Buying a House ‘Offers in Excess of’- what do you think?

Vman_2

Looking for advice- We are first time buyers- looking at a property that’s been dropped in price form about 195,000 to 185,000. However, it says in the particulars that it’s ‘offers in excess of’ and we’re not sure how to pitch our offer. Should we come in low or start at 185,000? We are ready to proceed and not in a chain. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
Vman and Jgirl

cattie

Unless this is in Scotland where I understand the offers over system is the norm, the chances are now they have just lowered the price they have obviously decided that £185k is the mininum offer they will accept, so you stand a chance of irritating them by making a lower offer than stated base price. As a vendor it would irritate me & so I'd ask the ea not to pass on offers below this price.

Maybe you need to use a bit of psychology here if you want to secure the house & pitch your starting offer somewhere middle/high £186k region. Any other interested parties that came in with an offer over the 185 mark but lower than yours is going to look like cheapskates.

Make sure your finance etc is already in place before making any offer & emphasise that you are ready to proceed & can move quickly.

Vman_2

Thanks- That’s sound advice. This is not Scotland so we're not doing the sealed bid thing- but the EA is Scottish so maybe there is a link there somewhere. Obviously the price has been dropped for a reason and it might be that the onward chain is crumbling because they can’t sell. As vendor would an offer just under with the ability to proceed count for anything?

A_Nice_Englishman

How much do you think the property is worth? Don't offer more than that

whambamboo

i shouldn't worry too much about the asking price. Offer what you want, based on hopefully getting a little bit better deal than local selling prices: the worst they can do is turn it down.

huggermugger

Ability to proceed counts for a great deal in many parts of the country at the moment - if you have a mortgage agreed in principle & are able to move fairly quickly, eg: not tied into a rental agreement, you are what is known as a proceedable buyer & may well take priority over a higher offer from an unproceedable buyer ie: someone who still has to sell or has other factors that prevent them from moving quickly.

"Offers in excess of" is a term a bit like "guide price" - it can mean a number of things. It may mean that the sellers are in a hurry to go and will consider any reasonable offer. But it could mean that the agents are setting the price as a "come-on" to whip up interest in the property. It could equally mean that the owners think the property is worth more than it actually is and have insisted on it being marketed at that price so the agents have agreed to give it a punt.

Try to find out how long it has been on the market. If you live in an area where the market is fairly buoyant & it's been around for a while then the sellers may well be wanting to get a move on. You can sometimes tell from the photos how long it has been around. Ask what their position is - have they found somewhere? Are they moving because they have a new job elsewhere? All these are factors that would influence whether they'll take a lower offer. I wouldn't worry too much about insulting people, but low bids are often rejected initially as most people assume that you can go a bit higher. Have you asked the agent why it's "offers in excess of"? They might tell you! But if a lot of their other properties have the same tag then it's just their way of selling & you should ignore it & proceed as normal.

paulpablo

hi dont know if this helps but i just bought a house in stockport it was up 4 offers over £95000 and i didnt evan notice so i bid £92000 which they rejected then £93000 rejected then they took my offer ov £93500 which was all good lol so u can try 2 go under the offers over price.

advent1122

Brb! Jst Hd Txt Mssg.

BobProperty

paulpablo wrote:

hi dont know if this helps but i just bought a house in stockport it was up 4 offers over £95000 and i didnt evan notice so i bid £92000 which they rejected then £93000 rejected then they took my offer ov £93500 which was all good lol so u can try 2 go under the offers over price.

:eek: Another Stockport poster. What is it about this site and Stockport? :rotfl:
Anyway, bet it was Bridgfords that was selling it.

loujay_2

We reduced our house, hoping to sell quick.. We didnt ask for 'offers in excess of' so when we got an offer asking 'would you accept...' for what we thought was our full asking price I agreed and wondered why they were asking 'would we accept'. It was only later when I looked on rightmove that I noticed the EA had put 'offers in excess of'.
I'd be tempted to go in at 185k and see what comes of it. You can always go higher. I am pressuming the house has been on the market a while? If not then I'd go in higher as we lost a house putting in too low an offer as it hadnt been for sale for very long.
Good luck

F_T_Buyer

Errr... they reduced the price because they can't sell it. Now, they're trying to confuse any newbie by adding four words to the price.

Just offer what you think it's worth, personally I would avoid any 'offers in excess of' rubbish (in England).

The price mentioned on that type of marketing is usually clearly very cheap, hence encourage lots of buyers to push the price up. A drop of £10k (5%) does not make it cheap - It's all spin, spin, spin and sales tactics.