Buying a repossessed house

nh

I bought a repossessed property, through an estate agent, in 1999. It cost me £21,500 and it WAS a bargain! It was a two-bed flat.

The market hadn't exploded in my area at that time, though. The flats had been built three years previously and sold for £35,000 when new.

The couple who lived in mine did a midnight flit and I don't consider myself a vulture for buying the property - it had nothing to do with me and not buying the property wouldn't have helped them!

There were no problems, except loads of letters to the previous owner demanding money. I opened all the mail addressed to the former owner (I know that is illegal, but still) and rang all the companies to explain he didn't live there any more.

No bailiffs came round, and then I sold the flat for £38,500 in 2002. Bargain!

frepol

To clarify - the vultures to which I am referring are those who go out of their way to get a house for a third of its worth because the bank or BS want a quick sale...the bank or BS then going after and torturing somebody even further for the balance in the future.

Responsibility for debts is one thing...but we don't always know the reasons why people fall behind - eg somebody gets ill and quelle surprise the insurance that they paid through the nose for doesn't pay out!

burbs_2

if you get to the situation where you are in so much debt that they can actually take your house off you then i dont think that someone would have just fallen ill too be honest with you. I think it would need to be a bit more than that.

as for the people buying them at a cut down price being 'vultures' I actually think that they are sensible money saving types really. The person has already lost their house so it might as well be sold, whats the point in moaning at the person who buys it?

Elliott_Woods

Yes this can happen the whole idea of a 28 day contract to completion is that you have made sure that cleared funds are available for the day of completion.

nh

frepol wrote:

To clarify - the vultures to which I am referring are those who go out of their way to get a house for a third of its worth because the bank or BS want a quick sale...the bank or BS then going after and torturing somebody even further for the balance in the future.

Responsibility for debts is one thing...but we don't always know the reasons why people fall behind - eg somebody gets ill and quelle surprise the insurance that they paid through the nose for doesn't pay out!

But my flat was on the market at £21,500 and they wouldn't accept any lower. It was probably about a third of its market value.

A house round the corner from us now was in the market for £315,000 when the market value is at £450,000 but that is the vendor (repossessor) that is putting it on at that price, and probably because at full market value it probably wouldn't sell as it is not furnished and there are the issues surrounding repossessed properties involved too.

chardonnay_2

we bought a repo at auction. we got it for a good price but it did need a lot of work previous tenants had not maintained the house well at all. we do intend to do it up and sell it on. i don't think we are vultures for doing so. just be careful if you intend to go to auction, set a price and stick to it. also be ready for the sellers to want the money sooner, our completion date changed to 10 days!

samw_3

I bought a repo 6 years ago.
I did have visits from baliffs but there was never any trouble. I always had my completion letter to hand.
I also had to deal with a large number of demands letter which was a pain - phones, utilities etc. In hte end though the cheap price I got it for and hte profit I made when I sold it was worth all the hassle.
I never had any problems getting credit myself at that address.