Auction bargains

amboy

Doozergirl wrote:

Experience has taught me how the market works, how auctions work and how one low sale at auction has no effect on property prices. I've bought and sold auction property and it doesn't affect the estate agent's valuation, the buyer's offer or the surveyor's valuation when sold on. Neither does it affect asking prices in the street. At all. The auction market is a niche market for people prepared to gamble with their cash - if it did have any effect then auction prices and open market sale prices would have evened out a long time ago.

So what would you say the top tips are for buying at auction, I ask as there s soon to be an auction in my area and some of the properties are similar to ones i rent, ie. shared houses. Some being offered already have tenants for the next 12 months. I was wondering also how realistic the guide price was? and does the auction price usually go way above?

thanks in advance

cattie

RHemmings wrote:

I looked on the Barnard Marcus website. I couldn't see much data for today's auction, but I looked through the previous auction. You mentioned flats. I had quite a lot of difficulty finding the properties mentioned in the land registry figures. I did find one, Flat 17, Whitley House, Churchill Gardens, London SW1. If I read the figures on the auction site correctly, it sold for £125,000. Looking up the same property in the land registry figures, it looks like it sold on the 26th of May, 2006, for £202,000.

Can someone check that I have this right? I clicked on "results", and tried a few of the flats until I found one on http://www.nethouseprices.com. The flat I mentioned is the first one where I found a clear match between the two.

£125,000 is an awful lot less than the previous quite recent sale price. Have I got something wrong?

Not only is this a reduction in price justifying the words "house price crash", this is a flat in some building. There are flats in that same "Whitley House" numbered up to 36. And there seem to be a lot of house "Something" House buildings in that street. It must be very annoying to have bought a flat in a building like that and then have somebody come in and buy a flat at much less than you paid.

Churchill Gardens is a council estate, so it's possible the flat was sold previously under the rtb scheme with a discount.

RHemmings

cattie wrote:

Churchill Gardens is a council estate, so it's possible the flat was sold previously under the rtb scheme with a discount.

I looked up some more figures. It seems like a big drop from previous sale price is the rule, rather than the exception. I wouldn't think that all of these properties were council properties sold under the rtb scheme.

AndrewSmith

Barnard Marcus, that name rings a bell

jamesn_2

amboy wrote:

So what would you say the top tips are for buying at auction, I ask as there s soon to be an auction in my area and some of the properties are similar to ones i rent, ie. shared houses. Some being offered already have tenants for the next 12 months. I was wondering also how realistic the guide price was? and does the auction price usually go way above?

thanks in advance

You can make an offer before the auction starts in order to remove the property from sale. In the 12/09 auction I put an offer in on a flat which was guide price £220k. I offered £250k - which was refused. The property sold at auction for £256k.

The problem with auction is that you need to have the cash ready on the day and have done survey and searches beforehand.

James

RHemmings

jamesn wrote:

You can make an offer before the auction starts in order to remove the property from sale. In the 12/09 auction I put an offer in on a flat which was guide price £220k. I offered £250k - which was refused. The property sold at auction for £256k.

Was your offer contingent on the results of a survey?

Doozergirl

jamesn wrote:

You can make an offer before the auction starts in order to remove the property from sale. In the 12/09 auction I put an offer in on a flat which was guide price £220k. I offered £250k - which was refused. The property sold at auction for £256k.

I spoke to one of the viewing agents and they told me about properties which had offers refused before auction which then went on to sell for less than those ofers.

Fair offer £250k though, shame you didn't get it.

Doozergirl

RHemmings wrote:

I don't think that it's a tangent. BTL is a business, and I don't believe that the rent is an irrelevance for all but a tiny fraction of landlords. When you're in business, and if there's an oversupply of your product, then you have to compete. If other people can or have bought the same product as you for a much lower price, then they're going to be able to out-compete you.

And BTL in great big newbuild flats is a classic example of competition, as the flats are often quite similar, and naturally in the same location. So if the flats

tangent: digressing suddenly from one course of action or thought and turning to another.

You're arguing with yourself there, buddy

tonyivb

The house next door to us (30's 3 bed semi with extension & loft conversion to give 5 bedrooms) is in Allsop's auction tomorrow with a guide price of £260k-£280k.

Apparently this is the fifth time this house has been up for auction in the last year! We were surprised to see the agent's board up again as after the last auction a guy came round saying that he got it for £265k

Identical houses (but without the conversion/extension) have recently sold in our street for over £320k, but I'm thinking that the conversion/extension was not done properly (it looks a right mess on the outside), hence the multiple auction entries and substantial discount.

libitina_2

http://forum.globalhousepricecrash.com/index.php?showtopic=8189&st=100&#entry50248

A couple of people at Globalhousepricecrash have very kindly plotted some of the results from the auction.