What's the complaint or surprise, if any? I find nothing surprising in this at all:.
1)There is at least one national TV programme devoted entirely to sales of particular houses at auction; it shows the properties and follows the buyers through auction to work done after, planning permission etc Most of the public never knew such auctions existed until recently, just as they knew nothing of antiques auctions until twenty years ago.
2) Many of the prices quoted as estimates are set low, though not wildly so, to attract such bidders .You won't find the bigger houses going way over.
3) the biggest market at auctions is for first time buyers and buy-to- let buyers. A buyer who borrows the money to buy and let the property gets tax relief on the mortgage, unlike someone buying the own house as their home, so it is an attractive proposition as an investment. First time buyers are happy to buy a basic sound house and do repairs and improvements.
4) the procedure could not be simpler. Imtending buyers arrange any borrowing needs in advance.They know that the money is there for whatever they buy. Brief condition reports and surveys are often available in such auctions. Intending buyers know the risks of proceeding 'blind' but serious investors are never very fussed by it. You'd be extremely unlucky,if you never saw it before sale and the house had been let and lived in, if it proved uninhabitable and beyond repair at a reasonable price. Properties are nearly always available for inspection beforehand. As soon as the hammer falls the sale is done.The only real problem is the risk that two bidders will get so excited by the chase that they go way above a proper price. As this auction has dozens of near identical houses this is highly unlikely to happen; it happens often only with unique or rare antiques ,the 'must haves' of the market; unique or rare terraced houses and properties at these prices are unknown
5) it is easy to be picky or snobbish about some areas. Londoners can remember when nobody but the poorest lived in Islington. Now it is one of the most sought after addresses. Notting Hill, to me, suggested drug dealing and race riots years ago, but it gives its name to a film about yuppies and the newly rich descend upon it. Liverpool will go and is going the same way. People do not want to live way out in suburbs either; the closer in the better; terraced houses are ideal for a young couple too.
6) Liverpool is
cheap House prices are a fraction of those in the South East and competitive with those in other cities in the North West itself.
7) it is an area of growth. That is why the buyers are there.
8) many of these houses will belong to large landlords; whole streets or estates of houses belonged to investors years ago as a safe investment for a guaranteed income, often for the 'widows and orphans' kind of investment. Nowadays these holdings are being split up as the owners find other areas more attractive. So there are lots of units on the market and the quickest surest way of selling is by auction. The prices realised are likely to be lower than by private agreement but selling that way is very time consuming and uncertain ( because English law unlike Scots or French law for example, allows buyers and sellers to back out unpenalised at the last monent)
[This message was edited by FredPuli on 02-29-04 at 06:12 AM.]
