Buying a repossession?

[Beachedwh4le]

Am viewing a property this afternoon, which I suspect is a repossession. Would this put you off buying? If so, why?

DH seems to think it would be risky, but the property is priced at 10k below similar properties in the area, so we could afford to live in a nicer place, just would need to fix it up over time. Is there anything I should be asking the EA?

Is it through an auction?
If it is and you need a mortgage just be aware that you will need a mortgage offer before you bid and if successful will need to pay 10% deposit on the day.

If it's not through an auction then there's nothing really to be concerned about provided you inspect it thoroughly and get a survey. The reduction in price of because the lender wants a quick sale and is only interested in recouping their losses.

Just because a house has been repossessed it doesn't necessarily mean it is in a bad state of repair, although they often are.

It's not through an auction just a normal EA. That's a good tip though.

It's like a house that's been bought as a fixer upper and then they've run into financial difficulties, so there's odd jobs done here and there. Seeing it at 3, hoping it's the one 😳

The one issue that springs to mind is that if it's being sold by a bank/receiver they're (I think) obliged to keep it on the market until exchange to maximise return, so you can get quite far down the line with searches etc and quite legally be gazumped by someone else quite late down the line.

One solution is to exchange immediately with a zillion insurances, but outside the LL community I think this is quite unusual.

We bought one
Do not use stickers over everything.
Water was switched off. All was fine when we switched it all on apart from one minor thing but it's a risk obviously.
No-one to ask anything/no information/certificates.
Money/conveyancing had to be done ASAP. (Within three weeks- suited us!)
You need an on the ball solicitor so you don't get gazumped.
It won't be taken off the market until they have their money.
I think we exchanged then completed within a day or so.
Ours was easy and no messing around. We paid cash and rent it out so not our home.

Yes, the lender has to demonstrate they got the best price so will keep it on the market and will have no qualms about accepting higher bids later down the line. As Rebelanda says there are quite a few unknowns (unlikely to get guarantees for things), services will have been turned off, the owner is unlikely to have maintained the house whilst under the threat of repossession.

The house is in a mess, wires hanging out of walls and doors all off the hinges and front and back door have been booted in. Looks a bit ramshackle but would probably tidy up ok. Would need a rewire and new boiler I think too

We took a builder friend to have a look. Could you do that?
Yes we had to sort the front door gouge marks/letterbox screwed down etc.

We've brought a repossession before. And love it.

When you've got to watch (it was when we brought it, may still be applicable or something to think about) was that the turn over is 28 days, and in that time any one can come in and out-bid you.

We had an estate agent with one property claiming that someone had made another higher offer which went above what we were willing to pay on one property so we said nope. We think they were calling our bluff trying to get more money out of us as it was still for sale a few months later.

I'm not 100% on the finer details of repo houses now (we brought ours over 6 years ago) so it may be different. Worth checking with the estate agent though.