Bidding on a repossession house? Anyone encountered this before?

bricks_and_mortar_2

cubinacave did you find out how significantly higher the other offer was? what was the price on the public notice?

Milliewilly did your offer get accepted or are they going with the higher offer?

I have tried to buy a repo several times but was always beaten either by sealed bids or offers from cash buyers. I am currently trying to buy a repo which has been on the market for 12 months! the agent told me there have been offers over that time but nothing anywhere near acceptable by the vendor. I put forward a reasonable offer which and agreed a price which was accepted on the basis I would complete within 21 days. The thought of being outbid after paying out for the survey etc does bother me but as there have been no serious offers for the last 12 months I felt comfortable it would go through. I have now paid solicitors fees, survey fee and other fee's coming to around £1,000 and have been called to say another offer has been received by another agent and the vendor wanted me to increase my offer. I was soo annoyed I gave an outright NO! after thinking I guess I should really have said I’ll think about it hence holding things up whilst I move more towards exchange and then said no and used the fact I am days away from exchange to levy in my favour. Oh well I will just have to sit tight now and wait for the vendor to get back to me. Next time I will try and make it a condition of the sale that if they accept another offer they will reimburse my fees.

Doozergirl

bricks_and_mortar wrote: »

Next time I will try and make it a condition of the sale that if they accept another offer they will reimburse my fees.

Wishful thinking, I'm afraid. If you want a good deal then this is the sort of thing you sometimes have to go through. I'm sorry you've had that call - I completed a couple of weeks ago that had been on for 7 months before I offered and it went really smoothly.

To back up that simple NO, you need to remind them just how close you are to exchange as the offer of an even faster exchange will be appealing to them.

AMD1981

I was a day and half away from exchanging and they went with someone else. Considering the previous sale fell through I was shocked. Especially as it was only another £2k. I matched it and they decided they would only go with me if I exchanged on the wednesday (which I was anyway). Part of me thought the estate agent was having me on, turns out my future sister in law found out who had put in the other offer, it was ligit and some one who only an AIP.

All ended happily, I'm about 2 months away from moving in after completely rennovating it

Milliewilly

My offer was rejected in favour of somebody needing a mortgage who put in a 'much higher offer' What that offer is I will never know as the agent won't tell me and they have said because the bank doing the reposession is part of the Halifax group (it's halifax EA) they don't have to advertise the price for 7 days and invite higher offers.

The house was showing sold at the weekend, yesterday it wasn't - I queried with the EA today if the house was availabe again and they said no but the Halifax bank have asked that they don't put sold on until exchange has taken place. As a cash buyer I am not prepared to get into a blind bidding war.

cubinacave

Hi, just an update about the repo house I bid on. The public notice was out yesterday and the accepted bid was £95,855, that is, I was outbid only by £355!! Was tempted to offer 2k more to see what will happen but decided against it. It will be not far from the going rate for houses in this area but being a repo, we can't be sure if there's any major repairs lurking somewhere to be sorted (boiler is the biggest concern). So we'll just let it go. It is quite frustrating that we know there are at least 3 buyers (including us) looking to buy house in this region with similar budget in mind, but there's just not enough houses in the market. Seems that it's more seller's market now.

poppysarah

3 of you looking? How do you know?

Stop looking. Then there's only two and the competition goes down meaning the ratio of houses to buyers is better.
You're right to not overbid on a repo too. Every little helps keeping the prices down

bricks_and_mortar_2

cubinacave, sorry to hear about the situation with the house, I hope you didnt fork out to much on fee's and hope you find another one soon.

I am still waiting for a decision on the one im trying to buy so i guess i`ll just have to wait and see, it's stupid how it works tho. Altho i agree on the principle that the maximum price should be sought for repossesions, their should be a system in place which means no one has to fork out / loose any money untill the deal is finalized and they should only be able to consider other offers if you dont complete within the agreed timescale.

jhe

hi cubinacave. we are in the last process of buying a repo. we were told from the beginning by the estate agent that any offer of £500 or over, the bank in possesion of the house have to be notified.

jhe

hi bricks-and-mortar, we were told that once the sale progresses to the solicitor stage unless a substantially larger offer was put in the bank in possesion were unlikely to accept another offer. its still a worrying time until exchange though. we were given the usual 28 days to complete, it has taken a few weeks longer than this. the vendors seem happy as long as progress can be seen to be made. good luck with yours. after the ups and downs the last couple of months i would seriously think about buying another repo again.everything is on the vendors side they call all the shots.

System

cubinacave wrote: »

Hi, it's my first post here. Kind of nervous. Well, my hubby and I have been house hunting for over 2 months. Initially we made an offer on a house and the offer was accepted. Our mortgage application went through, solicitor in place, then the vendor went bandrupt and house withdrawn from the market. After that, we haven't had much luck in finding the house we like. On Monday last week, a house in the neighbourhood we've been after came on the market at a very attractive asking price. Arranged viewing straight away and got the first appointment on Thursday afternoon. We made an offer on the asking price as soon as we walked out of the house. Then we were told it was a repossession and the EA asked for proof of funding. We handed in our mortgage agreement in principle on Thursday and didn't hear back from the EA since. Today, EA told us that there have been 3 offers put in for the house and I was asked to give my best offer by 4pm tomorrow to be considered.

I can't understand why they set a deadline to put an offer in because in my understanding, on a repo house, anyone can still make an offer before the exchange of contract takes place?

A month ago when I was viewing a repo house that had sales proceeding going on, the EA told me that once the sales proceeding started, the vendor (bank) would only consider an offer that is significantly higher than the existing one to pull out of the sale. I didn't ask how much because I wasn't interested in that house. Now, I'm very concerned to be gazumped once I make an offer to our maximum ability. Anyone knows how significant it has to be? 3K, 5K, 10K?

Any advice or experience on buying repossession house would be greatly appreciated. We've seen over 20 houses in the past 2 months and this is the only one that seems to have everything we want within our price range. We are so nervous and stressed about it now.

Hi we are going through the same process ,we had no idea it was repo when we looked at the house ,it is a house we want for a home.We put in a good cash offer guided by EA 2 weeks ago ,but offer as not been put forward to bank yet ,due to restriction placed on the property . so cannot be sold till restriction is lifted , we are now told 3 other bids are on the table . we are cash buyers able to pay full asking price but have no idea if our offer will be accepted., there should be a better way than this to buy property .when you are prepared to meet asking price .we are very stressed over it .not knowing what is going happen .will we be able to keep uping our offer etc .Reading all these posts as been very helpful knowing we are not the only people who finding the process frustrating and stressful