Advice on buying repossessed flat

LYT_2

Hello
Anyone has an advice on buying a repossessed home? The flat has already had an offer accepted but we were told that we can outbid the offer until contracts are exchanged. Is this correct? Also, do you think it is possible to negociate with the bank? ie: offer some cash so that they take our offer and take the flat off the market? We were told that as it is a repossessed home, it needs to stay advertised until the contracts are exchange. Correct?
Anyway, any advice would be very much appreciated as we really want this place!
Thanks

PasturesNew

LYT wrote: »

Hello
Anyone has an advice on buying a repossessed home? The flat has already had an offer accepted but we were told that we can outbid the offer until contracts are exchanged. Is this correct?

Yes, but it could also happen to you if the other guy (or a new guy) offers more.

LYT wrote: »

Also, do you think it is possible to negociate with the bank? ie: offer some cash so that they take our offer and take the flat off the market? We were told that as it is a repossessed home, it needs to stay advertised until the contracts are exchange. Correct?

They won't take it off the market. They have a duty to get the best price/soonest and there are no deals to be cut. You make your offer/price, as do others, they choose the best offer/price and until exchange anybody could trump an offer.... although the bank may decide to stick with the original person because they believe they stand the greatest chance/least risk of it all going through smoothly.

Buying a repossession isn't the same as buying other properties because the bank has a duty to the seller to do their best for them. This means choosing the buyer they think will proceed to complation at the best price.... which might not always be "the most".

tabskitten

I bought a repo ad got it for a good price as i put the offer in just before Christmas and do not think anyone noticed in the month that it was under offer for.

mazz1953

My daughter bought a repo about two years for almost £100k, less than the previous owner paid for it. When she made the offer, we were quite anxious as a developer had made a lower offer and she did not want to enter into a bidding war. The estate agent told us that while he was not allowed to take the house off the market, he would not make the details available to anyone else while the bank was considering her offer and he kept to his word. Once her offer was accepted, she had a month to exchange the contract and complete the sale.

dubsey

Not posted here in - forever ! Joys of full time work. I now work for an estate agent, not selling but I deal with the solicitors and other agents and let the sellers and buyers know what is happening and try to hold the chain together to get to an exchange.

With a repo it will have to stay on the market and we have to send certain reports weekly to the repo company, which they pass on to the lender. This includes copies of ads, public notices and a viewing log. Whilst it is true we try not to actively encourage people to view, we need to be very very careful as the repo company 'mystery shop' us to check our reaction if they ask to view. They usually call once a week for an update and to check if we have mailed out the property.

The repo company will never take the propery off the market - even if any hold up is their end and most of the time they will not re-negotiate the price due to adverse surveys etc.

Timescales set by them can be anything from 7 days from offer to exchange for cash buyers to a maximum of 28 days for a mortgage buyer. Aside from staying on the market (often with several agents) another caveat is that they will usually refuse to answer any enquiries your solicitor raises, so if you have any questions about the property - tough, in a nutshell. They didn't live there so they won't be able to answer them. If you are a cash buyer this is not normally a problem, but if there is a lender involved we can run into delays simply because we need the lender to confirm they will be happy to release funds based on the little info we get.