The psychology of the "offers over" situation

lookstraightahead

Some really interesting comments here, thank you. I'm not up to date with current tactics but as I start to go through this process I'm getting more knowledgeable. I need to work on my poker face as well! I realise now people put in offers before they've got all their ducks in a row and then deals fall through quite a lot. 

Robinette

I've recently had an offer of £295k accepted on a house that was originally on the market for OIEO £310k and then reduced to OIEO £300k. I went in at £292k and the vendors made a counteroffer of £295k, so the OIEO obviously didn't mean anything., 

lookstraightahead

Robinette said:

I've recently had an offer of £295k accepted on a house that was originally on the market for OIEO £310k and then reduced to OIEO £300k. I went in at £292k and the vendors made a counteroffer of £295k, so the OIEO obviously didn't mean anything., 

Thank you, so if you'd stuck to what they had said they would have lost the sale 

theartfullodger

I had a "offet rs over" property I wanted to buy:  Been on the market some time:  I offered, in writing via solicitor, 20%+ below "offers over" price.  Got the bluntest rudest refusal passed on by agent ever "never so insulted, would never consider such a daft price " etc etc.. 

I thanked agent calmly & politely (wasn;t their fault..).  Waited a week repeated same offer: Accepted.

It's your shout if you offer £1, "offers over" + 5% or whatever, your money, your gamble.

lookstraightahead

theartfullodger said:

I had a "offet rs over" property I wanted to buy:  Been on the market some time:  I offered, in writing via solicitor, 20%+ below "offers over" price.  Got the bluntest rudest refusal passed on by agent ever "never so insulted, would never consider such a daft price " etc etc.. 

I thanked agent calmly & politely (wasn;t their fault..).  Waited a week repeated same offer: Accepted.

It's your shout if you offer £1, "offers over" + 5% or whatever, your money, your gamble.

Thank you. It's all a game and quite exhausting really. I think you have to ignore everything and just offer what you think it's worth. Your head definitely has to rule your heart and you have to be happy walking away.

Mickey666

NameUnavailable said:

It's meaningless. I've seen plenty of 'offers over' properties reduce their prices. If you say 'offers over £200K' why offer more than £201K to start? Although I would ignore it and just offer what you think the property is worth as their current 'offers over' price may be unrealistic to start with.

Stupid practice. Same with 'guide price' which should just be for auction sales.

Not necessarily.  It could mean that the seller simply won't sell at anything lower than the offers over price, so it can be a way of telling prospective buyers not to waste their time offering below the asking price.

In practice, of course, no one can really know what a specific seller might mean by 'offers over', so I agree with you that the best approach is for prospective buyers to just offer what it's worth to them - because no-one else matters.

Eilidh1970

davidmcn said:

Eilidh1970 said:

when I bought my first flat, if I was looking at anything in the West End of Glasgow I'd have needed to go 25 per cent over to buy a property, whereas in the area I bought in, the sellers were happy with an extra £1k. It's worth researching recent sales prices in the area.

Was this before Home Reports came in? Asking prices are a bit more sensible if all parties start off knowing what an objective valuation of the property is.

Yes, my first flat purchase pre-dated the Home Reports - I agree that they seem to have had a stabilising influence on prices. 

Angela_D_3

Mine went for £9,000 over the asking price without me even needing to ask.  From a vendors point of view I hated it because lovely young couples were looking thinking they’d get it at the asking price.  What more could they do and they were gazumped.  Happened to one pregnant lady three times.  I felt like !!!!!! tbh 

Mickey666

Angela_D_3 said:

Mine went for £9,000 over the asking price without me even needing to ask.  From a vendors point of view I hated it because lovely young couples were looking thinking they’d get it at the asking price.  What more could they do and they were gazumped.  Happened to one pregnant lady three times.  I felt like !!!!!! tbh 

But not bad enough to sell at your asking price?

Not so much a criticism as a simple observation that reminds me of archtypal holiday town resident complaining that 'incomers' have driven up property prices by buying holiday homes, with the result that their kids can no longer afford to live there.  Well yes, but who is it selling their houses to 'incomers' at those inflated prices . . . . ?

Angela_D_3

Mickey666 said:

Angela_D_3 said:

Mine went for £9,000 over the asking price without me even needing to ask.  From a vendors point of view I hated it because lovely young couples were looking thinking they’d get it at the asking price.  What more could they do and they were gazumped.  Happened to one pregnant lady three times.  I felt like !!!!!! tbh 

But not bad enough to sell at your asking price?

Not so much a criticism as a simple observation that reminds me of archtypal holiday town resident complaining that 'incomers' have driven up property prices by buying holiday homes, with the result that their kids can no longer afford to live there.  Well yes, but who is it selling their houses to 'incomers' at those inflated prices . . . . ?

Well no. 

I’m not a charity.