Catherine’s Story

Myself and my husband are from Kilkenny. We bought a house in Dunquin as an investment property during the ‘good times’ We had plenty of interest in the house and shared it with our family and friends for weekends away. However, like many people, since the economic climate has changed we found our Dunquin home becoming more of a burden. With less interest among our friends and family to use it and more pressure from the bank piling on us, we knew we had to do something with the house.

Added to that we had less time to travel down to check on it so I began worrying about whether the house was secure, especially with the terrible winters we have had. On one particular Sunday in January after a long and and icy drive down we realised that we were totally fed up with it.

We thought about selling it but we weren’t sure if there was a market for it. Selling a house when we lived so far away from it would be just as stressful as trying to manage it. And deep down I still loved our Dunquin getaway. It’s a beautiful place where you can truly relax.

We were so lucky one of the locals mentioned Dingle Homes to us. We rang them there and then and they came straight out to the house that day to meet us. We didn’t know when we  would be able to make it back down again and we got very excited at the thought that someone was willing to share the responsibilities with us. They took over the management of the house straight away,

You cannot imagine the relief I felt when two weeks later I met a friend for a drink on Friday evening and got a text from Dingle Homes saying “All is good in your home in Dunquin”. There was no need for me to read the full report. Just knowing that I had someone to check on it for me and tell me everything was fine was enough.

Then in March Dingle Homes surprised me again. They rang me and said straight out “Catherine would you like to make some money from your house?”. I remember laughing and thinking “what kind of a question is that?”. Of course I’d like to see our house working for us, Dingle Homes and their sister company Dingle Holidays took care of the lot. I tell them which weeks I want to use the house myself and they run it as a holiday home rental for the rest of the year. When we arrive down the work is done for us. they even have the beds dressed and the house aired. I get a cheque once a month with the money my house is making for me.

I am delighted that I met the Dingle Home team. They shared the burden with us They are making us money. And best of all, they brought the joy back to our Dunquin escape for us.