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Original poster

To hate "offers over" when it comes to house buying?

35 replies

m0therofdragons · 19/05/2017 22:10

What does it even mean?

We don't see it much here but a possible house for us has gone on the market at offers over £290k. I'd probably pay £290k but not much more. Not entirely sure if I do want it as the agent/vendor won't let us view for 2 weeks as we have to wait for the open day where we get to walk around with other people and if we're lucky we can have the delight of a bidding war to bump the price up. I don't want to play these stupid games. We are in a position to buy but agent said they wouldn't consider any offer until after the open day. The mind games is putting me off even viewing.

OP posts:
Bythebeach · 19/05/2017 22:23

I think agents do the open day/bidding etc to build up anticipation to get the very best price for the vendor. It's crap for the buyers though and largely something to avoid unless you know you really want it.

As far as 'offers over' goes - we should have done this because we were only prepared to move if we had an offer over X - we weren't being forced to move by circumstances and would only sell if we could achieve a minimum price not the best available offer. We got a couple of absurd offers from people who did the whole viewing and second viewing thing but 'could't go any higher' before our actual buyers viewed and offered - so it saves time and unrealistic expectations.

Tapandgo · 19/05/2017 22:31

What country are you in? It's usual for offers over in Scotland.

Original poster
m0therofdragons · 19/05/2017 22:35

England. I've only seen it a few times by same agent. Mostly it's guide price round here.

OP posts:
QueenLaBeefah · 19/05/2017 22:40

I've only ever bought a house that was offers over (Scotland) and it is bloody stressful.

SuperBeagle · 19/05/2017 22:45

They got rid of this in Australia and replaced it with "price guide". But they won't accept offers at the lower end of the price guide, so it makes no difference. If the price guide is $550,000-$600,000, they won't accept anything below about $590k.

StarTravels · 19/05/2017 22:45

We had an open day because we needed time to get the house ready and tidy enough for viewings. It wasn't to play games.

Most open days still require appointments. I've never been to one where you are viewing at the same time as others unless it was an auction property.

For me it was good to get lots of viewings in one day so I didn't need to keep cleaning every day for a viewing each day!

If you're interested in the house I would wait for the open day. If you don't think its worth 290k then just offer what you want to pay.

Original poster
m0therofdragons · 19/05/2017 22:58

I get it's stressful keeping a house tidy but why risk pissing off a potential buyer by delaying for 2 weeks? Our slot is an hour long and we won't be the only viewers in that slot according to the agent.
It just gives us 2 weeks to consider other properties and that day isn't ideal for us (3 young dc ourselves and I'd have preferred to view without dc but no childcare on a Saturday).

OP posts:
JeNeBaguetteRien · 19/05/2017 23:03

This doesn't sound like the house for you if a wait to view is enough to put you off. It's not like buying a shirt in Zara but there's a queue for the changing room so you leave it. It's actually really annoying buying a house because an estate agent can be the biggest twat on the planet but if they're the agent for the house you want you don't really have the option of not giving them your custom.

Scottishchick39 · 19/05/2017 23:09

I'm in Scotland and an estate agent, generally in my area we put offers over in case we get a lot of interest in a property and may possibly get over the valuation. Where I am, a seller will usually get the price not over and if it is over it's not by much. Different in England I presume. The days of lots of closing dates have long gone, still have them occasionally but not very often.

loaferloveforyou · 19/05/2017 23:10

When we were buying our property it was open house. We must have seen 20+ and never saw one with the sellers- actually the only one we saw with sellers was because we were first ones and they were running late. A few we offered asking price or slightly over but were declined and offers were in the 20k+ region. In addition to that, we wasn't offered the chance to increase our offer - we were always told final offer. It's absolutely shit for buyers.

However, once we found the place we wanted we went straight in with our max offer. It was 21k over asking. The offer was accepted and we became on "friendly" terms with the seller during the process. I very nearly asked what other offers they had but decided I'd rather not know (I think they would have told us as well).

By the time we completed the property was worth 20k more than what we paid (so a 40k increase in 5 months).

Fortunately for us it worked out alright, but where we were buying it was a sellers market so we were treated like shit.

What you are experiencing may well be a sellers market. You can like it or lump it but if u lump it there will be another buyer to fill your place.

YANBU but unfortunately that's the way it goes. Best of luck

StarTravels · 19/05/2017 23:32

If that day doesn't suit you then viewings can normally be arranged after the open day. It's normally more of a "grand unveiling". I'm sure you could book a viewing for the next few days following if that works better for you.

What has wound me up most about selling my house has been potential buyers expecting me to drop things at a moment's notice or actually cancel my own guests because they've decided they want to come round at the drop of a hat.

Until my house is sold it's still my home, and viewings need to fit in with my life too.

PandoraMole · 19/05/2017 23:33

I do sympathise as a buyer but as a vendor we've decided to go for 'Offers in Excess Of ' ourselves.

We're divorcing. DD and I have been living with my parents for nearly a year which is hard going, and stbxh spends most of his time at his girlfriend's place.

Our property has flexible accommodation and is unique in the area so OIEO gives us maximum flexibility wrt to speed of sale and maximising the price we get, which is essential as we need to squeeze 2 properties out of the equity.

