Is buying a reposession worth the stress?

[tyler80]

The estate agents rang me up today asking if I was interested in viewing a house that's just come on their books but it's a repossession. We've not viewed it but price wise it seems cheap although not bargain basement.

I've read various stories regarding people trying to buy repossessed property (normally ending in being gazumped at the last minute after already paying out a lot of money). House buying seems stressful enough to me as it is (and we've never even got beyond the making offers stage yet) and I'm not sure it's worth the extra stress trying to buy a repo. Anyone want to change my mind or warn me off further?

The receivers are legally (and morally) obliged to get the highest price they reasonably can for a property which may be why they have taken offers after one has been agreed. I don't know if being gazumped is a given though - I'd go and have a look, at least it will be chain-free.

We looked at repossession (didn't buy it) and a couple of weeks later it was advertised on the paper and online as still being for sale. it said something like
'an offer of £xx,xxx has been received on this property. Any other interested party should make a higher offer before exchange of contracts'.

I'd go and look at it. The biggest problem for us was the condition that the house was in and therefore not as much of a bargain as it first appeared.

Not sure about the gazumping but I'd defo check the condition of the house and the operation of heating/appliances/plumbing etc. Quite a lot of people will purposefully skuttle the ship and wreck the place before moving out.

There is a general suspicion that some agents will give a friendly local developer the 'last look' on a repossession after everyone else has put in their best and final offers. The developer then puts in a bid just a few thousand more than the next best offer and the agent in return gets the instruction to resell the property after it has been done up.

Never actually seen any proof of this and certainly not suggesting this is happening here. It is the same risk you run when buying any property.

I understand about the lenders being obliged to keep accepting offers just not sure if I'd be able to stand the stress if we did offer on it, but I suppose no harm in looking, and it may be that we can rule it out completely once we've seen it. Just noticed the listing has just gone on rightmove

Well, it doesn't look at all trashed, there seems to be a boiler in the kitchen but I can't see any radiators.

Go and have a look, go on.

We bought a repo last year and had a bloody awful time of it. We were kept guessing right up to the last minute whether it would be ours or not, and the EA's really were complete bastards throughout the whole process, saying there were other interested parties every 5 minutes and scaring the shit out of us. That said though, we did get a bargain, 5 bed detached Arts and Crafs house for about the same price as a semi.

All the utilities will be cut off , and the EA will not know (or tell you if they do know) if the heating/electrics etc are OK, so if you can, get somebody to go round with you to check these things out. That house looks in pretty good nick though, the one we bought was full of crap piled high, and absoluerly filthy!

Good luck whatever you decide to do!

We did 3 years ago. House was in good order think the owner had bought it to do up so had fitted new kitchen and bathroom but had it repossessed before they finished. We were in a good position with everything in place, no chain etc so put in a cheecky offer 35k under already reduced asking price and it was accepted. We had 28 days to exchange and complete. We completed on the 28th day, house was due to be in an auction the next day!

The EA wasn't much help. We were told that all utilities were closed off but they weren't was just a case if calling companies with meter readings and opening accounts.

We've had the odd debt letter for previous owner but a quick call to inform company they don't live there or we just return to sender.

I would do it again. Houses where we live never really came up for sale too often so we could have waited ages and ended up paying alot more. You need to have absolutely everything ready. Deposit, mortgage offer, solicitor lined up etc. As pp have mentioned too the company appointed to sell the property are obliged to get the best price possible. As long as you can reassure them that your in a very strong position and move fast you should be ok.

We did this year. The house was a wreck and that was why we were buying it. It was quite an interesting experience buying from the official receiver! No real problems except that we were able to get no information from former owners.

We then put it back on the market with work all done and sold for a profit.