Mortgage for auction - help

Jorgan_2

I'm currently in South Wales but spent ten years in working in Berkshire, so I appreciate what you are saying about high prices. Maryjane is right, many people are looking to auctions to bag a bargain, they push the prices up to near open market prices.

You need to research an area, know as well as an EA that works in that area, so that when you see a property being advertised, you know if the price is right or not. Try thinking a little differently as well, do you have to by the family home as the first purchase, can you not work your way up the ladder, buying a smaller property, do some work on it & sell it on for a profit. Make sure you don't pay too much initially for it though.

byaru

Jorgan, as ever thanks for the tips and advice. Very well put and i have realised i am not alone out there. Property programmes like Property Ladder make things look easy. Seeing people buy 'bargains' and then sell off for a profit is quite tempting. I shall do my research well. Its just with prices high on the market, i am trying to research all options. How do BMV properties compare? I have only read about these on this forum and any advice highly appreciated.

byaru

Mary,
Thanks. I do agree with you. I have not been to auction before and thats why i am doing thorough research before i plunge my head in. How many auctions have you tried? Are you going to keep trying? Have you thought about BMV properties?
I agree with you, London is becoming harder and harder with time. Seems like in future people will be stuck renting. I pray things change for the better with time...... if this will happen!!. I shall give it a try and see what happens. As for your property at auction, what happened? By how much was the price higher than your limit? If you dont mind, keep me in the loop.
Many thanks.

stphnstevey

Its amazing how more questions come up about buying at auction when the new series of Property Ladder starts............:rotfl:

maryjane01

Hi, the property went for 30,000 over our limit. We thought the property would be worth 310,000 (maybe a bit more, 320,000 perhaps) if it were a property ready to live in. It was a wreck inside, no kitchen, no central heating, needed the roof repaired. We roughly thought it would cost 30,000 to do up, and we set ourselves a budget of 270,000 at auction. It went for 299,000.

I am looking at the whole market for properties now. Auctions are a hassle because you have to have the 10% deposit ready to go on the day and settlement times are very rigid, plus there is always the chance your lender after surveying the property will not want to lend on it. We hired a surveyor to walk round during an open for inspection, so not a proper survey wherby we could go back and sue them if they mised something. This cost us about 160. You could do the full survey beforehand which is what people always recommend, but we knew there was a good chance we would not get it and didn't want to proced that far with a surveyor and our lender before the auction. We made the right choice in the end not geting the full survey but it is a gamble either way.

I wouldn't rule out an auction again, but I am going to stick with going to local EA's for now because I honestly believe there are no bargains at auction in London for the type of property I want (ie. a normal house or flat, not a high rise council estate).

(sorry I do not have a pound sign on my keyboard as it is from abroad).

MaryJane

byaru

I totally agree with you. Imagine if you had spent the money on a full survey and then ended up not getting it!! (this puts me off from auctions) but watching programmes like Property Ladder and Home Under The Hammer and seeing people getting 'easy money' looks easy but in reality it is not. Yeah, properties at auction tend to have outdated kitchens and bathrooms or none at all. This would not be a problem if you got the house at a 'bargain' because you can easily take advantage of the sales out there especially with many companies competing and wanting to get rid of the old stock. What area of London was the house? I am also looking for a 3 bedroom house and i shall monitor the market and see what happens. It is at times like these that i wish prices were at their lowest. I shall keep my options open but will also try EAs as there are so many properties out there.
Good luck and if you dont mind, let me know how you get along.