CERTAINLY AUCTION fever seems to be attracting the interest and creative talents of property specialists – distressed property sales are, after all, one of the few areas generating strong activity in the property market.

Homepack ( homepack.ie) came about when architect Derek Trenaman, valuer Patrick Sheehan and solicitor Barry Rafferty realised that prospective auction buyers have very little time between receiving the catalogue (usually about four weeks in advance) and securing approved credit prior to auction. We're all aware of the many hoops the banks want us to jump through nowadays before they will even agree in principal to lending just some of the required amount. The professionals realised if they teamed their skills they could provide all the documentation necessary in a package to prospective buyers so they could legitimately seek financial approval in advance of auction day.

The next Allsop auction is on October 3rd, and the catalogue will most likely go online next week. Homepack says it will have completed property reports on selected properties in the Dublin area ready for purchase on September 10th. These will include a valuation, property title review and building survey.

So what’s the bottom line? Apparently their property valuation comes in at €100, a title review is €250 and a building survey is €250. A total of €600 – not bad value when weighed against all that running around arranging individual reports.