to think that with the current state of the housing market 'Offers in Excess of' is just a bit daft?

[OrmIrian]

Because no-one in their right minds is going to offer more than they have to? And most people will offer as little as possible. So 'Offers in Excess' just means 'Give us the asking price!' or even' Offers not accepted'.

Tsk!

"Offers in excess of" uses less characters than 'Give us the asking price!' and "Offers not accepted".

Gives a bit of wiggle room, too.

An estate agent told me that they do it to gauge the level of interest. There was a property in my town that was up for offers in excess of £350k the ea said that if there wasn't any interest they would lower the price, he said it was difficult to value as it needed so much work doing and was quite unusual. As it turned out there was a bidding war and it ended up going for over £400k. This was back in the spring.

YANBU
OIEO is ok in some areas - but bloody ridiculous in others.
In this current market a fixed bottom price below which vendors won't go is a luxury few can indulge in - so many people are just desperate to sell.

Yes, I think it depends on individual circumstances too. If we were to sell there is a limit to what we can accept so it may make sense to do that rather than waste everyone's time by having viewings and receiving offers that we can't afford to accept.

I bought a house that was offers over130k. It had previously been 140k so they'd dropped the price but said they couldn't go below 130. Managed to for 128 though.

"In this current market a fixed bottom price below which vendors won't go is a luxury few can indulge in - so many people are just desperate to sell"

a fixed bottom price is not a luxury, in most cases it is the only option due to negative equity or a massive mortgage

People do offer over OP, my boyfriend just sold his house, it was offers in excess of £400, he got £420 for it. (It was almost £430 but that fell through) Agree with PigletJ, think estate agents want their comission fast.

*commission