Property auctions: Going, going... gone to pick up a bargain (February 09, 2008)

Property auctions: Going, going... gone to pick up a bargain

Property auctions are booming, with an increasingly wide range of homes for sale. Hazel Davis gives the lowdown on how to start bidding - and when to stop

When Claire Shorrock gazed at the handsome detached Georgian house in Fenny Drayton, Warwickshire, one Sunday two months ago, she had little idea that it would be hers just 24 hours later.

	'When the hammer falls, it's yours and you must pay up'

Claire and her husband, Mark, had been looking for houses after putting their own five-bedroom coach-house on the market, but had not happened upon their perfect home.

"Then, quite by chance, a newspaper was delivered to our house," says Claire, a soft-furnishings maker and interior designer. "I opened it and there was the house of our dreams." The only downside was that it was for sale by auction in Uttoxeter just a few days later. "The earliest we could get a viewing was on Sunday," she recalls, "whereupon we decided to bid for it the following day." An auction virgin, Claire had to attend the sale on her own as Mark, the managing director of local firm Tecroc Products, was away on business. An auction can be a heady mix of bewilderment and excitement - and if you are bidding alone, it can be terrifying. "It did seem quite daunting," she says. "It was mostly men in suits and what looked like dodgy characters hanging around. I was out of my depth." Having originally been on the market for £950,000, the house went into the auction with Newcastle-based auctioneers Baxtons with a guide price of £800,000. However, she says, "It all happened so quickly that Mark and I hadn't even agreed on a highest bid. So I just decided to end when it stopped being sensible." Claire eventually bagged the house at £875,000 but, she says, that was with pressure from another bidder. "You never know whether they are genuine buyers or a plant on the vendor's behalf," she points out. "But that's just one of the risks you take. You do need to be careful." There used to be a time when the only people who went to auctions were builders or fools with little money but lots of time. "Real people" bought their homes from an estate agent. But these days everybody's at it.

The total turnover at property auctions has doubled in five years to £5.9billion in 2007. Now, with a flood of repossessions being put up for auction, the number of properties for sale has never been higher. At the same time, the credit crunch has made it harder to get a mortgage, so the most recent auction sales are down. It really is a buyer's market.

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