Buying houses at auction

[Icy Gull]

I am sure someone out there can help on this.

My son made an offer on a house which was accepted, he was then gazumped and yesterday the estate agent came back to him to say the gazumpers mortgage had fallen through and was he still interested. My son agreed to go through on the basis that his original offer was his maximum price. Estate agent went to the bank ( this is a repossession) who wanted to complete by 03 March but were happy with the offer. This is nigh on impossible so the bank have decided to put the house up for auction on 03 March.

Question is, is it possible or pratical to get a survey done on the house that is up for auction as my son is willing to bid at the auction but is not able to raise the money except on a mortgage, which is gonna assumably gonna require a survey.

Advice or comments from property gurus of NSC please

 

[Uncle C]

You need to be very careful here as the establishment offering the mortgage may well insist on their own survey (which you pay for!).

If you have one done independantly you may in effect be paying for a survey twice.

 

[Franks Wild Years]

Hi there. I bought my first house at auction and it worked out very well. You can/should get a survey before the auction, but remember that if you don't win the auction you will have spent money for no return.
The mortgage company will make him an offer based on their survey of the property so he'll have a definate limit at auction time.
You have to pay (or did when I did it) 10 % when the auction finishes which is non returnable if you then pull out. So he'll have to have that cash sorted before the auction starts
Its a very quick and exiting way to buy a house !! Hope it works out for him.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Good luck if you are going to bid , sounds like the bank want to offload this property so it might achieve less at auction than the original offer.

 

[Icy Gull]

Good luck if you are going to bid , sounds like the bank want to offload this property so it might achieve less at auction than the original offer.

My thoughts exactly, guide price at auction is 350k, he has already offered 380k. Seems daft not to hold on whilst he sorts the mortgage rather than demand completion by 03 March but

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

£350k - is he buying a block of flats ?

 

[Gully]

£350k - is he buying a block of flats ?

...no, Sheffield!

 

[Gully]

Hi there. I bought my first house at auction and it worked out very well. You can/should get a survey before the auction, but remember that if you don't win the auction you will have spent money for no return.
The mortgage company will make him an offer based on their survey of the property so he'll have a definate limit at auction time.
You have to pay (or did when I did it) 10 % when the auction finishes which is non returnable if you then pull out. So he'll have to have that cash sorted before the auction starts
Its a very quick and exiting way to buy a house !! Hope it works out for him.

I also bought my first house following an auction...not during one...but bear with me on this!

I had had an offer accepted on the house and paid my deposit to the estate agent, having already had the survey done and decided that it was the house for me. Imagine my surprise when a couple of days later I walked past the house to see an auctioneers board up, contacted the estate agent to be told that my offer was no longer acceptable and they were going to chance their arm at auction.

I went to the auction and bid on the house, however it didn't reach its reserve...I believe that my bid was only £500 short, but I wouldn't budge. I then went to the auctioneers table and informed them that I had had an offer accepted on the property, the vendor had my deposit and I was willing to proceed with the sale at the previously agreed price (£2k less than I had bid up to during the auction). The auctioneer told me that they would speak with the vendor and get back to me, the following day they phoned up and the house was mine.

This was back in 92 when the property market was pretty much as it is now, although we did have crazily high interest rates...unlike the crazily low ones we have now...the house I bought had been on the market for two years and hadn't sold, having almost halved in value, I guess the vendor just wanted to avoid any further loss.

Good luck at the auction...remember that it is definitely a buyers market and don't get screwed by an auctioneer trying to bump up his commission.

 

[Monty]

Why don't you just give it a go at the £380,000. Their solicitor will have all the paperwork ready from the previous sale. No reason why you cant get your solicitor to look at the paperwork monday and raise any further enquiries if necessary. You can get your mortgage offer in a week (depending on the lender). I would give it a go mate.

 

[Gully]

Why don't you just give it a go at the £380,000. Their solicitor will have all the paperwork ready from the previous sale. No reason why you cant get your solicitor to look at the paperwork monday and raise any further enquiries if necessary. You can get your mortgage offer in a week (depending on the lender). I would give it a go mate.

Naah, bollocks...go to the auction and try what I did and haggle, if the property doesn't reach the reserve...they may be desperate to sell and you could get it for way less than £380k.