Don’t worry: I’m not about to secretly reveal that my parents gave me a deposit.They did not.A lot of it was circumstance. I’ve lived and worked in Dublin for nine years, and rented in large house shares, which has kept rent down.I’d been saving on and off for a couple of years and the pandemic really allowed me to double down on it.Admittedly, my mortgage journey is quite atypical. I applied for approval in principle, was granted it two days later, and started messaging estate agents. Honestly, a couple of weeks in, it was looking pretty hopeless between a mix of being unable to view houses due to the restrictions and the Wwild West of over-bidding.Everything was quickly jumping thousands out of my price range.But then I saw an ad for a three-bed in Clondalkin that looked like it had a very solid skeleton. I half-heartedly messaged the estate agent to put in a bid and he called me to say the sellers had a specific number in mind. I’d happened to land on it.From there, I went to see the house and it was all plain sailing.Because there was no chain of sale and only one prior owner, I went from approval in principle to sale agreed in two weeks. Fast forward two months and everything was completely done and I was ready to move in.To be honest, it all moved so fast, I was convinced I was going to find a horde of bodies buried under the patio.