We're not doing an open day though. EA advised against it.

angrybusdriver · 20/05/2017 00:06

get a local lawyer and take their advice on the local property market.

Offers over just means guide price, tbh

mellicauli · 20/05/2017 00:23

Sellers are usually buyers too. So if I need 290k to be able to afford the next place I am buying, I might as well be upfront about that and not waste your time or mine.

Carolinethebrave · 20/05/2017 00:32

Ea is shit - you're a keen buyer, in a good position, he should offer you a viewing. Otherwise it's sales prevention really. He has no guarantee he'll sell it at open house.

AstrantiaMajor · 20/05/2017 08:30

We sold my mums house via an open day sale. I would have been really annoyed if the agent had shown people before the day and passed offers on to us. I would have suspected that he had a preferred buyer, who was tempting us with a big offer only to nit-pick over price once we took it off the market.

As it was the 'Offers Over' price he quoted was £30,000 more than we thought it would fetch. There were 5 offers on the day, 2 below, two just over and one £25000 more. So the house sold for £55,000 more than than probate valuation. Maybe the EA knows his job and what the property will fetch.

SnickersWasAHorse · 20/05/2017 08:37

I sold my last house with OIEO.
I hate the normal method of pissing about pretending you want one price and actually being happy to take another. You don't buy anything else like that.
To continue the analogy from up thread Zara don't put a label of £50 on a shirt but will actually sell it for £40 if someone asked. Why is it like this with houses?

If the lowest offer that I'm willing to take is £100k then I'll market my house at offers in excess of £100k.

anotherBadAvatar · 20/05/2017 08:46

We did an open day. It wasn't meant to piss anyone off! With an 18m old (at the time), a dog, and both of us working FT, there was no way we could keep the house in a presentable condition!

The one concession we made was that serious buyers (i.e. Ready to proceed), we allowed viewings on the thurs before the OD if they couldn't make the Saturday. However, we were very clear that no offers would be considered till after the OD so they couldn't use the early viewing as an excuse to trump everyone else.

2 weeks isn't really much in the world of house buying.

icebearforpresident · 20/05/2017 09:30

Anothet EA in scotland here and offers over is the norm.

In scotland all houses have a home report which includes an independant valuation. So if a house is valued at 100k the guide price will be o/o 98k (for example) to try and achieve the 100k valuation. Its really not as complicated as buyers from england expect it to be (we have a lot of people from england buying in this area,i explain this 20 times a day).

You also dont need to offer a set amout over the guide price. Just whatever you are comfortable with. And of course you can offer under the guide price and it could be accepted.

You do get some sellers that want the guide price set at over the valuation,which makes selling a house a fecking nightmare if not bloody impossible but thats another thread!

Orangebird69 · 20/05/2017 09:33

We put our house on the market with an OIEO price because it gives an indication of the minimum offer we'd accept.

Sussex1983 · 20/05/2017 10:45

Another person based in Scotland here - offers over is a nightmare for buyers when the market is good.
House close to us recently went for 42K over the asking price & that was about £20k over the home report. Everything close by is going to closing dates.
Depending on the area & market it can be really hard to judge what to offer

dannydyerismydad · 20/05/2017 10:53

There's an agent close to me that uses this tactic. Offers over, open days. It can be a total pita. It's not unusual for people to put in crazy offers just to get first dibs and then quibble over every penny after the survey. The sales drag on and on and even if you're not buying or selling with them you can guarantee your chain is held up somewhere by these antics.

PandoraMole · 20/05/2017 20:02

AstrantiaMajor

I hope some of that luck rubs off on us!

littletwofeet · 20/05/2017 20:12

There's nothing to stop you offering under the 'offers over' price. A house is only worth what someone is prepared to pay.

If you're in a good position, you can put the terms in with your offer, so tell them you are cash buyers who won't be getting a survey for example. Or that you've got no chain/mortgage AIP/can get appointment to do mortgage ASAP/solicitors ready,etc.

We took a lower offer on our last house as the higher offer couldn't get a mortgage appointment until over a week and they didn't seem very on the ball/ready to go. The lower offer said they could move quickly which is what we needed at the time, they seemed really keen to provide all the information, etc.

The lower offer also said they were getting valuation only so we knew there would be no issues with the survey.

planetclom · 20/05/2017 21:55

Take heart I am in the south east been looking since Jan not found the right house yet, we have been on a few open houses and offers over. only one house of the ones we have looked at has actually sold and that was one they phoned me about asked me how much I thought it was worth then rang me a week later to say the price had been reduced and was I interested in offering Hmmno.
We are in an excellent position first time buyers. and 400-500 thousand. They are slowly getting more and more desperate. Another trick they use is after the open house is to ring and say they have had an offer, and you need to get one in straight away. Again they are all still for sale so clearly either lying or someone caught up in the panic of thinking there are lot more buyers than house for sale (which is why they do it) has changed their mind. Oh and 1 open house I went to, chatting to the people going round, they where all local nosy people no intention of buying and said they would never do this if it was for the fact it was an open house they had made an appointment.
If you don't think somewhere is worth the money don't pay more, you will find the right property eventually and then you will be happy to pay more.

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