“Offers Over” confusion

last_mile

Hi All, 
I’m a little confused with “offers over”.

I’m not trying to pose a “what should I offer in £” question.

It’s more around the Symantec’s of it all.
To make things easy I’ll round the figures, i like a house on the market for £100k, home report is £110k (Scotland).
The advice I hear is 8-10% above but some say above asking while other say above home report.

i just don’t know where to aim to even be taken seriously but also not over shoot the mark.

any tips?
many thanks!

user1977

last_mile said:

any tips?

Talk to your solicitor? It's what you're paying them for!

You haven't told us whether it's going to a closing date or not, which makes a massive difference.

propertyrental

You've also not told us what similar properties locally are a) being advertised for and b) selling for

RHemmings

If it's on for 'offers over £100k' and you offer £110k, how could they not take you seriously? I'd expect them to take you seriously at £100k, and the longer the house has been on the market the more feasible it is to offer less than £100k. 

This is independent of what the true value is. Surely nobody would put a house up for 'offers over £100k' when the true value is £150k and they expect that or more? 

cymruchris

I've seen several showing 'offers over' where the vendor would take a considerable offer under. 

It all depends on the interest in the house, how long it's been on the market, how well priced it is etc.

If nobody has viewed for 3 months, then you could offer on the nose and see what happens.

If it went on the market last week, and there have been multiple viewing and several offers received, you'll have to up your game.

Ultimately you offer what you feel happy in paying for the property concerned (with the caveat that if you're getting a mortgage - and they value it as part of the process - you can't go too overboard, as you might not get the financing to cover the offer you've made)

Cairnpapple

RHemmings said:

If it's on for 'offers over £100k' and you offer £110k, how could they not take you seriously? I'd expect them to take you seriously at £100k, and the longer the house has been on the market the more feasible it is to offer less than £100k. 

This is independent of what the true value is. Surely nobody would put a house up for 'offers over £100k' when the true value is £150k and they expect that or more? 

There have certainly been times and places in the Scottish housing market where 'offers over £100k' would mean that you wouldn't consider anything below £120k or £130k. 'Offers over' is a longstanding convention here and not always particularly logical. 

The existence of the home report (single survey) has moderated things somewhat at the lower end as the home report value determines how much the buyer can get a mortgage for. 

If the property was genuinely on for £100k in my locality it would be a small flat which are selling, but not super fast, so I'd probably split the difference and offer £105k in the first instance, assuming there was no closing date set. But your solicitor is always going to be the best source of information. Beware of advice from friends/family that is based on a different time and/or a different location as the market can be very localized. 

MobileSaver

cymruchris said:

I've seen several showing 'offers over' where the vendor would take a considerable offer under.

In the rest of the UK that's quite possible but in Scotland (where the OP is based) that would be very unusual - very few properties sell for less than the 'offers over' price and most sell for at least the Home Report valuation which will be even higher.

last_mile

Sorry All, the property only came on a little over a week ago.
I was part of the 2nd group viewing on Friday which was around 7/8 parties attending.
No closing date announced yet but it has been a bank hols weekend.
Its in a area where things dont move very often so its difficult to compare.
but others a little further afield are looking the 10% over easily, a recent sale listed for £60k sold for £79K so its hard to tell.
Specifically because zoopla lists the "listed" and "sold" price but not the valuation from the home report so its hard to tell how that all played out.

From what i can tell in the broader sense, nothing goes from under home report, unless its in disrepair and even some of those sell high.

hopefully i will hear today if there is to be a closing date.

Herzlos

Offers Over in Scotland generally means that the price has been lowered a bit. IIR we were valued at £145k and told to go for OO £140k. We ended up with offers of £151k, £155k and £160k, but it was a pretty desirable house.

on the flip side we offered £231k on our new house which was Offers Over £215k and only just beat an offer of £230k. It's an even more desirable house in a street that rarely goes on the market though, so not representative of everywhere.

You're probably best ignoring the offers over figure and looking at the home report value, because that's what the surveyor and bank will think it's worth and is more in line with what the seller actually expects.

You can ask the estate agent if the seller has a figure in mind, or if £x would be a reasonable offer.

You also have the option to increase the offer or receive a counter offer, if you offer too low.

oldernonethewiser

RHemmings said:

If it's on for 'offers over £100k' and you offer £110k, how could they not take you seriously? I'd expect them to take you seriously at £100k, and the longer the house has been on the market the more feasible it is to offer less than £100k. 

This is independent of what the true value is. Surely nobody would put a house up for 'offers over £100k' when the true value is £150k and they expect that or more? 

That, for better or worse, is not how it works, generally speaking.

The "offers over" figure means nothing in reality, it is just to get a potential buyer interested.

The Home Report is what the lender will base their finance on.

Offers over is such a lottery.

I sold a property just over a year ago and the sale price was just over 10% more than the Home Report and 12% more than the "offers over"

It all depends on the area, state of the building, how many people are interested etc.

Some places in popular areas go for over 20% more than the "offers over"

"True value" - is what someone is prepared to pay. 

theartfullodger

Symantec is IIRC an IT Company. Dids't mean semantics?

I offered about 20%+ OFF the offers over price (Scotland).  Declined with the rudest bluntest "no" I've ever had (probably about 20 purchases so far, age 76.).

I thanked them calmly and politely. 

A week later made exactly same written offer via solicitors . Accepted. Sold it about 20 years later.

Offer whatever you wish, there are no rules.