Finding Probate Property To Buy

moneyistooshorttomention

Gwendo40 wrote: »

In my experience probate vendors are amongst the most greedy, stubborn and intransigent of all sellers.

Well mine was a probate sale. He certainly had the "light of greed" there clearly showing in his eyes.

He didn't need the money afaik - but he'd certainly mentally spent it already.

I very much doubt if I got it below market value - as I'd been studying similar properties online for months in this area and could have said literally to the penny what I would have had to pay for it (and I would have been correct - as that's exactly what I landed up paying for it literally to the penny).

compoCase

genau wrote: »

Troll post if ever I saw one. Yawn

No, that's not the case. I don't believe anything I posted could be interpreted as an attempt to sow discord on the Internet by starting quarrels or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages.

compoCase

Tom99 wrote: »

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]There is no reason to suppose that probate sellers are desperate to sell and will sell cheaply.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Generally there is no onward purchase so no desperate need to sell by a certain date, they can afford to take their time rather then accepting the 1st offer to come along.[/FONT]

In my experience, I have known executors to be keen to sell quicker than your normal seller because they are under pressure from the beneficiaries to realise the asset as soon as possible and pass them their share of the proceeds. Also, there are costs and security concerns when leaving the house empty and on the market for long periods of time, which may not be the case when a house is sold normally.

It's also a fact that a lot of these properties are in need of modernisation and simply don't appeal to some buyers so will not achieve the same price as others in the road.

compoCase

eddddy wrote: »

How do you mean you bought them at below market value?

Do you mean that you bought them for less than other people were offering for them?

(Because if they were for sale on the open market, and you bought them because you made the highest offer - that would pretty-much be an exact definition of buying at the market value - and not below market value.)

The price I paid was considerably less than other comparable houses on the same road sold for in the last year and less than what other houses sold for after.

For me that is money saving, I could have bought an almost identical house for more but managed to get it for less. There may have been other offers, perhaps higher but mine was accepted, maybe I was the first to offer, maybe my offer terms were more favourable maybe they just wanted a quick sale.

compoCase

Maybe there are plenty of other "quick-sale" bargains (repos, or simply very motivated sellers) which you'll miss out on because you're fixated on one particular route to market.[/QUOTE]

Yes, I'm on the look out for those too. With repos there tends to be a list of them for an area or postcode that you can buy. My original question is does such a thing exist for probate property for sale?

buggy_boy

I have bought a property after probate, the advantage is when there is multiple people with an interest in the property it reduces the amount each person takes a hit. So if the house is left to 5 children, if you offer £10k under the value thats only £2k each so they can often be more willing to accept especially if you are a BTL so there is no chain, of course the flip side to this is all 5 need to accept, if one rejects it can be a difficult situation.

Often but not always the properties are in a poor state of repair, where I have made my money is knowing trades people and getting things done cheaper because of the volume of work I give the trades people and I have trade cards which can massively reduce the cost of materials, I also do a lot myself.

The biggest advantage I find is the work clearly needs doing and the price is reduced, the worst houses I look at are when kitchens/bathrooms are quite dated but serviceable, the sellers think its alright but in reality it needs changing but the seller wants full asking price because they need the money to buy their next house. Probate properties the sellers are usually a bit more realistic and pragmatic as they don't have the same emotional attachment.

Surrey_EA

compoCase wrote: »

It's also a fact that a lot of these properties are in need of modernisation and simply don't appeal to some buyers so will not achieve the same price as others in the road.

I tend to find that properties requiring modernisation are the ones highest in demand.

buggy_boy

compoCase wrote: »

Maybe there are plenty of other "quick-sale" bargains (repos, or simply very motivated sellers) which you'll miss out on because you're fixated on one particular route to market.

Yes, I'm on the look out for those too. With repos there tends to be a list of them for an area or postcode that you can buy. My original question is does such a thing exist for probate property for sale?

Simple answer...... NO

compoCase

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Well mine was a probate sale. He certainly had the "light of greed" there clearly showing in his eyes.

He didn't need the money afaik - but he'd certainly mentally spent it already.

I very much doubt if I got it below market value - as I'd been studying similar properties online for months in this area and could have said literally to the penny what I would have had to pay for it (and I would have been correct - as that's exactly what I landed up paying for it literally to the penny).

Same here with regards to the studying property prices online.

I know the area I want to move to and how much it should cost so now I'm looking for money saving ways to ge it at a lower price.

Margot123

Ever thought of going to an auction?

All done and dusted inside a month. Probate sales can drag on for 6 months or more while paperwork is being sorted and beneficiaries argue over the bunce.
And goodness help you if there's a solicitor acting as executor!