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Urgent: Getting A Mortgage To Buy Out Siblings?

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aquilotta | 09:31 Wed 15th Jan 2014 | Personal Finance
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Hi folks... Challenge for y'all.

A friend lost her mother. The mother's house is worth, at a conservative estimate, 600K. (Ten years ago, neighbour paid a million for flimsy 1970s build which had to be largely rebuilt, on a plot with half the view and a quarter of the size. Hence even in this current climate, 600K is modest estimate.)

Siblings are desperate to sell for a quick sale, and are forcing it through the courts to force a quick sale at auction. The auction price is estimated to be around 250K - a huge loss.

Therefore, if she could raise 200K, the friend would therefore be able to buy her siblings out, to then put the house on the real market for its real worth: even at conservative value, a difference of about 400K.

BUT my friend has been ill a number of years and is therefore not working. My question is: HOW can she raise a mortgage in those circumstances? The 200K would cover both the buy-out and a buffer sum on which to live while the house is on the market.
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A person not working, with an illness, wants to raise £200,000 on a mortgage.

I think it the current climate she has NIL chance of getting ANY mortgage, let alone one for £200,000

I have to say I am not sure I believe that family members would be willing to sell a house worth £600,000 for £250,000, nobody is that stupid.

Are you sure family are not trying to "con" her out of her money?
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Given her family members (think: all the ingredients of the ugliest and most lurid tabloid stories - abuse, theft, destruction of a Codicil etc) , no, I wouldn't put anything past them. But this is the value which they have submitted via their lawyers, and which the court-appointed valuer has laid down as the estimated auction price.
I've called it a mortgage in my question, but I suppose it could equally well be viewed as a business loan to start up a business, since the intent is to sell the house on for its real value.
None
the chance of mortgaging is nil with no income and no prospect

I was in this position with my money grasping relatives
when they threatened to go to court she should have thrown the sponge in
as the court order is inevitable
after all the lucky inheritors are entitled to their moolah at a decent time and not years later.

She has to bite the bullet and take the money that she gets
whilst sighing - there is a wasted opportunity to make money

at least she knows who not to go into business with
but she may already know

( I didnt )
Question Author
So sorry you had to go through something like that too.

The frustrating thing is that it's "simply" a business loan with her share of the house as collateral.
I don't understand why you say it's a business loan - it's not a business needing the money, it's an individual. The place to start would be with her bank, but as others say, unless she can demonstrate the ability to repay a substantial amount each month, it sounds unlikely.
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Hi Boxtops - Surely a business is something which aims to make a profit. You can get one-person businesses: the fact that it's an individual not a corporation doesn't alter the fundamental nature of the intent? And businesses often need an initial start-up loan.
Hence wondering whether it's not possible to view my friend's situation as a start-up business loan, with her share of the house as collateral, rather than as a mortgage for a house she intends to inhabit, since the whole point is selling it to realise its value, not to live there.
Has she approached her bank about a 'Bridging Loan'?
That usually costs a bomb, though, kettledrum, as I know from experience - but it's certainly an option.

This is certainly a personal loan, IMO, not a business venture.
The auction price is only an estimate, if the house is as good as you say it is then it should sell for well over the estimate. Have you got an estimate of the market value ,not just a guess but proper valuation from an estate agent?
Question Author
Yes. According to him, it should sell for a minimum of 600K.
Another estate agent was also consulted about a year ago and gave similar figures.

The house is in good condition, with truly stunning views. The only thing which counts against it apparently is that it doesn't have a swimming pool....
The value of a thing is what you get at auction (old adage)

The value of a thing is what the underbidder thinks it is worth ( plummy voiced Brian Sewell) - that is because the underbidder gives up at £ x and so the bidder gets it at £ x+ 1...

The figures are not that bad - I think the £1m was overpaid - and certainly if you have to extensively rebuild it will decrease the value of the adjoining buildings. so 600k doesnt sound bad as 'real'value and an auction estimate of 250 k wouldbe sensible

to ge the punters in and bidding.

we will neva know - the judge will order it to go to auction and it would be very difficult to show that the auction was rigged.
The argument Oh the figures are so low, it MUST be rigged.
wont wash.



