Have admired a street of houses near me for the last 10 years, one has come up for sale (doesn’t happen often) but its by auction
Seems a realistic reserve and in terms of a mortgage I could get I could afford to go about £50k over the reserve if needed but no idea how the auction process works and it’s a bit daunting
What do I need to do beforehand, should I get any sort of basic survey (my brothers. Building surveyor and I could possibly drag him down to check for damp etc)
How does the whole deposit thing normally work etc?
Wasn’t anticipating this our current house isnt even on market, auction is in 2 weeks time, I don’t really have by time to sort things like a Mortgage offer do I?

Contact the auctioneers for details. Find out when viewing is. Get mortgage set up – lender will need to survey etc before hand. Get deposit ready to pay on the day. Set a price over which you won’t go. Practice your poker face. Don’t bid too often/too early. Make sure you can finalise the mortgage before 28 days or you lose your deposit. You can usually make an offer in advance, or if it doesn’t sell, then afterwards. You’ll be paying for stuff up front knowing that someone else can outbid you.
Good luck.
EDIT: you’ll have to get moving on the mortgage if in 2 weeks time! Viewing may well have been yesterday or earlier.

Buying at auction is a binding commitment and carries the same legal implications as a signed contract by private treaty. Normally agents/auctioneers will have copies of legal documentation provided by the seller’s solicitors which can be sent to you.

You will need To arrange a mortgage in principal with a bank before buying at auction.

Make sure you have a deposit ready for payment on auction day (Normally 10%), when the contracts are signed. You could lose your 10% deposit if you fail to complete within the time given (normally within 28 working days – I think).

Once the hammer goes down you have exchanged contracts.
You then normally have 28days (sometimes more) to complete.
Most buyers at an auction would not be paying for a survey beforehand, but that is because most aren’t normal buyers.

It is definitely worth speaking with the auctioneer beforehand, they can sell stuff before the auction. Sometimes they might let you know what the interest level is like.

Based on experience I would suggest that you work out what your limit is and bid aggressively right up to it. If you are timid then anybody bidding against you might “find” an extra bit of money thinking they can knock you out of the running. If you appear to want it regardless then sometimes people drop out.

I know of person who lost out on a house they wanted and the winner was somebody who bought it just because it was cheap.

And most importantly – don’t get carried away. A property auction is like EBay on Speed.

We once bid and the price went way over the reserve (around double). The eventual winners subsequently admitted they paid way over the real value.

See if you can get to another auction in the meantime and watch how it works. It’s perfectly legal for the auctioneer to accept bids from walls and furniture until it reaches it’s reserve at which point he’ll make a subtle phrase like “selling now” or “this will go” which is when the real auction starts.

If you brother is a surveyor he might be able to tell you quite a bit from an external inspection. If you know the area you have a bit of advantage, you can always see if you can “bump into” any potential new neighbours and ask if they’ve had any issues with their houses.

If it’s a private seller you can always make enquires to try and buy the house outside of the auction – might buy you some time – is it occupied? – has it been on rightmove recently?

Answer the question why is it being auctioned? There are various reasons and for a prospective purchaser many of these are benign, but some are auctioned for very good reason.

Watch a few episodes of ‘Homes under the Hammer’ (BBC1 mornings). Explains the process and what can go wrong. A number of people buy totally unseen, which isn’t a good idea, but as said above, you have to be ready to move fast once the hammer falls and you’ve won.

You can only buy at auction if you are able to complete, pay for it, within 6 weeks typically. That rules out most buyers as you can not sell a house at the same time and hope it goes through in time. You can however put an offer in before the auction on the basis you have one to sell.