How much to offer (when "offers in excess of" stated)?

Katie_F20

Hi everyone, 

I'm looking for some advice/views/opinions on what to offer on a property currently listed "£325k offers over". The property is a 3 bed house (2 doubles, 1 single) with 1 bathroom, kitchen/diner, lounge, and garden room. The property has extensive gardens with 2 small outbuildings (with power) and 2 sheds. 

It is the first place we have seen that has most of what we need and a lot of potential. Houses in the area sell on average for £279k. 

Would it be better to offer the asking price? Or would it be better to come in slightly under given the market at the moment and average prices in the area? We're first-time buyers so any advice would be appreciated. I realise that this isn't a lot of information to go on but any thoughts are welcome.

Thank you! 

anselld

Which Country?  Offers over has a very different expectation in Scotland to the rest of UK.

Katie_F20

anselld said:

Which Country?  Offers over has a very different expectation in Scotland to the rest of UK.

England 👍

fackers_2

Exactly how much you are willing to pay. Just because they’ve asked for offers over, doesn’t mean they are going to get it. 

Any listings with this, I immediately look away, tells me the sellers are going to be difficult the whole process. 

[Deleted User]

Ignore it, offer what you think it's worth. If they say no you can consider raising your offer to the limit if what you are willing to pay.

TheJP

They are telling you their intention, they know the property has a lot to offer over other similar properties, notably the garden, power assisted sheds etc. They want interested parties to bid over the asking price, what you offer is up to what you value the property and what you can afford. 

Forget the people who say these tags are pointless, it tells a lot about a sellers mentality, it could tell you that they just want a bidding war and its not worth it or it can tell you that the property is desirable and its up to how much i am willing to pay.

BreakingGlass

Offer £295k. 

comeandgo

If you offer over the mortgage lenders valuation do you have a large enough deposit to cover the shortfall?

TheJP

comeandgo said:

If you offer over the mortgage lenders valuation do you have a large enough deposit to cover the shortfall?

No different to any sale.

pinkteapot

Based on what similar houses have sold for and what else is on the market for the same sort of price, you think about prices and think about at what number your feelings change from "We missed out - we should have gone higher than that" to "That's fine - we'd have been paying too much for it and there'll be something else". That gives you your maximum and you start a bit lower than that and go to your max if necessary.

(Note: In a super-fast competitive market you go straight in at your max but is anywhere in the country still like that?)

For any given house, that maximum will be different for different people as the rough value is market-led then the exact number is very subjective depending on what you want, how quickly you want to get moved, how flexible your criteria are, etc. The person for whom its highest is likely to get the house.

If very similar houses are really selling for £280k (actually similar to it - average price in a whole area is irrelevant, e.g. this may be bigger than average!) and this one's on for offers over £325k it's unlikely you'll end up with it. There will always be houses on the market where the seller is determined to get a certain price, often because that's how much they want in order to buy the next house they want. They're pricing by what they want, not what the market suggests. You can usually spot them because they've been on the market for months. Of course if one comes up in this category that really is unique, you might spend the money to get it. Up to you!

RelievedSheff

Offer what you think the property is worth to you.

If they say no, then either reconsider your offer or walk away and find something else.