Offers over?

Loopy28

I can understand the logic of 'offers over' being advertised if someone wants to advertise the property at a lower price to get people through the door and create a bidding war. Or if they specifically want a minimum figure but hope for more and won't entertain a lower figure.

However, in my area there is a massive trend for a house to go up for an asking price, say for example 175k. After a few months it hasn't sold and so this is then dropped to offers over 170k. Surely someone with an asking price of 175k is hoping to get this if they are lucky but expecting that they might only get 170k in the end. So surely changing it to offers over 170k will not attract any new viewings because if someone wanted to view the house and had 170k to spend then they would have done this when it was advertised at 175k anyway?

Is this some sort of marketing psychology to try and make people think it is cheaper than before when in fact it is not?

pinkshoes

Loopy28 wrote: »

I can understand the logic of 'offers over' being advertised if someone wants to advertise the property at a lower price to get people through the door and create a bidding war. Or if they specifically want a minimum figure but hope for more and won't entertain a lower figure.

However, in my area there is a massive trend for a house to go up for an asking price, say for example 175k. After a few months it hasn't sold and so this is then dropped to offers over 170k. Surely someone with an asking price of 175k is hoping to get this if they are lucky but expecting that they might only get 170k in the end. So surely changing it to offers over 170k will not attract any new viewings because if someone wanted to view the house and had 170k to spend then they would have done this when it was advertised at 175k anyway?

Is this some sort of marketing psychology to try and make people think it is cheaper than before when in fact it is not?

It comes down to Rightmove price brackets.

Perhaps it will come in more searches at that price, and it only takes one person to love it and stretch their budget...

davisc02

I hate "Offers over" on a description, although I havent put in an offer on a house with this description but I would ignore it and put in an offer what I thought it was worth.

pinkshoes

davisc02 wrote: »

I hate "Offers over" on a description, although I havent put in an offer on a house with this description but I would ignore it and put in an offer what I thought it was worth.

We put our as offers over £200k, and person who bought it offered £190k to start.

Fair enough, but we declined. 3 increased offers later and we accepted his offer of £205k.

To be fair, our 2 bed was bigger than all the others in the area, but felt we were losing out on viewings when we priced it higher, as you had to see it to realise it was much more spacious.

Loopy28

That is a good point about the rightmove pricing bracket.

It is funny because I have looked at the property history for some of these houses on Zoopla and saw that some were on sale in 2013 for prices under the offers over price now. They couldn't sell then so I am guessing they are now trying the market again and have increased the asking price according to the supposed increase in value.

I am quite new to this whole offers game to be honest. If I offer on a property and this is rejected, will they just say the vendor has rejected or will they come back with a price that the vendor would accept? I suppose it depends on the vendor and the offer...

BabyBoots

Maybe it's someone who is on a tight budget and cannot afford to move if they accept less than £170k. E.g. they know they can't borrow any more, and know the cost of the place they want to move to, and if they can't afford it, they'll stay put. Kind of saying, we'll only move if we get this much. Maybe they just don't want their time wasted with lower offers.

You can't make your house worth a price it's not though!

passion_flower

We sold our house this Summer and we took advantage of the offers over to our benefit. In my opinion there is a trend in the UK of overpricing because everyone expects to be bartered down in price (don't like the kitchen, bathroom needs replacing colours of the walls are not suitable etc. People will always try to get the most they can for their money and there is nothing wrong with that.
We decided to list our house 10K under the going rate mainly to catch 2 price brackets.
We sold on the 3 rd day to the first viewer and did conduct 14 viewings in that one week (until he had a chance to be vetted by our estate agent).
And surprise, surprise he ended up buying our house for 10K over his budget.
By this point he viewed 20 houses in his budget but none were right, saw ours wanted it and his mum ended up going with him on the mortgage.
We are ready for exchanging tomorrow :j
Personally I do not see anything wrong with any marketing strategies, a house will only be worth what someone is prepared to pay for it regardless of what the listing price says.

ellie27

Its the way most properties in Glasgow are advertised.

To me 'offers over' doesnt mean you have to offer over the price though...

We are interested in a property that was advertised as offers over £240k, been on market almost 4 months now, and it last week it reduced to offers over £224k. We put in offers of £225k and £230k both rejected and agent told us the seller would accept £245!!!! So, why was it reduced in price if they still want over the original value? Marketing ploy hoping to get more viewers yes, but is someone viewing a property advertised at o.o. £224k really going to offer £245k?

Loopy28

My sister had her house on the market at 200k at the advice of the EA, no viewings and some weeks later, she asked them to change it to offers over 190k. She told me that she was aiming for 195k. She is now 2 months on and no more viewings and is now saying she will take 190k if it comes along.

The problem is that the EA has told her it is definitely worth more than 190k and is not overpriced and things will pick up now it is the end of the summer. Yet she paid 175k for it in 2007 at the peak and personally I don't think it is worth more than 180k. She thinks because we are 7 years on that her house should be worth lots more but can't get the fact that in our area, prices just have not got back to 2007 levels yet, without exceeding them as she is expecting. The EA is a lot to blame for her thinking this and she thinks they know best.

passion_flower

House buying is such a midfield and I honestly do not believe that estate agents know more than you and me. And they are desperate to get you on their books, some have targets they need to meet so they will tell you what you want to hear to a certain extent.
Every house will sell, but not always for what you want it to, after 11 years in this houses we only gained 22k. We are over the moon with this and the way I look at it I would have been happy with no gain at all as long as I didn't sell it at a loss.
It served us well and didn't cost us anything over this time. I have never had a house on the market for more than 2 weeks not sure if its luck, good skills at presenting it or we are just being realistic and price accordingly.

Loopy28

While I am on the topic of offers over, I am going to see one of these properties next weekend, reduced from 175k to offers over 170k after several months on the market. I was going to see it anyway even at 175k, it just changed prior to me booking the viewing!

If I did like it, I feel a bit awkward about what to offer, technically I could go to about 171k absolute max but feel like jumping straight in with an offer of say 170k might be a mistake as they will likely reject it as a first offer. But if I offer under at maybe 167-168k, would this annoy the vendor? Or would this make it more likely that I could then put in a second offer for 170k and get the property?