How do you interpret O.I.E.O?

[Frazzledmum123]

Bit of background - We are trying to sell at the moment, originally had our house on for a certain price and it sold early on but they had to pull out for personal reasons. We had no more offers for a few months and were advised by EA to drop to OIEO £10k less as it puts us in a wider rightmove search.
However, DH and I differ on what we think OIEO means. So, if you saw that, would you see it as, that is the absolute lowest price you'd expect the sellers to accept, or would you expect (or at least not be surprised) if they wanted higher than that amount? So e.g. if a house was on for OIEO £425k, would you expect to have to pay more than £425k? Ideally we need £5k more than our OIEO price to enable us to move up but I'm not sure if we get the price we put it on for, if we'd look odd or risk annoying pltje potential buyer if we said we wanted more?
Hope that makes sense!

A quick google search brings up this:

"Offers in excess of, or oieo is terminology used by some selling agents to imply that you will need to pay more than the advertised figure, this is usually displayed in these formats: £200,000 OIEO or £200,000 Offers In Excess Of"

Simply means 'offered in excess of' which is self-explanatory

I would see it as the seller would not accept a penny less than £425k and would most likely be looking for a few grand more.

Thank you, that's how my husband sees it too but we did go round one that was OIEO £450k and told when we got there that she wanted £475k minimum and it was totally out of our reach for the work that needed doing and it annoyed me, I'm wary of doing the same (albeit a much smaller amount more). It's been so long I don't want to end up losing a sale!
(Not actual figures I'm using btw, just examples)

It does mean offers in excess of, as PPs say, but if I were buying, unless I was expecting a bidding war, I wouldn’t take any notice and would offer either on or below the price quoted.

If the house has been on the market for a long time I would go in under asking price. Also some buyers can be unrealistic I always compare what similar properties have sold for.

Tbh I think it's so open to interpretation that you just have to wait and see what potential buyers think it means.

The way I would interpret though, is that your EA is attempting to lower the price because he/she has now decided the original price he/she gave you was a bit too optimistic.

This is why I hate house buying and selling. So much easier to just say I want this amount for my house.
Fwiw I see oieo as wanting a little bit more than the prize quoted so 5-10k more not £25k more.

To me oieo just says this is the minimum price i'll sell for so don't go below it.

It's a bit like a closed bid sort of idea. Folks will offer what they think it's worth hovering above that figure.

If I saw something that was advertised as OIEO £425k, I'd start by offering £426k and see what happened, then would probably expect the vendor to negotiate up a bit. If you need £5k more than what the estate agent has advised you to market at, I'd increase your OIEO amount accordingly.

Yeah I see your point, it's hard to interpret really because the new price is similar to what other smaller 3 bed semi in the area are on for but ours is a much bigger design with a downstairs loo but off of a busier road which I think is putting people off. The price is fair but we did originally have an offer for 8k more and it's very tight for us moving up so me and DH have different views.
Thanks for the replies, it helps get an idea of what others might think

I read it as the sellers want that figure as the absolute minimum.

Ive never liked this way of marketing a property though. The problem for me, is that I, as a potential buyer, would think "so why exactly should I offer you £5k over what you say is your minimum? Why can't I just offer the minimum?" It feels like being ripped off, tbh.

If you need £430k to be able to afford to move, I would put it on for £445k, and then not accept any offers below £430k.

Otherwise, with OIEO thing, if someone offers you £426k, you'd have to turn them down even though it's in excess of what you've asked!?

@PrincessConsuelaBananahamm0ck - I would do but it would take it out of the rightmove search, they'd have to be willing to pay up to £450k or at least searching up to that and it's not worth that much.

I don’t view oieo houses. Just put the bloody price as what you want I’m not willing to view a 245k oieo and find out they want 280k really.

There is one up by us locally with oieo £140k with five agents been up for nearly a year they won’t budge on price and nobody even views it now.

@JaneyJimplin this is exactly my argument! I can't see why people would offer more when it implies we would accept that.

I hate this too, I really do, it's trying to get it seen by the most people possible without pissing people off!

Surely everyone who is house searching put above their maximum in rightmove anyway? I know I did as a buyer so if budget was £400k I would search houses up to £450.

I agree with pp that if you have oieo of £425 but wouldn't accept £426 it is just pointless.
It is unfortunately just an estate agent trick as housing market has slowed.

Also worth mentioning, I'm currently thinking of moving - realistically budget is £450k. However, my rightmove searches always go up to £475k, as I always think there might be something at say, £460k, that could be negotiated down and I wouldn't want to miss out! I assumed most people would search in the same manner?

I see it as the minimum you would accept and probably wouldn't bother viewing as I wouldn't want to get into an awkward bidding situation where you are expecting far more than I'm willing to pay.

Interesting, never thought it could actually be putting people off viewing! I bloody hate selling, I was so excited at the start and it is just a real pita!

chillpizza This is something I'm having an issue with at the moment as well.

I'm kind of thinking of downsizing. I put in a Rightmove search with a maximum price of, say, £250,000 and nearly all of them will give a price of something like: £250,000 to £275,000.

What the hell is the point of that? If I could afford £275,000 I wouldn't put my maximum price as £250,000.

Really annoys me.

This wording puts me right off. It just seems so grabby that I worry the seller would happily dump me for a better offer even after they had accepted mine!!! Not very rational but I like to be clear.

pogsDOfly it’s bloody annoying basically
Estate agents too scared to tell the client no and would rather let it sit on the books for months on end. It just makes the seller look like hard work too unless you live in London where the market is just crazy anyway.

Pigs not pogs haha

I hate this, it seems more and more common to assume everyone will know that what might be a common phrase in one industry when you don't work in that industry. USE ACTUAL WORDS AND SENTENCES!

Anyway, that was a rant. In the meantime, good luck with it all OP!

The other reason for OIEO really was that in order to appear at the top of rightmove again (so listed as within the last 24 hours again), it needed to have been reduced by a certain amount to count if that makes sense.
I think we will just wait and see then, if we get an offer for dead on the amount maybe see if they will up it by 5k and if not make a decision from there. I also see properties that have been on for a while as ripe for bargaining so that's not going to help us!