This is the IrishHomeTruths.com no nonsense guide to buying your own home. It covers everything from the pros and cons of ownership, finding a suitable home, arranging financing, and details about the various government schemes available to you.

The Great Debate
The national obsession with property during the "Celtic Tiger" era has been something to behold. Everybody has been dragged into the debate in some form.

Some were scared into thinking that they might never be able to afford a house if they didn't buy NOW. Others saw easy riches in just being "on the property ladder".

Some were quite happy renting, but for the looks of pity from friends and the nagging about "dead money" from family.

And then there were those who were born early enough to already own a house or even a few houses before the madness kicked off. These people watched their wealth increasing day by day.

It all led to a situation where the question wasn't "Do you want to buy?" but rather "Have you bought yet?". It was no fun being the person who felt that property represented bad value or too much risk.

All has changed, changed utterly. Today the inevitable unwinding of the property bubble is well on it's way. The new great national questions are "How low can prices go?" and "How long before prices recover?".

In this context buyers at last have the luxury of thinking through the decision to buy a house. Fear of missing out no longer forces buyers to act first and ask questions later.

That said, even now the old tactic of rushing people and scaring people is still in use. It's not unusual to hear the new variation...'oh! house prices might be falling, but if you don't buy now you won't be able to get a mortgage'.

This tactic is bunk, just like all the scare tactics that went before it.

This buyers guide will present the basic questions, answers and issues that all buyers should have been thinking about all along.

There are no complicated mathematical formulae, no tugging at emotional strings like fear and greed.

The purpose of these guides is not to convince you to follow a particular course, rather it is designed to arm you with enough information to make your own decisions.

In the interests of full disclosure, we at IrishHomeTruths were firmly in the camp that believed that there was an unsustainable property bubble in Ireland from about 2001 onwards.

We will endeavour to be objective in these guides, but as you read you may want to allow for an element of bias.

Most importantly always check what you are told. Read opposing views, come to your own conclusions.