"Offers over" vagueness

kilby_007

What are people's interpretation of "offers over"? A little bit over? 1-2%? 10%?

We saw a georgian property we really liked that has been on the market a few months. It was initially advertised at 330K and I remember seeing it but glossed over as it was out of reach for us but it was reduced to "offers over 300K" a month ago so we arranged a viewing.

Next door (same size/footprint even down to the 3 stables at the back but Victorian era) is on at 280K and has been on for 5 months with no sale. There's a little less land with that one and I'd say that land is worth about 10K.

We told the agent of the more expensive property that we couldn't really justify making an offer above 300K and left it at that, but they got back to us and asked us to offer what we thought it was worth so taking everything into account we delivered our initial offer at 285K, played the game and ended up at 300K which was a little over what we thought it was worth but happy to pay it to get things moving along. The estate agent came back and said they were hoping for "just a little bit over" 300K but said our offer hadn't been rejected and they would think about it overnight. I was expecting to have to add a couple of grand on but today we had a call back and they're now saying they want at least 320K... if we'd known they wanted 320 to begin with we'd have just walked away and not wasted either party's time!

AnotherJoe

There's no such thing as "people's" interpretation, there is each individuals interpretation.

Seems to me those sellers are living in lala land, I agree they appear to have wasted everyone's time.

I'd be inclined to go back with a last and final offer of £285k.

Ps how come you aren't offering on next door, and is it just a coincidence both are up for sale with no takers ?

Cakeguts

300K is too expensive. It it wasn't they would have had an offer by now apart from yours. It looks as if £280 is too expensive judging by next door.

kilby_007

AnotherJoe wrote: »

I'd be inclined to go back with a last and final offer of £285k.

Might have cut my nose off to spite my face but when they came back with the 320 statement I just said 300 was our maximum and I'm going back offshore to work next week until January so they've only got tomorrow to get back to me if they change their mind. Perhaps they had the intention of panicking me into making a big jump but it's had the opposite effect.

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Ps how come you aren't offering on next door, and is it just a coincidence both are up for sale with no takers ?

Although we preferred the layout of next door and it has approved planning permission for a 4th bedroom and conversion of the stables (which we would want to do on either property) ultimately we wanted the extra plot size that the more expensive one offers. Also next door was very "old people-y" (very old carpets/decor) and we'd have to renovate it all fairly quickly which is easier said than done with a 2 year old!

The fact they're both for sale I imagine may have something to do with a new build estate (88 houses) that's going up on the other side of the road. We went through the pros and cons and decided that new housing would look better than the old pre-fab concrete farm building that's there now anyway.

There was some flooding in the area about 10 years ago caused by exceptionally heavy rain and poor drainage but I've done my research on that and the flood waters reached about 5 doors down from there, which is about a metre below. It is a bit of a risk especially with the increased demand on drainage from the new builds but it does stipulate in the plans that they are to improve/upgrade surface water drainage in the area anyway.

kilby_007

Cakeguts wrote: »

300K is too expensive. It it wasn't they would have had an offer by now apart from yours. It looks as if £280 is too expensive judging by next door.

It's difficult to judge. I think it's mainly down to the plot size but the georgian property is (to me) more visually appealing because of the character and design of the 200 year old building vs the rendered finish of 100 year old Victorian one next door. There's pros and cons on both sides. The Georgian property is less efficient and I imagine will be more susceptible to damp/structural issues. I know they've just had the damp proof course re-done. The victorian property has much more square walls so will be easier to decorate/furnish and more practical and it has the planning permission and a bigger garage but will need painting externally every few years and we wouldn't be able to do as much with the garden, being a smaller size.

EDIT:- The more I talk about it the more tempted I am at making an offer of 260K on next door and leaving both offers on the table for a couple of weeks but I'm pretty sure they'll talk to eachother and if either party know I've offered on the other I imagine they wouldn't be too happy.

marksoton

My interpretation... They're taking the p155.

JP08

My interpretation of Offers Over is that it means the vendors won't be entertaining offers under the asking price. The estate agents suggested an advertised price of offers over [price] when I sold the old house.

Sure enough, got an offer under the price, asked agent to nicely point out that it was offers over, guy came back with asking price offer. Job done. Certainly wouldn't have expected to get any more.

csgohan4

offer less, offer only what you think the house is worth, not what an EA tells you.


If you can wait, they might cave in.

agrinnall

JP08 wrote: »

My interpretation of Offers Over is that it means the vendors won't be entertaining offers under the asking price. The estate agents suggested an advertised price of offers over [price] when I sold the old house.

Sure enough, got an offer under the price, asked agent to nicely point out that it was offers over, guy came back with asking price offer. Job done. Certainly wouldn't have expected to get any more.

The house that I bought was o/o £170K, I paid £167.5K, it's just a marketing ploy and should be ignored if the o/o price is more than you think the property is worth.

kilby_007

csgohan4 wrote: »

offer less, offer only what you think the house is worth, not what an EA tells you.


If you can wait, they might cave in.

300K is a generous offer, we're not in a chain and won't have any trouble getting a mortgage, flexible on exchnge/completion dates etc so they're daft if they don't take it but it's obvious that the estate agent has overpriced their property at 330K to reel them in and then used the "offers over" tactic to attract some viewings whilst keeping up the pretence with the vendor that they can achieve near their original asking price.

I'm away with work for 2 weeks from next week so if they don't come back to us today then they'll be waiting until next year. I've told them this and we're looking at another property today so it's crunch time for them. We're not in any rush, we've been looking for a year and can wait another year or two if we have to.

always_sunny

I don't think there's a rule, it depends but if the owner has instructed the EA not to pass any offer over it, offering less won't make it?