It seems very cheap for 850K for a detached property? I don’t think anything else is listed under 1m on this site.
So I gave them a call, and they were not very talkative, insisting the only way to find out more information was to buy a brochure. Noted their blurb also mentions no need for a lawyer to be involved, which again screams fraud to me.
Is this sort of brazen fraud really something that I might find on a reputable site like Homegate, or am I simply being paranoid?
Here is the blurb on the description.
Sorry in French, which basically suggests its is bank sale? so a fire sale by the creditor for an unpaid mortage I guess.
Ce bien immobilier sera vendu aux enchères par l’Office des poursuites. La valeur estimée s’élève à CHF 855’000.-. Vous trouverez dans notre CATALOGUE DES VENTES AUX ENCHÈRES qu’on publie toutes les trois semaines d’autres biens immobiliers à prix intéressants dans les environs.
L’acquéreur ne doit verser AUCUN FRAIS DE NOTAIRE NI DE COURTAGE. Pour de plus amples informations concernant le bien immobilier visé ci-dessus et la commande du catalogue, veuillez contacter Mme Hasler, du lundi au vendredi, de 8h00-12h30 sauf le mercredi qui reste fermé 022-518 33 11.
La commande du catalogue des ventes aux enchères se fait pour 12 exemplaires. Le prix global s’élève à CHF 468,00 ce qui correspond à CHF 39,00 par catalogue.
It’s a property auction. Here’s the relevant info from the official gazette.
You don’t need to pay for any info or brochure. Run the linked info through deepl.com for an English translation if necessary and contact the office des poursuites in Aigle. They’ll send you all the relevant documentation for free.
What the text say is this is an auction managed by Cantonal Debt Recover office. The 885k is only the start of the auction, from there…the sky is the limit.
But, who knows if the real business is behind the ad on homegate or someone else.
The fun thing is that each canton lists the auctions to recover money after bankruptcies. This is the one for Vaud.
It gets interesting. Some of the properties that will be auctioned by the canton are also shown in homegate by ETI experts CH AG. But, not the one you shared.
The cantonal official newspaper (Fueille des avis officiels) has something about the property on Route des Esserts 59, 1854 Leysin. If I understand well, the publication from 20.03.2026 says the Office des Poursuites of Aigle District will put this property in action on 17.08.2026 at 10h00.
It seems the ad is legit. I’d give a call to the Office des Poursuites of Aigle District.
What I don’t understand is what kind of added value ETI experts CH AG provides. The auctions are directly managed by the cantonal office. Maybe this company is offering services to represent you as buyer. But, they’ll charge a nice % for it.
As i understand it, they collect the official documentation on property auctions from the official sources, and you can buy that info from them. The same information is available from official websites, but it can be hard to find if you don’t know where to look.
As far as i know, they don’t offer a service of representation or legal advice.
At this stage, you don’t need a lawyer, but if you’re unfamiliar with property auctions, it would be advisable to get some solid advice.
You’d need to have your financing sorted before the auction of course.
No worries. It can be tricky though. If you’re seriously interested, it’d be best to set up an account so you only get info that you’re interested in. Otherwise, you’ll get swamped with all kinds of bankruptcies. I can talk you through how to set it up if you want to.
The scam is they sell their catalogue which I guess consists of all or most publications of RE which is about to be auctioned off by cantonal debt agencies. And you can only buy them in bulk of 12
All the documentation for every sale by the debt collectors you can find on their webpage, with detailed accounts of how much is owed to whom and the actual state of the place with a report from a third party.
So their catalogue that they sell for almost 500 CHF is the scam.
“La commande du catalogue des ventes aux enchères se fait pour 12 exemplaires. Le prix global s’élève à CHF 468,00 ce qui correspond à CHF 39,00 par catalogue.”
Although in this case this is not ready yet. As stated in the Shab and Faovd links ealier, this will be in a few months : people who think “they are owned something” have until 15 april to say so, then the Bankruptcy office will publish the draft list of what is owned and terms of the auction on 22 may, with a further 10-day period for appeal, before the terms are finalized.
I am not even sure what the - paid for - brochure / catalog would contain at this stage..
Yes, there exists the federal one SHAB, but only for company-related publications and things like bankruptcies. However in recent years, some mainly german-speaking cantons are using it for all cantonal publications. In french-speaking cantons they still use the cantonal one in parallel, for some it is free online (eg VS), others paid for (subscription only, eg VD). In VD they still even publish it as a paper newspaper (FAOVD), often found at places like doctors receptions or coop restaurants, and if you happen to be in VD makes a interesting read… Mostly calls to people with unknown address - telling them that a criminal judgement is published for them, their wifes are suing them for divorce maintenance, permits that were canceled and telling them when they must leave, deaths without known family members for inheritence, proposals to reduce speed limits..
