Offers over etiquette

eidand

mvteng said:

Mickey666 said:

Well yes, really.  If other potential buyers push up the price then so be it, it doesn't magically make the property worth that much to the OP.  Paying more than a property is worth to you personally, perhaps more than you can actually afford, is a potential route to emotional or financial disaster.  THAT'S why no one else is important.

Hmmm.  I would agree completely that paying more for a property than you can afford is a route to disaster.

I dont understand your logic that other buyers are not important. You state that other potential buyers can push the price up. I would consider that makes them important. 
no other potential buyers = lower potential price
lots of potential other buyers = higher potential price
hence - other buyers are important

I am tempted to say that the other buyers are not that important, or maybe hold little value.
The thing is, not all buyers are equal, you might be the only one proceedable.
It does depend on the area though, some areas do see huge interest and in that case then yes, you'd have to care, and keep offering if you really must have that one property.
Personally I avoid bidding wars. I am happy to leave offers on the table and if it doesn't happen,then so be it. It is a personal choice after all.

mistrihelen

Sorry to bump - I'm seeing a house tomorrow that has only gone up today. It's on offers over at 500k, which to be honest was originally our top budget (but seeing signs we might need to try for more). If you make an immediate offer on an 'offers over' house, surely they're not going to be quick to accept and take it off the market? We think it's likely we will want to offer - but I don't want to enter another bidding war (just done that and lost).

Agent is Purple Bricks if that makes things worse...

youth_leader

I came on here to ask advice about offers over, as I was very excited to see a property I thought was perfect.  I spent the night before crunching numbers to see how much of my savings I could afford to 'offer over' to secure it.  When I got there, it seemed very different to the photographs, and needed renovation.    I doubt the offer they received and accepted was 'over'.  

theoretica

One of the problems I see again and again is buyers looking for some consistency to how sellers will behave and to how the asking price of a property might relate to its final sale price.  Behind each house for sale is an individual vendor, not necessarily more experienced in house selling than the buyer is in house buying and likely trying to work the system and the market in their own way.

I bought my property at the same time as a near identical one was sold.  Asking prices were £35k different, sale prices were within £500. 

getmore4less

With any price the fluff around it, guide, offers over, OIRO etc are only relevant if the pricing reflects the market.

Offers over should only go on competitive pricing where there will be potential interest or it sends a message of unrealistic seller if on a high end price. 

fishfingerbutties

I find it fascinating that people are willing to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on something but do little basic research to find that offers over, OIEO, OIRO all have NO LEGAL MEANING and therefore can offer whatever they feel suitable. 

mistrihelen

We know it has no legal meaning, at least I do...
I'm trying (pointlessly admittedly) to guess at the seller's expectations before I get disappointed yet again at a house that looks good on paper for the price. We will look and offer a good price - just trying to measure up how much messing around there is likely to be. 

steve866

I ended up buying a house recently directly from the vendor. We had discussed transacting privately and by the time I had sorted my finances to make a decent offer, he had just agreed to list with an agent. He ended up listing with the agent for 2 weeks as ‘Offers over X’ with X being the offer I made + what he would have to pay the agent. I didn’t feel great knowing I had the offer to beat! He ended up getting offered about £5k more than mine offer (after agents fee taken into account) but they had a chain so I ended up securing the property. The point of the story is that there sometimes is a legitimate reason for ‘offers over’. Having said that, I would happily offer under the ‘offers over’ value as a first offer, you can always go up.