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

[m0therofdragons]

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.

Scotland too. Offered £44000 over asking price in 2003. Were 2nd highest and didn't get house. Highest bidder won two offers in one day and dropped out our one. We were asked to price match and it was ours. We said no and stuck at our offer (already masses over). All worked out in the end and we've been here for 14 years now!

I think I'm just generally grumpy about the whole process (what to move but hate the whole thing - I'm not naturally patient ).

Not really buying the "can't keep house tidy with working ft, baby and dog" but I'm probably a grumpy cow again as I have 3 primary dds plus cat and rabbits plus dh and I work and we managed to keep the house tidy. (All be it with two suitcases that lived in my boot so we could shove everything loose bit of clutter in there immediately before a viewing.

What not what.

I'm with you, OP. When we were buying our house we went to one open house/sealed bids nonsense and I said I wouldn't go to any more. It was horrible looking around this house filled with other people, and I heard one couple saying 'shall we just put in [30k over asking price] and then decide later?' - it was pretty clear that it was all about getting your foot in the door with a big offer rather than sensibly assessing who might actually end up buying the house. I also thought it was a bit ridiculous - they were selling a terraced in quite an undesirable suburb not (as the estate agent seemed to think) a mansion in Kensington or something. I will admit to some slight satisfaction when I saw that that house was still on the market quite a while after we'd completed on our quite similar house, marketed in a normal way.

When house buying we avoided any house with this. Not getting into a bidding war. If i wanted that id buy a house from auction. Strangely around where i am the houses with offers over dont sell quickly so others must hate it or maybe put on houses hard to sell.

Agree re the open house. At the end of our road 4 houses have been built. They over priced by 200/300k for the area. One had a reserved sign on it from day one. We popped along to open house and it was full. Two months later all still for sale with that one saying reserved. If you look on rightmove its for sale. The is only one reason they not selling....price!!!!!!

We attended an open house with sealed bids when looking once. We did put an offer in but they took another offer. Four months later they contacted us to say our offer would be accepted if we still interested. We explained we were about to exchange on something else (the one we live in now). It did sell for months later. I think sellers and ea think buyers are just wanting for them to contact you. There are other houses! Good luck with anyone who searching...

The sellers clearly aren't worried about pissing off potential buyers because they anticipate a bidding war, i.e. they aren't short of potential buyers.

It doesn't matter if it's offers over or offers around or a guide price. You offer what you think it's worth if you are prepared to pay.

I don't think it has anything to do with pissing people off, I think it's actually helpful to know that they're expecting at least that price rather than in the region of, but it's up to you to judge if you want to pay it. Nothing to stop you offering lower. They can accept or not.

And re the open house, totally up to them and their agent when they choose to market their house. If it annoys you so much having to wait 2 weeks then don't buy it. But it seems an odd reason not to buy a house if it's right for you. Equally, they're risking that you have 2 weeks to find another dream property and they lose you. That's just the way it is when you're selling/buying houses. It all includes a bit of luck that the right one at the right price comes up when you're looking.

Two of my most disliked things in house buying, offers over and open days 

Open days put me off. The only times I've done them I've been either a) disappointed by the house anyway or b) put off by the EA/vendors with the obvious intention of a bidding war being kicked off. There are houses I haven't bothered going to see because they are listed for open days and I just CBA anymore.

I don't understand why people can't just state the value they'd like for their house. I usually contact the EA if there is an 'offers over' one I like and ask how much over they're after and the usual response is 'not very much over' which makes me think even more why not just list the price you want.

For people saying OIEO is the min you'd take, that's exactly why people like me offer on the nose or a marginal £ more. It's incredibly vague compared to advertising at a set price and potentially negotiating a bit under that.

For people saying OIEO is the min you'd take, that's exactly why people like me offer on the nose or a marginal £ more.

That was exactly what happened with my last house. I put it on at OIEO £100k and I sold it for £100k. It was a difficult house to sell. I wasn't out to make the biggest profit I could, I just wanted it gone for at least £100k