you need to have identical savings every month, for example.
“When I went into KBC Bank, I told the mortgage team I was a bit notorious for using the tapping system on my bank card, as opposed to carrying cash. I was worried that all the coffee transactions and other personal transactions would be taken into consideration. Luckily, they laughed and told me not to worry. They said that as long as I wasn’t taking out lump sums of cash each month, which wasn’t being spent inappropriately, that we should be fine. They said that it is nice to be able to see that we enjoy our lives reasonably.
“We even went on our first holiday as a family in the month before we got our mortgage,” says Gerard. “We were initially thinking about not going because we thought we couldn’t have such a large expense coming out of our bank account, before we applied for a mortgage. The bank looks at your statements over an average of six months, so if you do have one month where something like a holiday comes up, that’s absolutely fine. We would have been kicking ourselves if we hadn’t booked the holiday and then found that out!” OVERCOMING BARRIERS Janine and Gerard had two different houses in mind when they were searching for their dream home. When choosing their house, it was with the intention of finding a place they could comfortably settle in long-term and a place where their son would be happy growing up.
“As soon as we had our son, our priorities changed in relation to what we were looking for,” says Janine. “In terms of location, we wanted to have a school nearby and a safe area for him to play outside in. We
found the perfect semi-detached home in a private estate in Clonee, which has a large green area out front and is approximately a 20-minute commute to our jobs.”
Although they had found the perfect home, unfortunately for Janine and Gerard, the road to securing the key wasn’t as perfect.
“We got locked into a bidding war with the house we wanted,” says Gerard. “It went up €40,000 within two weeks. When we called KBC Bank to explain that this was the house for us and to query if they could lend us more, they went above and beyond to see what was possible, taking our financial circumstances into account. They re-assessed our paperwork and they were able to see that we had continuously paid our rent, saved a substantial amount every month and paid childcare, so we could afford it. That was a huge relief.”
Once the couple overcame that barrier, however, they were faced with another – the house was in probate. When someone dies, their property immediately passes into the hands of the executor’s. For their property to be divided according to their wishes, the executor of their estate must apply to the Probate office to take out a grant of Probate in order to administer their estate.
“We got our Approval in Principle in July and the sale was agreed on the house in August 2018,” says Gerard. “But we only got the keys in the second week of January 2019. It was dragged out a bit, but at the same time we felt confident that everything was okay, and nothing was going to fall through. This was because David in KBC’s Blanchardstown Hub was doing everything he could to help.
“We were also fortunate enough in the fact that we were still living with my parents, so it allowed us to save more money for when we eventually moved in and started doing work to the house. We look at it now as a positive factor, but at the time it was an agonising wait.”
ONWARDS AND UPWARDS
Janine and Gerard are looking forward to the months and years ahead in their new home.
“I’ll admit, once we had the keys to the house, we actually started panicking a little because it seemed like such a long time since we had last viewed it. We started to forget what it looked like inside!” says Janine. “Because our house had been rented beforehand, we started questioning what we were getting ourselves into! Now that we are living in it, it’s funny how quickly it has become our own.
“We are currently renovating the house and we eventually would like to extend our kitchen, but we are delighted to finally have our home. We can’t wait until it is all complete, it’s very exciting.”
Gerard adds, “We feel very lucky to have had such a pleasant experience with KBC Bank, especially when we came across some challenges along our home-buying journey. KBC didn’t overcomplicate things and really helped us to understand everything about mortgages in a simple language. We found that very helpful, being first-timers on the property market.”