Should I have suspicions about buying this home?

somerandomusername

ReadySteadyPop said:

jonnydeppiwish! said:

Auction prices normally start very low to entice bidding, but then most have a reservation them. If not met, it doesn’t sell.

looks like you’ve done your research - if you like the house (I have sloping ceilings in a chalet bungalow and they’re fine!), then go for it but I’d go in with an offer of around £163k and begrudgingly go up to £168-£169.
youre not going to lose anything with an offer like that.
if you’re feeling really cheeky, £155k

What are you basing your numbers on? It has already failed to sell at 140k.

I think the user means when a property is listed at auction, the starting bid was £140,000 but the sellers have a hidden reserve price, maybe it was £165,000 or £170,000, and because nobody bid that high, the property did not sell at all.

mlz1413

Sounds like this property has has been advertised too high to me.

Previous owners may have put it up for sale for what they wanted it to sell for so they can move on (ie clear debts).

Also home owners and renters alike  do weird things with their money. IE new kitchen,  carpet, bathrooms because they want to, rather than because it is sensible. 

This unique house sounds like it had an unmarried couple lived in it (different surnames), initially had money (both had jobs maybe).  Then after an unwise kitchen upgrade they have sold up ( lost a job / split up arguing over money etc).

So now it is for sale and you can reap the benefit  of unwise spending by others. 

But IMO it is only worth rock bottom price.  It is niche so has a very limited pool of people who will buy.
IE non car owning, under 5' 5 people who don't want a garden.

IMO it is worth the same or less then a flat with similar floor space, due to limited head height. 

somerandomusername

mlz1413 said:

Sounds like this property has has been advertised too high to me.

Previous owners may have put it up for sale for what they wanted it to sell for so they can move on (ie clear debts).

Also home owners and renters alike  do weird things with their money. IE new kitchen,  carpet, bathrooms because they want to, rather than because it is sensible. 

This unique house sounds like it had an unmarried couple lived in it (different surnames), initially had money (both had jobs maybe).  Then after an unwise kitchen upgrade they have sold up ( lost a job / split up arguing over money etc).

So now it is for sale and you can reap the benefit  of unwise spending by others. 

But IMO it is only worth rock bottom price.  It is niche so has a very limited pool of people who will buy.
IE non car owning, under 5' 5 people who don't want a garden.

IMO it is worth the same or less then a flat with similar floor space, due to limited head height. 

Honestly the biggest appeal for me is that it's detached. If I were to use a ranking system then detached is worth 10 points out of 10.

The least appealing feature to me is the lack of head space, and space in general. I'm like 5ft 5 and even I can only just about manage to move around up in the converted loft area. It's essentially a flat with an upstairs loft area with low ceilings.

But you're right, out of 100 randomly selected people who went to view this property, I'm guessing only a handful would actually be suitable. Even the parking outside on the curb isn't realistic as it's fully occupied by other residents, you'd be lucky to get a space at all let alone consistently. 

Smalltownhypocrite

EA are usually totally oblivious to whats going on, they send random field agents some of who are seeing/hearing about the house for the first time to viewings not the person handling the sale and they often just make !!!!!! up.

I have viewed the same house twice and got different stories, loads of houses I was told where repossessions when they where actually probate and vice versa (which are completely different types of sale).

I would take what they told you with a pinch of sale, Repossessions do not tend to price high (certainly not way over the original mortgage amount) as they are only interested in making the debt payment back, anything else goes to the previous owner but they aren't really bothered about the previous owner benefitting.

Albermarle

mlz1413 said:

Sounds like this property has has been advertised too high to me.

Previous owners may have put it up for sale for what they wanted it to sell for so they can move on (ie clear debts).

Also home owners and renters alike  do weird things with their money. IE new kitchen,  carpet, bathrooms because they want to, rather than because it is sensible. 

This unique house sounds like it had an unmarried couple lived in it (different surnames), initially had money (both had jobs maybe).  Then after an unwise kitchen upgrade they have sold up ( lost a job / split up arguing over money etc).

So now it is for sale and you can reap the benefit  of unwise spending by others. 

But IMO it is only worth rock bottom price.  It is niche so has a very limited pool of people who will buy.
IE non car owning, under 5' 5 people who don't want a garden.

IMO it is worth the same or less then a flat with similar floor space, due to limited head height. 

However it is presumably freehold ( and detached) , which avoids all the potential leasehold problems and issues with other tenants .

sheramber

Smalltownhypocrite said:

EA are usually totally oblivious to whats going on, they send random field agents some of who are seeing/hearing about the house for the first time to viewings not the person handling the sale and they often just make !!!!!! up.

I have viewed the same house twice and got different stories, loads of houses I was told where repossessions when they where actually probate and vice versa (which are completely different types of sale).

I would take what they told you with a pinch of sale, Repossessions do not tend to price high (certainly not way over the original mortgage amount) as they are only interested in making the debt payment back, anything else goes to the previous owner but they aren't really bothered about the previous owner benefitting.

A colleague’s  mother  showed people round houses for estate agents. 

.
 She just got given an address and time to be there.
 

She had no knowledge of the house. 

mlz1413

sheramber said:

Smalltownhypocrite said:

EA are usually totally oblivious to whats going on, they send random field agents some of who are seeing/hearing about the house for the first time to viewings not the person handling the sale and they often just make !!!!!! up.

I have viewed the same house twice and got different stories, loads of houses I was told where repossessions when they where actually probate and vice versa (which are completely different types of sale).

I would take what they told you with a pinch of sale, Repossessions do not tend to price high (certainly not way over the original mortgage amount) as they are only interested in making the debt payment back, anything else goes to the previous owner but they aren't really bothered about the previous owner benefitting.

A colleague’s  mother  showed people round houses for estate agents. 

.
 She just got given an address and time to be there.
 

She had no knowledge of the house. 

Nothings changed in 30 years then! as I used to work for an estate agent in early 90s and I got the printed house details and a name and time.

Bigphil1474

If the bedrooms are below something like 2.1m completely, then they may not meet the standard for a bedroom, depends when they were converted of course. This is just off the top of my head, but I think 'most' of the ceiling has to be at that height these days. I only mention it because we were looking at getting our loft converted into a room and our roofer who we've known for years said there was no chance as it is only 1.9m in the very middle and he said it would need the whole roof lifting to over 2.1m.

Worth checking whether it is standard construction or non-standard. Non-standard can be a right PITA. 

ReadySteadyPop

If you are having doubts about this already don`t buy it! As someone else said it might have some value as an AirBnB or holiday let for someone getting  it at a rock bottom price.

Bonniepurple

somerandomusername said:

user1977 said:

Why would the agents falsely claim that it's a repossession? It's hardly likely to help them sell the property. It would be obvious from very early in any transaction whether that was true or not anyway.

Banks will want to sell as quickly as reasonably possible, so in theory you can offer low but others may have similar ideas.

I dunno I've always been sceptical of people who making a living through sales. 

Anyway I did a land register check and shows the owners as being 2 individuals, so maybe the repossession hasn't finalised yet or the register hasn't been updated yet?

The only thing that's giving me weird vibes is why someone would spend money on a new kitchen and a facelift of the property while on the brink of repossession? Google maps shows Howdens boxes outside the property in October 2022, and the property has been listed since July 2025. That's only 2 years and 9 months. 

So they went from having excess cash to fit a new kitchen and flooring, to being evicted in under 3 years. That's some really really bad luck.

The first house we bought was a repossession.  They’d put in a new bathroom and obviously used in store finance to pay for it because we got a lot of letters through demanding payments.  Similar may have happened here.