Ever bought a house at auction?

[WhatsGoingOnEh]

Tell me everything! :)

Did you have a survey done before you bid?
How much above the guide price did it go for?
Any other tips?

A place has come up that looks LOVELY...

Really? Nobody?

I've seen a pretty, 3-bed character cottage for sale in a nice road in my town. Its starting price (?) is £180k. I live Daan Saarf where the average house price has got to be around £300k.

I'm going to view the cottage, but if I like it, it'll need a full structural survey because it's very old, maybe around 150 years. That'd be £850k. I can't afford to chuck away £850k, but I'd spend it on a house I could buy. HOWEVER my TOP budget is only £275k, so how will I know if the auction price will end up being way past that? Is there a way of making an educated guess?

I've checked the past auction sold offices, and they DO seem cheap compared to what I've heard about friends paying.

I know auction sales are things you can't back out if. And that you have to pay 10% of the sold price on the day (which I can), plus auction fees.

But without a survey, it's a huge risk, isn't it? So I couldn't. But what if I lay £850 then get outbid on the day? Is that just the risk you take?

Oops! The survey will be £850, not £850k!

We looked into it but decided it was too big of a risk for us, mainly because they expected us to secure a mortgage within 28 days or something and if you don't manage it for whatever reason you will lose the 10% deposite (maybe it is not same for your auction house?!).

Bear it mind, guide price is usually lower than what it will actually go for 8 out of 10 times so it might be nearer to 200k and then renovation fees on top...
I would def get a survey done on an auction property this old, 850 is nothing for a purchase price of 180k but maybe shop around for surveys, ours was 500ish (SE England)

Thank you! I already have a mortgage offer. I have a solicitor too, but I don't know if he does auction properties. I have the deposit. But I don't have £1,000 spare to waste on surveys, searches for a house I can't afford!

Could a £180k auction property go for under £275k ultimately?

We bid but didn't buy. We spent about 600 on a survey and about 250 on getting the legal pack checked by a solicitor, who had links to the auction house. Was useful as new information was added to the legal pack at the last minute and the solicitor was there and able to talk to us about it and actually effected how much we bid.

I think the guide was about 150k and it sold for about 200k. It was a few years ago so can't remember exactly.

It was money lost but at least we got an idea of value as the survey valuation was less than we had convinced ourselves it was worth so we didn't buy at to high a price and have mortgage problems later.

The auction house should do the searches etc. as part of the legal pack which they have to make available before the auction.

Thanks Karron!

Is your mortgage offer just a mortgage in principle or mortgage promise etc?

Because the part I was worried about was the banks taking too long on the underwriting part, they can ask for all sorts of things which can delay everything!

They can even decrease their original mortgage offer after checking your affordability. There are 'bridging loans' for this purpose though which you could research but for us after the open day we realised how small it was! And also was horrible seeing all your 'competitors', we were rushed through like cattle!

Haven't but have seriously looked at several which didn't work out for various reasons.

It varies by auction house, but guide prices vary from a bit low to ridiculously low. You can get an idea of how much they tend to estimate by looking at their sold prices.

Another thing to note is that a lot of houses sell before the auction, so if you have everything in place to move quickly you can make an offer through the auction house before the auction date