"Offers over" vagueness

saajan_12

Ofcourse it's all guessing, but I think your £300k will be fine. They could be putting in £300k as a low price in the hopes generating interest and a bidding war to get a much higher 320k+ sale, but I doubt it given they’ve lowered from £330k.. If it wasn’t selling at 330k, 320k isn’t far off. So I reckon they’re either dreaming or trying their chances. I’d interpret ‘offers over’ as ‘don’t try to low ball me under asking price’.. but anything at / slightly above / lots above asking would be taken seriously.

G_M

There's no definition.

It might well mean that it's an idiosyncratic property that is hard to value (nothing similar in the area) so the agent, or seller, suggests this as a guide whilst hoping for more.

Or it could be the seller genuinely won't take less, perhaps because of negative equity, obviously wants more if enough buyers are interested, but that's his bottom line.

In your case it does seem overpriced from what you say, but it's worth what you're willing to pay - so if you pay 300, or more, and are happy living there in 6 months, than that's its value.

On the other hand, if you spend the next 5 years kicking yourself and wishing you'd paid less or walked away, then you've overpaid!

kilby_007

G_M wrote: »

There's no definition.

It might well mean that it's an idiosyncratic property that is hard to value (nothing similar in the area) so the agent, or seller, suggests this as a guide whilst hoping for more.

Or it could be the seller genuinely won't take less, perhaps because of negative equity, obviously wants more if enough buyers are interested, but that's his bottom line.

In your case it does seem overpriced from what you say, but it's worth what you're willing to pay - so if you pay 300, or more, and are happy living there in 6 months, than that's its value.

On the other hand, if you spend the next 5 years kicking yourself and wishing you'd paid less or walked away, then you've overpaid!

Yeah we're happy with 300K. I know the seller bought in 2000 and paid 149K for it, so they're set to double their money there, (in nominal terms) and I know they're not moving up the ladder, they're down-sizing as it's only the two of them and the dogs but then you don't know their other financial circumstances. Perhaps they're mortgage-free and not in a rush to move, in which case they might be happy to hold out for 320, or maybe they're waiting for the right property to come along for them before they agree a sale on theirs... it's a guessing game whatever.

Crashy_Time

marksoton wrote: »

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

How much would you offer them?

Crashy_Time

kilby_007 wrote: »

Yeah we're happy with 300K. I know the seller bought in 2000 and paid 149K for it, so they're set to double their money there, (in nominal terms) and I know they're not moving up the ladder, they're down-sizing as it's only the two of them and the dogs but then you don't know their other financial circumstances. Perhaps they're mortgage-free and not in a rush to move, in which case they might be happy to hold out for 320, or maybe they're waiting for the right property to come along for them before they agree a sale on theirs... it's a guessing game whatever.

Really? Let us know what they eventually get please.

kilby_007

Crashy_Time wrote: »

Really? Let us know what they eventually get please.

Why the surprise? A doubling of house prices in 16 years is relatively tame compared to some areas of the country! I'm not saying it's good (it is effing crazy) but that's how it is, until we get someone who knows what they're doing at the helm of our bank and economy and can make decisions for the greater good/future rather than going with the status quo of ridiculous house price inflation!

Mortgage_Moog

I made on offer of 10% less than the asking price on a property saying "offers over". They accepted it.

gzoom

We just had a offer on a house advertised as 'offers over'. We offer the amount in the advert as we thought the house was worth the asking price, initially the vendors came back asking for a fair amount more. We didn't think it was worth the extra amount so didn't call back. That was on Monday this week, as of last night our initial and only offer has been accepted.

I will simply ignore any prefix in the advert and treat is as the asking price. There isn't that many good houses on the market, if you think it's worth the asking price put a offer in. Personally I refuse to pay a single £ more than the advertised price, if the vendors want a minimum of XXX thats the amount they should advertise for, not put an advert out with a lower amount.

kilby_007

Well, no call either yesterday or this morning so that's it for us now until next year as I'm offshore for the next 2 weeks. I'm thinking they can't have had any interest at all at 330 for them to reduce it relatively quickly, but then part of me thinks the EA has given them the spiel about "offers over" achieving somewhere near 320. Hopefully we'll find somewhere else in the new year if they don't get back to us, or if next door reduces then we'll probably put an offer in on there. I'm not overly keen to continue shelling out rent on our current place, but at least it will put a few more month's savings in our pocket for when we do move. We have one knackered out sofa in our rental place and we'll need 3 or 4 when we move.

robatwork

EA: "Lovely house I'd love to market it for you"
Client: "OK but we need £300,000 minimum to afford the house we want to buy"
EA: "How about offers over £300,000?"

Later: "Only offer on the table is £300,000 from this oil rig guy"
Much Later 1: "So glad we held out to get £310,000 from that lovely couple"
Much Later 2: "So glad we didn't offer more than £300,000 and they didn't get any higher offers"