Houses advertised at offers in excess of x

Pat38493

Bit of an odd one, but is there any general accepted etiquette on dealing with houses that are priced at “offers in excess of”.  If it says £500K for example, is it understood that you should offer at least £10K more or suchlike and £500K is an insulting offer?

Just wondering as normally, if the price is X, I would start by offering x minus a few percent and then go from there.

Not sure what to do now that I am seeing a lot of these “offers in excess” advertisements.

Example - we put in an offer on a house at the price advertised, and a few hours later we got a call that they have now accepted an offer at a “much higher price” without even asking if we wanted to counter bid (not sure we would have anyway as our research led us to believe that the price was close to the ceiling for that street).

Maahes

On the advice of the EA I offered £10k less than the offers in excess of price which was accepted by the sellers.

RHemmings

Some time ago, I went through sold listings on Zoopla for houses that had sold. In my area. Of those advertised as 'offers over', quite a few sold for less than the offers over price. It's possible that some had offers that were originally higher, but which dropped after a survey, etc. 

Simply offer what you think the house is worth. 

dander

In current market I think you view it like any other asking price and pretend you didn't see the "offers over" bit. Try to get the property for under the price listed.

SarahB16

Pat38493 said:

Not sure what to do now that I am seeing a lot of these “offers in excess” advertisements.

Could you ask the estate agent and see what they say?  Each house will be different, some will have lots of interest and others not so much.  Personally, if there was a house you really liked I'd physically go into the branch of the estate agents and ask them and see what they say. 

NervyBuyer

I have found that properties advertised that way tend to stay on the market when others similar are selling fast. In one case I did go into the agent and ask (as I hoped there might be some flexibility given how long it had been on the market) and the agent rather surprisingly gave me a long history of all the offers the seller had turned down. I have steered clear of such properties because it feels as if the vendor isn't that serious about selling and will stubbornly hold out for what they think it's worth.

[Deleted User]

Offer what you think it's worth. That's the only rule.

AskAsk

it doesn't really mean anything but the general idea is that the vendor is looking for an offer of anything above this price.  but you will get offers all over the place, below and above and the same.

so in a way it might as well be 500k.  agents like to use it to invite interest and bargaining.

youth_leader

I had a terrible time selling and went from £500K to £450K ... then had to change agents, the small agency I went with first of all couldn't afford RightMove. 

The new agent said as I had such big reductions in a short time she understood that I was disappointed, and should market at OIRO £400K.  Didn't work, I got offers well under and went to auction in the end

theartfullodger

There are no rules.

I bid about 20% below offers in excess of price in early 2,000s.  Got the most blunt rude rejection from  agent ("owner never so insulted.." etc).

I thanked them politely.

Made same offer, in writing ,again, via my solicitor, a week later.

Accepted.

Offer what you wish.  Good luck.

RHemmings

NervyBuyer said:

I have found that properties advertised that way tend to stay on the market when others similar are selling fast. In one case I did go into the agent and ask (as I hoped there might be some flexibility given how long it had been on the market) and the agent rather surprisingly gave me a long history of all the offers the seller had turned down. I have steered clear of such properties because it feels as if the vendor isn't that serious about selling and will stubbornly hold out for what they think it's worth.

When I see 'offers over' a price that isn't low, I immediately think that the seller quite possibly has an unrealistic view of what their house is worth. And I wonder (no more than that) if they're still expecting the previous, higher, price. 

I'd like to hear from any sellers who have used 'offers over' what led them to make that choice. And, if it was the EA that suggested it. And if so, what the discussion was. 

We hear a lot from people who offer on 'offers over' properties - often offering less than the headline figure and sometimes having that accepted. We rarely hear from the other side of the sale.