Buying. Offers over......

WATTY1978

Hi just need an extra opinion or two
looking to buy a house. its on the market at offers over £200k it was up for £240 but has been on the market since the begining of the year. £200k is our absolute limit.
I have only recenly seen properties asking over the price stated recently and i know its common practice in places such as scotland but i have no idea how to handle it. would it be offensive to offer £200k to see what happens or am i expected to go above like they suggest.
I obviously want the best deal possible.
And advice welcome

advice_please_2

I don't get these "offers over"
Apart from it drops the house price in a different bracket in the searches to try to appeal to more people
.ie if someone had a budget of £200k and firm and so never looked at houses £210k region

They can only say no
Wish someone would offer on ours

googler

Is the property in Scotland?

WATTY1978

Thanks. no its not in scotland but ive heard over there they set a price and your expected to offer around 10% more. not sure how accurate that is but i wondered if there was anything similar here that i didnt know about.
Like you sa i have nothing to lose by offering £200k and its would be fab if they accepted

googler

WATTY1978 wrote: »

Thanks. no its not in scotland but ive heard over there they set a price and your expected to offer around 10% more. not sure how accurate that is

Not very accurate at all.

Mickygg

Offers over is designed not to attract bargain hunters offering 10 or 20% below on any property. You can offer the 200k, but I suspect thy want more, especially being up at 240k before.

jbainbridge

It means nothing. Do your research on similar houses that have sold nearby if there are any. Make your offer based on what you think the house is worth, offer below 200 if you think it is a good offer - you can always go up to 200 if you really want it.

Lizling

If you were the property owner trying to sell, would you rather people didn't put in offers for fear of offending you, or would you like them to put an offer in and let you decide to take it or not?

Seriously, I don't get this thing where people worry about offending the vendors. I'm generally polite, but I'm afraid worrying about other people's excessive sensitivity doesn't even come into it when trying to avoid overpaying by tens of thousands of pounds.

bluedrop

My friend bought a flat with offers over 225k. They started offers from 200k. Offer accepted at 215k.

This is in a very popular area in SE London -quite close to the station....

Littleweedj

It used to be the case (in Scotland) that advertising at "offers over" was the norm. However, these days are long gone for the majority of properties. It can still apply for some houses in much sought after areas etc and many estate agents still use this term.

I would disregard any term whether it be fixed price, offers over, offers around etc. and as others have mentioned, just do a bit of research beforehand then make an initial offer and hopefully buyer and seller can both be open to negotiate.

WATTY1978

Thanks everyone. i guess a house is only worth what another person will pay for it. youre right i wont worry about offending. its got to be worth a shot. cheers