Buying a repossession

sarkin1

Me and the misses are looking to buy a repossession has anyone any tips and advice.

sarkin1

Bump

was hoping someone had experience of buying a repossession and could shed some light on the buying process

sonastin

The vendors will set a deadline - usually 28 days - to exchange. Make sure you get a good solicitor who knows you need to move quickly. Your offer will probably be advertised to see if anyone wants to put in a higher offer. Be ready to exchange quickly and you'll secure the house.

Search this forum because there's loads of tips and advice on buying repossessions.

Be patient. No need to bump within an hour.

G_M

There are many threads on this topic. Put 'repossession' in the search box at the top right.

Running_Horse

Why do you want the hassle and risk of buying a repossession? Why not just look for a normal bargain? How much extra would you pay for a repossession?

Richard_Webster

More important than with normal purchases to talk to neighbours - both about the house and also about the other neighbours as the seller mortgage lender won't know anything.

Moomum

Be aware that you can get gazumped at any time, we were gazumped just before exchange. Was the most stressful time ever

smellymel74

i have a little experience of this and have done some searching as i was in the same position as you.

1. basically, with a repossession the asset management company who's probably selling the property to recoup their money wants it turned around quickly so there's usually a 28 day turnaround on the purchase. in my case this was 28 working days between the offer being accepted and exchange of contracts, but i'd advise you to check the arranged exchange and completion dates with your solicitor.

2. as someone else mentioned, get a good solicitor, preferably someone who has worked on a repossessed property before, as they'll know how important it is to get things moving quickly, and get them to start tsome of the searches that take a little longer right away - again a good solicitor who's worked on a repossession before will know this. also, get a solicitor as quickly as possible after the offer has been accepted to avoid wasting any more time. depending on your mortgage lender, you may also need to check your solicitor is registered with them - if they're not it could take a few days extra to get them registered (not a deal breaker necessarily but possibly an additional delay).

3. get your mortgage sorted as quickly as possible. i used a broker and they were great - the application was done over the phone and i only had to send a pay slip via snail mail. also when you've had the mortgage accepted in pronciple, ask your lender when they will do a valuation survey. it's usually within 5 days but get onto this as quickly as possible as your mortgage can't be formally apporved until the lender has valued it to see that they're not lending you more money than it's worth.

4. as someone else mentioned, be aware that the fact an offer has been accepted on the property will be advised in the local paper to stimulate counter offers. estate agents have to do this as when buying a reposession the asset management company (seller) must get the best price they can. adverts usually go out just after the offer has been accepted AND just before completion - this means you could well be gazumped (so don't put in your top offer right away) and you could still lose the house just before completion if someone offers more than you are able to. as well as the extra stress and uncertainty that this can cause, it also means you could end up losing money you've paid out (for mortgage arrangement fees, surveys and searches).

5. finally, keep in contact with the estate agent. let them know what stage you're at to show you're keen and doing everything you can to speed up the process. in the end, it's not their fault if someone gazumps you and you can't better that offer, but if you have them on your side and show them that you're a good option, they'll do what they can to help.

hope that helps

Cherrytree

As first time buyers we bought a repossession.. It was quite a tense experience. Our mortgage application went through to the senior underwriters as I was self-employed at the time.. Luckily I had a good accountant.

Our only regret was not offering them a lot less to begin with. Twice refused our offer of the same figure, so we offered them £500 more, to be cheeky which they accepted??!!!.. still managed to take 22,000 off the asking price though. That bits quite tense too, waiting for any other offers to potentially come through.

They did also give us a bit of leeway on the 28 day rule they seem to work to, as they knew we were too close to start again.

Good luck with it, luckily we are both competent DIYers and my hubbie is a professional plumber and has worked as a builder previously, so all the little horrors we found after we moved in were easily rectified. We've not regretted it yet.

Cautionary note though: not sure if it's the same in all repo's but they had unscrewed the top off the emersion heater, causing water to pour out of the top 15 -30 mins after we had turned the water back on.

We also had no electric for two weeks and ran our lighting board through a generator just so we could get things into some sort of order before we moved in. We got in two weeks before Xmas..

sarkin1

thanks everyone, estate agent just phoned another buyer has offered full asking price. so thats us out

LisaB1970

We just bought a repo, and it was stressful but soooooo worth it.

It took 2 weeks from the survey to completetion and we got it for £60K less than it was bought for 2 years ago.

Be wary of the EA telling you someone has offered asking price or more than you as this could be a way of them getting you to up your offer, then the other buyer mysteriously pulls out..... I woudl say go for it if you find the right house, just be prepared for a bit of stress till you complete!