Grab Your Dream UK Home On The Cheap - Property Auctions

Did you know that every year thousands of UK properties are sold at significantly below market value? The majority of these properties are released through property auctions where regular savings of between 10% to 40% are available to market value. Even so, property auctions continue to be used only by the elite and for the astute buyer/investor this generates a fantastic opportunity to secure a dream home/good investment at bargain basement prices.

For example, at a recent auction a studio flat was sold in London for a mere £9,000. In another, a 2 bed flat right on the south coast with a market value of upto £100,000 sold for just £14,000 at auction. And those are just a couple of examples of the bargains that people do find at property auctions. However it's also important to know the potential issues and problems when dealing with auctions and to understand exactly where the best deals are available. If you're interested in getting into the world of property auctions the below tips & tricks of the trade should be very helpful.

TYPES OF PROPERTIES FOUND AT AUCTIONS

UK Property Auctions Home Contact

The following is a guide to help anyone unlock the value available through UK Property Auctions. Thousands of homes are available at any given time with property auctions, most of which are sold at prices far below market value. However it's important to know the potential issues and problems when dealing with auctions and to understand where the biggest bargains are available. Details of thousands of cheap, repossessed & auction properties are also available at Property Auction Bargains.

Its perfectly reasonable to expect to pay between 15% to 40% less for a property at auction than you would for the same property through an estate agent. For example, at a recent auction a studio flat was sold in London for a mere £9,000. In another, a 2 bed flat right on the south coast with a market value of upto £100,000 sold for just £14,000 at auction. And those are just a couple of examples of the many bargains that people find at property auctions each and every week.

TYPES OF PROPERTIES FOUND AT AUCTIONS

Repossessions - Sadly for the previous owners, repossessions can often be picked up at bargain prices through auctions.

Investment properties - Properties, which are valued due to the return on investment that they provide. Includes everything from individual office/shop investments to blocks of flats.

Rundown properties - Auctions are great places to pickup properties that are unsaleable in their current state. The attraction here is if you can get such a property in a good location at a cheap price it's perfectly possible to refurbish and resell on at handsome profits. Indeed there are individuals and organisations that make their living doing this. Unsaleable properties come under the following categories:

Derelict or in derelict areas.

Subject to severe disrepair.

Subject to local authority notices.

Subject to closing orders.

Offered with ambiguous legal titles.

Sold without access.

Sold with major fencing, paving, drainage or other similar responsibilities.

Sold subject to covenants or restrictions, which prevent normal use.

Exceptional properties - Include ones that have historical meaning and plots which 'get in the way' of major development projects.

TYPES OF AUCTION

Large composite - Tend to have over 100 lots. Expect well over 300 people to attend and the venue to be held in a large hotel or conference centre. Large composite auctions are likely to be run by a single auction house. The type of property may be restricted to just one (e.g. vacant possession houses, factories, warehouses etc) or may be a mixture of different types.

Medium composite - Have between 5 to 100 lots and will typically attract between 200 to 500 people, most likely in a hotel or conference centre. It's similar to a large composite, only on a smaller scale.

Small composite - Offer between 2 to 5 lots and will attract upto 5 bidders. The likely venue is likely to be somewhere like a pub, restaurant, church or small hotel. Small auctions will generally follow a theme - for example the properties involved may have been part of a bigger group (such as a portfolio of properties owned by one company) who believe the best returns will be obtained by offering the properties for sale individually.

Single lot - usually for a property that is in great demand.

IDENTIFYING AUCTIONS

Auctions aren't as easy to find as you might expect. Traditionally auctioneers get more than enough interest from in-the-know regulars so they don't need to spend much money on costly advertising to the public. Here's where the list of auction houses that comes with this guide becomes invaluable. There are details on each auction house including which area the auction house covers. Go through the list and identify ones, which cover the areas you are interested in. Then:

Phone the auction house and ask them when their next auction is likely to be held. Ask them to put you on a mailing list, which details forthcoming auctions. Some may charge a small fee for this, others offer the service for free.

Prepare a list of questions for each auction house you contact. These should include:

Do you have a mailing list?

How long do you keep people on your mailing lists and can you let me know if I am about to be removed?

What type of properties do you auction?

It may also be worth subscribing to certain pedigree property magazines. These include Property Auction News, Under The Hammer and Property Week. Local newsagents usually carry these.

THE INFORMATION AN AUCTIONEER WILL PROVIDE

Obviously they will provide the details of the properties going under the hammer at their auctions. These tend to be more detailed than the snippets given by estate agents (there are laws such as the Property Misdescriptions Act 1991 which make it illegal for auctioneers to give false information about a property). On the whole, for any given lot they will provide:

Location

Construction details

Tenure (e.g. freehold)

Accommodation details (e.g. 3 bedrooms etc)

Notes (e.g. refurbishment required)

Viewing details

Solicitor details

Auctioneers usually publish a catalogue with the lot details - this is a book detailing the various properties available at auction. These will usually be available a month or less prior to the auction date.

