FTB going for Repo House

mercmanricky

Hi,

My wife and I have found a repo house in great condition, at a great price.
Have made an offer on it which has been accepted, now the estate agents dealing with the property have informed me that now the offer has been accepted, the agency in possession of the property wants to complete within 28 days.

This has pretty much forced me into using their mortgage advisor and their solicitors.

I'm borrowing £100,000 which is approx 85% LTV and the mortgage broker can get me on a 5 year fixed rate of 5.29%.
He is fee free and independent (however recommended by the EA)
Have met with 4 different brokers, he is the most down to earth, straight talking of the lot.

Their recommended solicitors deal with all the repo properties that come through these EA's and they are also very cheap.

Am i just seeing everything through rose tinted glasses so to speak, or is this truly a good deal?

GMS

Do not be forced in to using the Estate Agent's broker and solicitor.

You are free to choose your own.

Rate quoted is a good rate. Is it Accord Mortgages?

28 days is do-able but needs to have solicitors doing searches etc early on, and the broker keeping on top of the lender to get a mortgage offer asap.

herbiesjp

Be careful of someone else coming along and putting in a higher offer - this happens a lot with Repo sales.

serious_saver

The 28 days is pretty reasonable. We put an offer in for a reposession and were told (prior to putting in an offer) that it would be 28 days if we needed a mortgage but 14 days for a cash buy. If you are happy with the deal then there shouldn't be a problem although there is nothing to stop you from using a different broker.

Of course (our typical bad luck) someone else put in a higher offer and we lost the flat.

mercmanricky

Thanks for the feedback and advice. I have just confirmed with the broker that i want to go with the 2year fixed with nationwide at 4.79% (no fees offset a little cost by the slightly higher rate than other lenders.)

Had to steer away from accord due to my wife being promoted and them apparently wanting at least a month of salary paid in the new position.
The contract is seemingly enough for nationwide. Either way we have been advised that we could potentially borrow up to £176,500, so borrowing £100,000 isn't exactly pushing the boundaries!

We are aware of investors barging in and out bidding us (e-bay style!). We're happy to rush this through, as are all the other parties involved.
At the end of the day it's all a load of paperwork, isn't it?! ;-)

Jackinbox99

I tried to buy a repo property 2 months back and had the same experience. Due to the 28 day completion rule on a repo, the EA`s use that as an excuse to try and suck you into their mortgage broker & their solicitors etc. etc. I already had a mortgage offer prior to making the offer on the property, and solicitors lined up, but the EA tried to tell me the vendor would look more favourable at my offer if I used their own people.

As someone else said, there is a massive risk you will be outbid. Thats what happened to me. I forked out search fee`s, mortgage arrangement fee`s, paid for a full survey on the property, and spent every day chasing the solicitors / mortgage people to ensure things were progressing quickly. Then someone outbid me 1 week from completing. Their offer was about 10k more than mine, so there was no way I could outbid them, so the vendor decided to go with the higher offer.

I obviously lost all the fee`s and money id spent so far in the process, which came to about £1000, and then had to find another house.