How do you find repossessed homes to buy

planning303

I've posted this before in a similar thread but look in the pictures on rightmove or wherever and if they have internal images look at the kitchen and bathroom.

there will be tape over the kitchen appliances / tapes / boiler / toilet / sink

But remember if you are trying to get a good deal and manage to get a cheeky offer accepted, it will go in the paper and you might find a developer offers 500£ more and they then get the house.

If you've already paid up for surveys by this point (which you will have in order to hit the 28 day completion that repossess demand) you'll loss your money.

Recently our local agencies have started putting repos on rightmove with similar wording to this,

"we are in receipt of an offer of 68K for 69 wherever st, if you would like to make an offer of 70K you have until x date"

Milliewilly

liggins wrote: »

I've posted this before in a similar thread but look in the pictures on rightmove or wherever and if they have internal images look at the kitchen and bathroom.

there will be tape over the kitchen appliances / tapes / boiler / toilet / sink

But remember if you are trying to get a good deal and manage to get a cheeky offer accepted, it will go in the paper and you might find a developer offers 500£ more and they then get the house.

If you've already paid up for surveys by this point (which you will have in order to hit the 28 day completion that repossess demand) you'll loss your money.

Recently our local agencies have started putting repos on rightmove with similar wording to this,

"we are in receipt of an offer of 68K for 69 wherever st, if you would like to make an offer of 70K you have until x date"

They dont always advertise the offer price on repos. Some you may never even know unless you see the obvious tape on the radiators etc and the notice in the window.

planning303

Sorry i was making 2 seperate points (but can see it wasn't totally clear).

The bit about advertising the price was more a warning that being mugged out of a repo by a higher offer after paying out fees is common place with repos.

Especially as now they dont just put it in the local paper once the offer is in but are also putting it on rightmove with the exact amount needed to get the property.

I would be upset if i had got an offer accpeted at 68 to have then paid out a grand in surveys and solicitor charges just to be told. sorry mr x has offered 70K would you like to up your offer.

the EA has to be seen to be doing everything within its powers to get the highest price possible for the finance company that have taken possession of the home

jharper

For repossessions there are some options:

ChainFree.com, MustbeSold.com, Whitehotproperty.co.uk, and Globrix "no chain"

Alternatively if it is good value u r after, propertysnake and Mouseprice.com allow you to search by days on market and the percentage discount to original asking price.

Hope that helps.

alicia001

A lot of repossessed property does seem to be sold through the auction houses. if you go to futureauctions.co.uk you can see all the auction dates in 12 regions in the UK for the next few months and they show all the on line catalogues for free. Some of the catalogues will have a viewing schedule where the auctioneers will set times to open up the properties for prospective buyers to look around - this is especially so with repossessions which are often empty.

David_Lawrenson

Some property buyers think that repossessions only come up at auction. But this is not true.
Before they show up at auction, repossessed houses and flats first go to an estate agent who handles repossessed stock for the banks and building societies.
At the estate agent the repossessed property will be marketed alongside other properties though, in most cases, the estate agent will not tell a prospective buyer a particular property has been repossessed, though they often will if you push hard enough (the abandoned state of these properties tends to give the history away anyway!)
For repossessed stock sold through an estate agent, if you are a credible buyer the “28 days to exchange” limit can sometimes be extended.
So, if need a mortgage to buy repossessed stock, it is often better if you buy repossessions through the estate agent for the simple reason that most lenders cannot be relied upon to confirm a mortgage offer within the 28 days you are required to complete in once the hammer goes down at an auction.
The slowness of most mortgage lenders’ approval processes means people buying at auction and relying on mortgage financing often find they end up having to take out an expensive bridging loan too – because the mortgage money is simply not ready to draw down in time.

Most estate agents don’t handle repossessions at all – and one reason they don’t is because the commissions they get for doing so are not high and the work can be fiddly and the sale protracted.
Also, lenders, for reasons of economies of scale, tend to only use selected agents who are part of big chains – though not every big chain does the work.


One other feature is that the repossessing bank is obliged to get the very best price it can for the property it repossessed, (though considerations of buyer credibility and ability to meet deadlines may also be taken into account.)


This means the agent marketing the property has to market the property right up to exchange of contracts.
So, if you put in an offer, even if it is accepted by the bank in possession, the property will continue to be marketed by the estate agent. In reality though what usually happens is quite different.
Estate agents who handle repossessions have told me that whilst they have to keep a property marketed on their website and - as required by the lender – stick a notice of offer in the local press, the fact is that once they have found a credible buyer who has had an offer accepted, they are often hoping no one else sees the notice or tries to enter the fray with a higher offer.


The bottom line is the low commission rates the lenders pay agents to handle repossessions.
Of course, this all means that if a person buys a repossessed property via an estate agent they can get gazumped by someone else right up to the day of exchange. It happens, but in my experience it does not happen that often and the gazumping experience is the exception rather than the norm in weak property markets like we have now.
But it is still a risk and is one reason why some people prefer the certainty of auctions where the highest bid when the gavel comes down is the one that gets the property.




I think property buyers – especially non-cash buyers – should always find out which estate agents locally handle the repossessed houses and, despite the gazumping risks, they should try to get in there before the property goes to auction.

Lenders in possession won’t accept really low ball offers, but you can often get away with offers 10% or more below the asking price -and you’ll probably be more able to finance it with a mortgage and without recourse to a bridging loan than you would if you are buying at the auction room.
If you do buy a repossessed property, make sure the locks have already been changed by whoever repossessed it after the previous occupants moved out. If in doubt, make sure to get new locks put in as soon as you complete.
With repossessed properties the previous owner will nearly always have a lot of debts. So get some labels stating, “Previous owner has gone away and their new address is not known” and stick this on the previous occupant’s post and debt collection notices and return them straight back to the sender.
We wrote more on this over at our LettingFocus blog.

Hope it helps clear up the fog on this issue.


Ps One last word to the wise - there is no such thing as secret repossesion lists. Lenders repossessing homes have to be very open and try to get the highest price they can. So anyone touting a "secret list" is best avoided.

RuthnJasper

poppysarah wrote: »

rightmove. look for the bits of paper in the window. and taped over bogs etc.

This is probably a very stupid question - but why do they tape up the loo?

poppysarah

RuthnJasper wrote: »

This is probably a very stupid question - but why do they tape up the loo?

Cos they turn off the water as part of the make safe thing. And they don't want anyone using a loo without being able to flush.


I assume.

pottski

You can usually find repo's with estate agents via right move etc. I bought a flat that was a repo and can see many others for sale in my area. As mentioned previously they are usually advertised as vacant possession but advertising costs are kept to a minimum so you'll see 1-3 pictures and no floorplan

Doozergirl

poppysarah wrote: »

Cos they turn off the water as part of the make safe thing. And they don't want anyone using a loo without being able to flush.


I assume.

It would stink to high heaven!