Auctions and building inspections

When buying at auction, how do people have confidence that there is nothing wrong with a property, when no clause like "subject to building and pest inspection." Do you get it done before auction and spend the $400 or whatever it costs? Seems like a lot to spend on a house that you potentially will get outbid on.

 

If you want an inspection, you do it before the auction.
Check with the listing agent, some vendors get an inspections done that prospective buyers can look at.

 

In the ones where I was worried, I just got one done before the auction.

 

never seen in it Melbourne and have looked at hundreds of them

Welcome to this expensive journey of anger and frustration. Best way to prevent this is by having a good grasp of the market price and not go by agents quote. If it's a PPOR I would go hard if you find the right one (they don't come along often)

 

Yes, it costs you. Some ways to save:
1. Some vendors will supply at their own cost because they know it can be a road block to some intending purchasers for the same reason you have expressed. HOWEVER, as a general rule, we always commission our own P&B reports. I've seen vendors pick reports that do not expose flaws highlighted in other company's reports.
2. In NSW you can ask the selling agent if other buyers have commissioned P&B reports - you can then approach that company and offer to buy the report they did (usually at a significant discount ie 50% from our experience)
3. If you see the same people over and over again the Opens, you can offer to go equal shares of the cost with them if you both intend bidding - just have a friendly chat.
4. Don't order reports for properties, after you get some experience, that you can see are not good candidate properties to be considering.
5. Take a tradie mate along with you to give you some pointers.
6. Finally, if you can do none of these - just see it as a "cost of doing business" and suck it up. It's better to spend $2,500 on reports until you find a good one, when you are potentially spending many $100K's of mostly borrowed money.