London offers in excess of

Mickey666

eddddy said:

Ybe said:

In the areas I’ve looked at in London, 90% of properties are now marketed as offers in excess of. Does this mean no vendor will now accept offers below asking price? 

It's not really possible to generalise about what a vendor will do.

For example, a vendor who's desperate for a quick sale might accept a lowish offer from somebody who's able to proceed quickly. Or if a property has been hanging on the market for a while, the owner might get fed-up and accept a lowish offer.

But a vendor who's just put their property on the market might have high expectations (perhaps even completely unrealistic expectations.) Or they might be thinking 'I won't bother moving, unless I get an offer of £x'.

I think it's always worth having a chat with the EA about the vendor's price expectations.  The EA wants the property sold, so it's not really in their interests to mislead you - but even so, some EAs .might play strange games.

Exactly right.
There are no real 'rules' and it's impossible to know a vendor's motivation on day one, so ask as many questions as you can to form a view about what the vendor is trying to achieve.  But even this is not reliable because - shock horror! - some vendors will not be truthful.   It's all part of the game and much of the stress, I'd say, arises when parties expect a particular behaviour from the other.  Many vendor/buyer behaviours may seem irrational but it's rarely the case that ALL the factors are known or understood.  It's just the way it is.

To my mind, the current market is hyped-up with constant media reports about rising prices so any vendor wanting to get the best possible price (ie pretty much all of them!) will find it difficult to pitch a fixed price for fear of it being too low.  By stating 'Offers Over' they may feel that they are maximising their chances of a higher price.  But who really knows?  

Faced with such a property, all that a potential buyer can really do is offer their own best price or whatever it's worth to them.  If that's not enough to secure a deal then it was probably never to be.

verytired11

I am in London and my house went on at OIEO.  The reason for this was that the agent overvalued my property in order to get it on his books. I knew it was an overvaluation and didn't want the property to languish on the market, and wanted to generate a lot of interest and get a quick sale.  I therefore suggested putting it on at 50k less than his valuation.  He agreed but suggested OIEO which he said was basically the same as putting it on at the higher figure.  I got an asking price offer straight away and accepted it.  I had in mind a figure £50k below that even, so I was very happy. I also got another offer £100k under asking which I  would have accepted if it had been the only offer.  All in all you cannot know what's in the mind of the vendor nor what other people will offer.  

Ybe

Is an offer 7.7% below asking price (OIEO) a cheeky offer? 

BikingBud

ss2020jd said:

Sometimes if a property is marketed very competitively, at a slightly lower price in order to generate a lot of interest, for example, it might be seen as more of a startling point. It really depends how much interest there is and if it starts a bidding war. Or if no offers or low interest then there may be a chance a lower offer could be accepted. 

I agree most of them  are startling.

Bid what you feel is correct.