IDENTIFYING REPOSSESSIONS

Some banks/building societies can be sheepish about revealing that they are selling repossessed properties so you need to be alert in the auction for clues. Auction adverts may reveal that a bank may be the seller of a number of properties, or the auction catalogue may state a phrase such as 'on instruction of a liquidator' or something similar - this should tell you that the property being sold is a repossession. If you are unsure, ask the auctioneer directly if the lot being offered is a repossession.

FINDING PROPERTY AUCTIONS NEAR YOU

There are several thousands of properties available for auction at any given time all over the UK. It's important to understand how auctions work before purchasing a property from one. To find out where you can get hold of a list of UK property auction venues and websites of auction properties for sale take a look at my resource box below. I wish you every success in finding your dream bargain home at auction

About The Author

Find 30,000 Dirt Cheap UK Properties At Auction Immediately: http://www.global-ebooks.com/Property_Auction_Bargains.htm

Subscribe to the Online Powerpack newsletter & discover the biggest discounts available anywhere for just about everything! Send an email to tukshad@global-ebooks.com

There is something emotionally charged about the buying and selling of New York high-end real estate. How else to explain the juggernaut of reality TV shows about high-end brokers?

After 30 years of marriage, Sharon and Michael Newman decided it was finally time to move from the Catskills to New York City.

On blocks near Kissena Park streets are quiet, houses are small, and the electricity that charges the atmosphere in downtown Flushing is nowhere to be found.

A five-story, seven-bedroom house in Brooklyn Heights has sweeping views of New York Harbor and the Manhattan skyline.

Demand is so intense that there are waiting lists in some buildings, and a few landlords report that eager renters are even bidding up rents.

Sales at the very high end of the market barely missed a beat in the recession. But that prosperity hasn’t yet trickled down.

A Flatiron condo, a Midtown South co-op and a Brooklyn Heights carriage house.

A four-bedroom ranch in Montclair, N.J., and a four-bedroom colonial Cape in Babylon, N.Y.

For a century, Roosevelt Island housed a grim penitentiary. It was demolished in the 1930s.

More borrowers are opting for fixed-rate loans with terms other than the standard 30 or 15 years, especially when it comes to refinancings.

Two more glass skyscrapers are added to a group of towers on the waterfront of Long Island City.

Insurance coverage for a co-op unit; when a tenant is ‘blacklisted’; a co-op is smaller than estimated.

The market for $500,000-to-$600,000 houses in Westchester has become especially active.

A shaky real estate market means more sellers are providing buyer concessions, from gift cards to help with paying property taxes.

Houses of worship are adaptable to residential and other uses as congregations dwindle.

The settlement reached last week over questionable mortgage practices by major American banks hardly cracks the iceberg that is the foreclosure mess.

Under the settlement, nearly two million Americans could benefit from mortgage relief from the nation’s biggest banks.

A cold war-era satellite relay station is for sale in California after a Silicon Valley mogul gave up on plans to turn it into a weekend home.

How can I make my front porch more appealing to buyers?

Court hearings meant to protect New York homeowners from foreclosure are hopelessly slowed by endless paperwork and requests for additional information.

The Bay Area and Silicon Valley expect the windfall from the Facebook stock offering to make their in-demand region even hotter.

The house, designed by the architect Eric Fisher, looms over the street like a big industrial arm.

A town house in Dallas, a midcentury modern in Rhode Island and a Tudor in Denver.

Prices in some parts of the country are still off by as much as 25 percent from their 2007 peak.

Trinity Church is the largest landlord in Hudson Square and is part of the effort to rezone the area to residential from manufacturing.

Rising oil prices and a boom in shale exploration are leading companies to add office space in the Houston area, most notably Exxon Mobil.

Ms. de França is the president and chief executive of Douglas Elliman Development Marketing, which focuses on new residential developments.

Meet the real estate broker’s interns: an ambitious group willing to do anything, earn nothing and wake up early on a Sunday to fluff the couch cushions at open houses.

A Flatiron condo, a Midtown South co-op and a Brooklyn Heights carriage house.

A four-bedroom ranch in Montclair, N.J., and a four-bedroom colonial Cape in Babylon, N.Y.

Homes in Dallas, Rhode Island and Denver.

Compare the cost of renting and buying equivalent homes.

For recently divorced men, a new breed of decorators offers help navigating a strange new world.

Plants that light up the winter garden can be found at Broken Arrow Nursery in Connecticut, which has long been a favorite of gardening geeks.

A sister in need drew the painter Beverly McIver back home to North Carolina, unaware that a new beginning was in store for both of them.

A jewelry designer finds striking new objects for storage.

Timothy Sakamoto and Jochen Repolust are part of the small but growing niche making mobile apps focused on specific works of architecture.

To promote an auction of 20th- and 21st-century design, the interior designer Stephen Sills has created a preview exhibition in an apartment at the Apthorp.

Fishs Eddy now sells plates acquired from the archives of the now-defunct Syracuse China Corporation, many more than 100 years old.

The designer Russell Greenberg creates custom baby rattles with ends shaped like profiles of mom and dad.