Buying a house at auction, but terrified! Your advice and hints pretty please...

[onesandwichshort]

It is starting to look as though we might be bidding on a house we like a lot at auction later this month. I've bought things at auction before, but never a house! If anyone has done this, I'd love to hear your experience, the pitfalls, the tricks, the everything really.

It's quite tatty, and I am going round it with an architect later this week; we might also get a surveyor in too. We haven't had the legal pack yet, that will arrive next week and I am pushing our solicitor to make sure they are standing by to go through that. We'd also be cash buyers, so won't have to rush a mortgage through. What else should I be thinking about right now?

Write down a table with increments in the bid price in the left hand column, and the corresponding bid+buying fee+VAT price in the right hand column. It will stop you overshooting as the bids rise. (It drives me MAD that Homes Under the Hammer never clarify the fees you have to pay on top of the hammer price).

Take a friend with you. Their job is to stop you overshooting.

Do NOT overshoot. I was outbid recently by £100k in a Savill's auction and the buyer is trying desperately to offload it to me now. I might buy - for £100k less than he paid

You need to pay a deposit on the day so make sure your funds are in an accessable account and bring your cheque book! I think you have to complete within 2 or 3 weeks too, so make sure you have solicitors and money to hand and ready to go.

thomas makes an excellent point about working out the price with VAT and fees. I also shake my head at homes under the hammer.

Its the bit where they say - so they paid X at auction and spent Y doing it up its now worth Z so they have made 10k profit. Erm no mate. They have lost money on those figures because you neglected to mention that they paid another 20k in fees .

You really have to keep yourself in check too, it is so easy to get carried away says the woman who has had to ban herself from ebay because of this.

And do get a structural survey done before the auction. You may not get the house and end up out of pocket, but it could be 100x worse if you don't and there are big problems, you could end up in deep trouble. If you win the auction you can't back out you are comitted to buy.

Don't forget to add stamp duty onto that list!

survey survey survey

initial outlay? yes
save you buying a money pit? -yes

Thank you for all of this, much appreciated. Fees advice particularly useful. I will check, check and check again, but down here in the sticks it seems as though we will only have to pay a single fee as a buyers' premium.

I do hear what you say about the survey. Will do that. Less than three weeks to auction now...

Without doubt, you should knock on all the neighbours' doors, and find out why it's at auction, just in case there are any nasty surprises.

Then Google the address, and see what you can find out. Also, find out what the local planning office says. They probably have details online.

I do know one of the neighbours, and will interrogate her thoroughly. But, fortunately, we also know why it's being sold anyway. I've talked to planning too and am now waiting for the legal pack to check on sewers etc. Anything else I should do other than bite my nails?

Both estate agent and architect reckon its worth the top end of the guide price, so I am just hoping that is what it goes for as we can afford that and the work.