[Debbie]

I felt that my stress levels were dropping to quickly, what with finally getting to NZ and all that so....
We have been looking for house since we arrived and our short term rental runs out 23 dec so there is a bit of a time consideration. However this weekend we saw a house we liked and have been back for a couple of visits but it is being sold at auction this thur. :eek:
So we lost MOn due to the holiday and now Im running around like a blue bottomed fly. The agent has been great, (but is an estate agent, so Im always a bit wary). We have a valuation, LIM and council reports. What should I be doing?, what have I missed?
Please, I've done the searchs and read the auction stuff on here but if there are any words of wisdom, anyone who has done an auction and doesnt mind PM me I'd be gratefull for all info. Assume I know nothing and tell me all.
Failing that pass me the gin.!
Many thanks,
Debbie.

[andersonclan]

Debbie

WE brought our land at auction - about a month after we arrived and it was the most nerve wracking think I've done! I thought I'd be fine - even brought a car at auction in the UK - but I started shaking as soon as we entered the room - and the land for auction was up at the end!

It was even worse that the lot we really wanted (50 acres) started bidding way above our maximum limit! and all the lots were going for really high prices. It was the local farmers who were sitting behind us and who had come for a nosey at the new neighbours who recomended the lot we finally brought and in hindsight I think we actually got the best deal! as it was the last one - a lot of bidders had already brought. We sat quietly listening to the bidding waiting till it seemed that it had stopped - then came in - I think there was 1 counter bid and we offered a further $500 and that was the end of the bidding - but the start of an anxious hour plus wait to see if the vendors were prepared to sell as we hadn't reached the reserve price! It was such a relief when we found that it was ours - although it was a couple of days before I stopped shaking.

My advice is:

1 Make sure you have the finance available - you'll need a 10% deposit on the day and these things can complete quickly (although ours took 6 months!)
2 Hold you're ground - don't jump in too quickly to bid. Sometimes a late bid will scare off the opposition - they might think that if you've just started bidding likely to go higher - when in fact you might already be at your maximum bid (we were at our maximum bid with our second and last bid - but it seemed to deter the other bidders)
3 Set a maximum budget and stick to it. There will be other houses that you like that will come along if you don't get this one.
4 Don't panic!

Good luck - let us know how you get on

Regards

Margaret

[jubjub]

A building survey might be a good idea to rule out any major defects and point out any works that are needed, ours both cost us $500, but was well worth is cos the one house had loads wrong with it, so we walked away from that one.

Good luck....., and as with the above advise, dont get Auction Fever and go over budget, keep a cool head.

[Moorf]

I have no experience of buying at auction but have experienced a couple, we went purely out of curiousity, I don't think I could handle buying a house at auction! It gave lots of insight - so are there any local houses being auctioned before yours that you can go and spectate at and get a feel for what happens.

The 2 I've been to were awful - no-one bid for AGES and there was this awkward silence, a fidgety crowd and a squirming agent on a poncy podium!! :laugh Once the bidding started it was waaaay under what it should go for, I was amazed how low it started as we knew one was worth around $400k and bidding started at $200k! Rose quickly and then levelled out with counterbids around $500/$1000 towards the end - don't know if there is a minimum bid but didn't hear of one lower than $500 in my mere 2 experiences. Neither of the ones we went to sold so not sure what happens in those circumstances!

[sizzlingbadger]

If it doesn't sell at auction the seller will either take it off the market or try and sell it via tender/fixed price from all the ones we've seen around here.

Never been to a house sale auction but usually wait right to the end before sticking a bid in and never go over you maximum budget.

It may be good to get a mortgage sorted beforehand, if needed. There are quite a few banks now that turn them around quickly.

Good Luck my fingers are crossed for you :D

[jess]

I'll second jubjub -- get the house inspected by a builder! Ours cost around $500 as well, but they are important for telling you about defects you can't see. A couple I know got an inspection only to find the house they were looking at needed $10,000 in work to deal with water damage downstairs that had been covered by paint. So it's worth the money to know what you're getting.

I would really pour over the council files as well. Look for anything in the blueprints council has that doesn't match the actual house. Even the type of woodstove. That way you can find out whether anything was done without a permit - something that will make it harder to resell the house later. If you see anything you aren't sure about, talk to council. Here they were really helpful, and we avoided a home that had had the kitchen moved with no council approval.

Best of luck!

[Debbie]

Well we went, we auctioned but no house for us :wah
There was us and 2 others interested in the house and we and agreed we would walk away when it hit our limit. It was good in way, the other couple obviously had a much higher limit than us, even if we had broken our rule and bettered their bid they would have almost definatly come back with another higher.
So Im back to being homeless for Xmas.
To top it all I went past 2 police cars with speed guns today,one on the way there and one on the way back. :wah :wah
Ive no idea how long I will have to sit and watch the mail box for the tickets, do they have to pull you over here if it's a police man in a car?
Anyway, If any one wants another fix of stress hormones now that you've finally made it to NZ I can recommend trying to buy a house at auction.
Debbie

[sizzlingbadger]

Sorry to hear you didn't get the house.

You never know what's around the corner though, maybe a better house :D

[Moorf]

Two of my tickets were sent via post - one was from a camera van and one from a police car. They obviously got the details from car reg authorities via number plate as it came with Woz's name on and I laughed at him until he pointed out the offence occured 10am in Darfield... on a weekday :o

[kiwidebs]

Debbie, so sorry to hear about the house. Back to house hunting then?? As for the ticket, hope you were lucky and didn't get one this time. I got my NZ drivers license in the post the other day and nearly had a panic attack cos I had forgotten I was expecting it and it gets sent from the NZ land transport people who also send tickets!! I thought I'd been caught this time!!


Debs

[Stapleton-Gray]

Hi

We bought at an Auction a year ago. Thankfully, we weren't actually there! We had our fantastic estate agent do everything on our behalf with my dad on the phone in Spain - me and my other half were flying back to the UK - so we couldn't do it.
I'm guessing that we would've been nervous wrecks if we had been there, but it was pretty nerve racking not knowing what was going and when we landed knowing there would be a message saying yes or no! It was a yes!
Auctions are great though, we often go to a few, more so because we became friends with our estate agent, but its all very interesting!!