Repossessed Property Buying: Quick Briefing Discussion

MSE_Jenny

This thread is specifically to discuss the content of the provisional quick briefing:

Repossessed Property Buying

To discuss or ask a question about the briefing: click reply

Ditto

Thanks, seems like all the properties I view these days are repo's..

silvercar

Be very aware that a repo is a sign that not much money would have been spent on maintenance in recent times.

Check values carefully, a repo near me sold for more than a similar house in the same condition on the same road. "Repo" attracts more interest.

johnson293

silvercar wrote: »

Be very aware that a repo is a sign that not much money would have been spent on maintenance in recent times.

Check values carefully, a repo near me sold for more than a similar house in the same condition on the same road. "Repo" attracts more interest.

Not necessarily - it could be that the previous owners lost employment, and fell into recent hardship - not that unlikely in this climate.

As it goes, we viewed two properties - one of which we are waiting to exchange on looked to be in a decent state of repair, nothing major wrong (on the surface) and just needs a bit of redecoration.

Another repo we viewed looked like it had been trashed on leaving - kitchen units removed, pipes that had been chased into walls removed, bathroom cabinets removed, graffitti on bedroom walls, and generally run down.

Both were similar sized/spec properties up for sale with just £10k difference in the listed prices.

We weren't looking for repossessed properties in particular, it just so happened that these two properties which were in the price range, size and areas we were looking were repo's.

So I wouldn't always assume that a repossessed house hasn't been looked after, but you are correct that some may not have been, and may have been damaged by former owners 'on the way out', so it is 'Buyer Beware' and make sure you have a decent look over them and are happy enough before making offers.

g_attrill

There are quite a few for sale in the South/SE right now, I've called enquiring about two properties today listed on rightmove for just a few days and all have been under offer and proceeding - I suspect they were offered to people already on the books and only advertised as routine.

dazco

g_attrill wrote: »

There are quite a few for sale in the South/SE right now, I've called enquiring about two properties today listed on rightmove for just a few days and all have been under offer and proceeding - I suspect they were offered to people already on the books and only advertised as routine.

I am no expert but I seem to recall reading that the marketer of the property is obliged by law to get the best price posssible.

So if you offer more, they should accept it.

johnson293

dazco wrote: »

I am no expert but I seem to recall reading that the marketer of the property is obliged by law to get the best price posssible.

So if you offer more, they should accept it.

Again, from recent experience, reading threads on here and what my mortgage advisor/solicitor have told me, this is down to the bank/repo companies discretion, and a higher offer may not automatically see you jump ahead.

If buyer A has an offer accepted, has a mortgage offer, surveys done, close to exchange, then a higher offer from Buyer B may not always be accepted, unless it is significantly higher. The bank has to make the decision whether to pull out of sale that is proceeding, and may be well down the line with Buyer A to start the whole process again, for more money with Buyer B.

If its a small increase, may not be worth the risk, and they stick with buyer A, but if its more, they may pull out and accept the higher offer, especially if Buyer B is offering cash rather than having to go the mortgage route - but then, buyer B may ultimately be paying higher than its worth anyway.

For what its worth, I was told that while they had to publish the accepted offer in local press, the Estate Agent marketing the repo I am buying 'discouraged' viewings and offers if a sale was already proceeding. If the customer was insistent, then they had to allow them to view and obviously couldn't stop them making offers. If the offer was higher, they had to forward it to the vendor/repo company.

g_attrill

dazco wrote: »

I am no expert but I seem to recall reading that the marketer of the property is obliged by law to get the best price posssible.

So if you offer more, they should accept it.

Apparently it depends on the seller - I think that currently the repo prices are quite strong so they don't need to do the "first to complete wins" process, they are getting enough bids in the 7-day notice to fetch a good price, and can proceed with one buyer knowing they have a good price. OR there could be dodgy dealings going, tricky to prove!

Given that this is a first-time purchase I don't really want to be trying a "hostile takeover" of a sale!

loveandlight

Now that it has been promoted by the MSE site to go buy repo properties at up to 30% and with the massive following this site has, by promoting repo properties in such a focused way, means more demand for these kind of properties will now have been created as the MSE' ers flock to bid on them and it will no longer make it possible for anyone to buy at such a discounted rate, so where's the saving in that? You're more likely to get a better discount making offers through estate agents now.

daleuk_3

A property I have been looking at went to auction and didn’t make the reserve price £62k. So was unsold. They now are accepting offers at the reserve.. could I go in lower? Its a repossession... so would the bank or whomever be happy to recover some money for it..? Thus make an offer 10k under?

jsward60

loveandlight wrote: »

Now that it has been promoted by the MSE site to go buy repo properties at up to 30% and with the massive following this site has, by promoting repo properties in such a focused way, means more demand for these kind of properties will now have been created as the MSE' ers flock to bid on them and it will no longer make it possible for anyone to buy at such a discounted rate, so where's the saving in that? You're more likely to get a better discount making offers through estate agents now.

Along the same lines; it may just be me and my connection but I've found the three websites listed in the article completely unuseable today - can't get a response from any of them. whitehotproperty crashes before displaying the home page and the other two just churn away while trying to do searches.

Perhaps being in Martin's newsletter is the commercial equivalent of being slashdotted (see: urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=slashdotted - sorry, I'm not allowed to post links yet :P)
"On, no. We've been MSE'd..."