Did you see DIcko;s deal a few d ago ? Paul Storr silver plates - I thought they would go for over 100k, because provenance was not proven (ie cd be forged) they went for reserve - £ 8 000. As the auctioneer said - I am selling and someone has an absolute bargain.....( and they did and they had )
Question Author
Which is precisely why my friend does NOT want it to go at auction... which has a reputation anyhow of being rigged in that area - the cabal of developers share out the properties so that they don't bid against each other, apparently. Everyone knows it, no-one dare (?can?) prove it...
I would tend to echo the comments already made- I suspect your friend would find it difficult to raise that amount either as a mortgage or a business loan, I'm sorry to say.

I am amazed, frankly, that the siblings are so desperate for a quick sale that they are willing to give up 350K - more than the value of the auction target price they would accept! Cannot understand the logic of that decision at all.
Question Author
I know. It's too surreal to even begin to try to comprehend. They appear to have it in for her because she was the one who cared for their mother until the mother's death: they have endlessly verbally abused her and tried to destroy her, and the saddest thing about the abuse is that they have convinced themselves that they are kind and generous and everything which is disproved by their actions. Apparently that characteristic is typical of abusers, who build a sort of alternate reality in which their victim has "made them do" whatever it is and "must be punished": so we suspect that this insistence is just one step further down the line of surreal punishment.

Also, they've apparently waltzed off with 60k which was supposed to be hers, by the simple solution of destroying the codicil part of the Will; and removed all the valuables of the house, so it may be that combined with their excellent jobs, they care less about what the house brings. Dunno. Suspect their logic isn't readily understandable by anyone - certainly not my friend who is as baffled as you or I by the sheer lunacy of it all.
That sounds a horrible situation for you friend, aquilotta. Very few things sadder than naked greed and petty rationalisations breaking out in families when the assets of an estate are being settled.

When you say forcing it through the courts - Could she not get a proper valuation, several even, and submit that to the court to get the court to dismiss the notion of an auction? Probably not much help, but I have had no/little experience in this area...
Go into partnership with someone for a share of your profit...venture capital or similar.
From a Banks point of view there will be no way that this will be seen as a business proposition. Neither would they look at a bridging loan especially as it would be open ended. Also an extremely expensive option.
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Great minds think alike, Mark. But where to find such a business partner for her?
where there is a will, there is always internecine bloodletting and a long family quarrel.

to a certain extent I can understand the " money now ! " argument. If the mother wanted her carer to have recognition she could always have put that into the will....

and the friend's " more money but later " plan can hardly be called a coherent whole ....

she doesnt have a lot of choices - in fact I dont think she has one
so she should with good grace falll into the family disposal plan
You are a bit stymied in chasing the bidding up yourself because it's a house. If it got knocked down to you, you'd be a bit vulnerable to action.

Me, I be tempted to gee the ring up a bit.I'd wait until they were looking smug and the bidding had slowed to "Any more?" and then be tail end Charlie and bid. If the ring doesn't know me, I make it clear by saying "Yes, sir!" They all look and think "Bloody amateur!" and try to see me off. I then quit near the right price, but a good bit below [see above], and I'm the one feeling smug ! I've done this many times. Also, you often lure another tail -ender into bidding (there are lots of us out there, who take advantage of the existing bidder thinking he's got it and then suddenly regretting how much he has bid in his enthusiasm; he's grateful to escape)

They'll be a profit even at £500k, by the sound of it, and that's what they are in the ring for, so they are unilkely to let it go at a bit below that.

It must be very unusual to get rings in property auctions,whatever the gossip, and I have never known one, even in tiny provincial houses. The market attracts too many public bidders, nowadays, who know the prices, let alone speculators who are outside the ring; for example, if one of those saw it going cheap, he'd stick a bid in whatever else he'd come to buy. Where you get rings is in specialist, narrow, areas such as industrial tools or dolls and toys.

And it may well go for near or above the right price; that happens a lot. You only need two people who are keen and sense goes out of the window.

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