Houses advertised at offers in excess of x

SarahB16

youth_leader said:

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

The key to selling in my opinion is picking a local estate agent with a High Street presence that is on Rightmove.  Quite often they will have people on their books who are looking for a particular type of property.  

A friend of mine was very particular about the type of house he wanted (i.e. larger house and which location).  When a house fitting that criteria came up, the estate agent telephoned my friend and yes, he bought the house.  Do not underestimate the value that using a local estate agent offers.  People seem to think they will save c.£1k going with a cheaper estate agent but more times than not you will sell your home for far less than you had hoped.  

youth_leader

@SarahB16 oh yes, lesson learnt.  My husband had just died and this EA was two very sympathetic women, the owner and her employee,  from a small independent agency.  They were lovely and a few months after reducing to £450K I did receive an offer from a cash buyer ... who offered £390K.  I emailed my acceptance of the offer, saying I would have preferred £400K, but not to say anything - and she did.  I lost the buyer.  I then found out that she had also been giving every viewer a copy of my survey, which I'd commissioned to see if I could afford to stay there.  A widow's tale of woe, unfortunately.  Nine years later I'm a lot wiser.

hugheskevi

RHemmings said:

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. 

I recently sold my property. I spoke with 2 local estate agents who visited my property. The first suggested marketing it at between £500K- £550K (we didn't discuss offers over or anything like that). 

The second agent, who I marketed with, suggested marketing at offers in region of £600K which might take a while to sell, or offers in excess of £575K that should sell quicker. I had researched the local market in some detail in the months prior to marketing. My property would not achieve £600K but should come reasonably close. I also wanted a quite rapid sale as I was buying separately and already had an offer accepted, so preferred not to have a big gap between transactions, hence I elected to go with OIEO £575K.

The house was marketed in early December. I rejected an offer of £550K about a week after marketing (would not increase offer) and accepted an offer of £560,000 (initially £555K) from a different purchaser just before Christmas. I may have been able to negotiate the offer I accepted higher, or may have received a higher offer as the market got busier in January. However, I'd had about 7 viewings by that time so had tested the market a little (December viewers probably being a bit more committed than January viewers, on average) and the people I sold it to were FTBs who were immediately proceedable and we exchanged on 31st January and will complete on Friday 21st February. I was happy to avoid having more viewings and the hassle of keeping property clean and tidy, as well as avoiding a gap between purchase and sale particularly as my new property is a 4 hour drive away, so I was happy with the deal. Overall I think it is a good deal for both parties - not great on either side, but everyone got something out of it.

I think OIEO become a lot less meaningful after a property has been marketed for a while and vendors should have a better idea of what price can be realised in the current market.

My reason for choosing the second agent was that they valued the property more in line with what my research indicated, and also gave a good reason to use them, which was that they sold a lot of properties in my area to people looking initially in a nearby more popular area. After showing viewers properties in the popular area, they brought them to my area to show them the standard of property they could get here for the same money. So although not initially looking in this area, they ended up buying here. In terms of the OIEO marketing, I just went with their recommendation.

Hoenir

RHemmings said:

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. 

Some years ago a property was marketed in the Marlborough area at offers over £2.25 million. There were 53 seperate parties interested in the property. Final selling price was £3.75 million.  Something is worth what somebody is willing to pay to guarantee ownership. 

incus432

RHemmings said:

NervyBuyer said:

I

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. 

We had our house on at the EA's suggested guide price (3 agents suggested same price) but little interest so we reduced by 50k and made it offers over (at EA's suggestion).  Accepted an offer from cash buyer 10k below that. All happy. It's a slow market and we wanted to move

RelievedSheff

It doesn't matter how the price is advertised. At the end of the day you just offer what the property is worth to you.

Bookworm105

it is purely a marketing tactic intended to put off "time wasters" and "dreamers"
it does not necessarily mean an offer below the price will be rejected out of hand, after all if the property has been unsold for months a lower offer suggests they are overpriced and that is what you willing to pay.
Equally an offer at must be accepted as being the equivalent of the intended "full" asking price 

however, your example of 500K is an SDLT threshold so anyone offering even 1 penny over that needs their head examined.

julicorn

Bookworm105 said:

however, your example of 500K is an SDLT threshold so anyone offering even 1 penny over that needs their head examined.

That's not really how stamp duty works any more. You just pay the higher rate for any amount above the threshold, not for the whole amount. Bit like taxes. 

E.g., stamp duty for a first time buyer:
£499,999 property: £3,749
£500,001 property: £3,750

Same sort of difference for a home mover. 

WellKnownSid

Hoenir said:

RHemmings said:

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. 

Some years ago a property was marketed in the Marlborough area at offers over £2.25 million. There were 53 seperate parties interested in the property. Final selling price was £3.75 million.  Something is worth what somebody is willing to pay to guarantee ownership. 

Work colleague bid for a parcel of land (offers over £90k) in the 1990s.  He stretched himself to £130k - and felt confident he hadn't over-bid.

He came into work a couple of weeks later looking sick as a dog.  The land had received an offer of something like £1.7m...

Bookworm105

julicorn said:

Bookworm105 said:

however, your example of 500K is an SDLT threshold so anyone offering even 1 penny over that needs their head examined.

E.g., stamp duty for a first time buyer:
£499,999 property: £3,749
£500,001 property: £3,750

wrong, from 1 April 2025
Stamp Duty Land Tax: Residential property rates - GOV.UK

not a FTB £500,000 = £15,000 SDLT
not a FTB £500,001 = £15,000 SDLT

FTB £500,000 = £10,000 SDLT
threshold, so....
FTB £500,001 = £15,000 SDLT