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!

I also read it as minimum amount accepted - sounds just slightly better than £425k no offers so piss off you timewaster

The house we bought last year was marketed as OIEO and we offered on the dot as we really wanted the house (was accepted). I still have that niggle as to whether we should have offered a little lower though and had there been another house on at the same price without the OIEO stipulation we'd probably have gone for that one instead.

Lol thanks @dudsville, fwiw I'm not grabby and wouldn't drop someone personally but I can see it may look like that. At the moment it's looking like we may end up not moving :(

I asked this same question last month. We had a sale and purchase lined up but had to pull out of the purchase after we got the survey.

We then saw a house up for sale for O.I.E.O. £300K.

DH and I didn’t agree on what this meant. I said it’s probably the same as them just putting it on for £300K but obviously hoping they’d get more. He thought they probably wanted £325K we should offer £310K straight away to show we want it. I said if they wanted £325K they’d put it in for £325K but thought they’d probably want at least £300K especially as it had just gone on the market. When our house had just gone on the market we thought it was too soon to drop the price but obviously you might take a different view after a few months.

To put it in some context, it went on the market over Christmas, and we knew we wanted the house as soon as we saw the listing, because we’d viewed another house on the same cul de sac and it was where we wanted to be and the house was pretty much identical.

So we agreed between us we’d pay up to £320K because that’s what it’s worth to us and what we could afford.

We also had a sale lined up so were in a position to move quickly.

We made an offer of £280K and the EA came back and said they’d accept £290K... That was on the basis we could move quickly and had a sale lined up, which probably helped, but we were the first offer they’d had and the property had only been on the market for about 2 weeks.

So O.I.E.O doesn’t always mean offers in excess of and you you can get it for less.

We even asked our EA (who is selling our house) and they basically said it often doesn’t mean anything.

Yeah, I would assume they don't want any offers under the asking price. But I would NOT assume they actually want MORE than the asking price, because if that were the case why wouldn't they just have increased the asking price??

When we bought our house we paid 10k less than the OIEO price, it had been on for six months though with no offers and was slightly over priced for the amount of work that needed doing compared to other properties available locally that we already done

It would definitely put me off a property because the ones I have seen, the OIEO price has been towards the upper end of what you would expect to pay for a similar property so I would think the vendors had unrealistic expectations and would be a pain to deal with. For example, if the survey revealed work that needed doing (that wasn't obvious in the particulars or viewing) I would expect that they wouldn't reduce the price to compensate for this. Therefore why would I bother making an offer and getting the survey done? I wouldn't. In which case, I wouldn't even view the property unless I was very bored and nosy

Frazzledmum123

I understand the OIEO thing is usual in Scotland (correct me if I'm wrong) but very much less so in England (and presumably Wales/NI).

At the moment, no one is offering even the asking price, let alone in excess of it.

(I hate bargaining on houses)

Some years back I offered £180k on a property marketed at £190k OIEO. It was accepted. I was able to move fast and the property had been on the market for a while.

Might be different depending where you live. In the expensive areas near me, it means at least 20% over the asking price. But this is Scotland and the term used here is 'offers over' no OIEO.

I take OIEO £425k as you will take anything over £425k. If I was in a good position I may offer that or just below to be cheeky, but I would expect that if I offered you £425,001 that you would accept it is as is in excess.

If you want at least £430k, why not OIEO £430k - that way everyone knows what to expect.

We went for a house that was on for OIEO £300k when we went to but and were told by the buyers that they wanted at least £325k for it or more. They ended up taking it off the market as couldn't get what they wanted (it would be overpriced at that), but it was really annoying as we offered in excess of what they wanted and they were just being greedy.

If there is a precise figure which would enable you to make your next step you could consider marketing it at a 'fixed price'.

I would think they would take £425 as an absolute minimum

I get v annoyed with that sort of pricing as I view it as worth OIEO price but they are going to bids. Its like a bastardisatin of the scottish system

OIEO means different things in real terms depending on the market.

If things are buying/selling quickly, then you may need to offer more as they potentially may be several people interested vying against each other. That's when that offer makes sense.

If things are selling slowly, then I'd take it to mean the seller wants that amount to be offered.
If very slowly I'd think it was reasonable to try an offer below.

It is an odd way of marketing. Our house now was priced as an OIEO. I think it just means, 'don't bother putting in a cheeky bid as we aren't going to consider anything less than ...'

I’d think oieo £425k meant that you’d accept £425k and 1pence. I certainly wouldn’t expect to pay above the oieo price. Because if you wanted £430k surely you’d have listed it as oieo £430k?

When I search on Rightmove I always search £25k above my max price in the hope of finding a house I can negotiate down. Oieo wouldn’t stop me offering under. I’d assume you want £425k therefore might settle for £420k if I can move quickly and have no chain etc.

ChocOrCheese Tthis is part of the problem with it, you made an offer and the vendor felt it was worth their while to accept it, but I think a great many people would look at that OIEO and feel uncomfortable about the idea of offering less so would walk away. It's a shame as it very much depends on the vendor's circumstances and they might, as your vendor was, be prepared to accept less.

When I was first sold a house, many years ago, I'm sure that a price was put on a property and in most cases, initially, you expected to be offered less than your asking price and would try to negotiate upwards.

I'm definitely going to view the whole OIEO differently now, having read your post. The thing is, you never know until you ask.

I hate OIEO and treat it just like a regular asking price.
If I think the house is worth 5% less than the listed price, I will offer less than the OIEO price anyway.

Just put what price you want to get!

Just realised I didn’t read your OP properly.

As is clear, people interpret OIEO differently and my view would be just put it on for what you want. A lot of the time people are a bit optimistic with sale price anyway eg asking for £10k more than they’d be happy with

We sold last April in UK. First went on a regular price. Then dropped it and did oieo....all the offers which came were under the oieo price. I don't believe we marketed too high...I just think oieo is just seen as a guide.... similarly if you are proceedable then put in a lower offer when you view properties.

When we’ve been buying we effectively just ignore it. I’d never offer above asking price. I see it as just a ploy.

I'd take it as the minimum price the sellers wanted, but it wouldn't affect my offer. I'd still put forward only what I thought it was worth - minus a bit to leave room for negotiation - then leave it up to them to respond

Just to clarify, we originally put it on for 5k more than we need, just to try our luck. The offer we got was £2k under that (£8k over what it's on for now) which was accepted but their buyer pulled out. This was a fair price considering others on the market
So we were told to drop it by 10k which is 5k under what we really need and the same price as smaller versions of what we have. The EA said to do it this way as it'd 'refresh it' on RM and fall into more people's searches. That's why we didn't put it on for what ideally we need.
If someone offers dead on the new price it's definitely not a no, we'd just have to hope to bargain down £5k off the next one, but this would make it hard as we are pretty tight already.
We wouldn't be the awkward types re gazumping people or anything like that but we couldn't accept anything less than what it's on for, it just wouldn't be possible to move up as round here the next step up is quite a bit more. I wouldn't be offended by offers though as it probably do the same, I was just wanting an idea of how people persueved OIEO to see if we could try seeing if they'd go up the £5k or if it would lose us the same
From a sellers point of view, what I am finding frustrating is that except for 1 person, we have had no negative feedback at all, everyone says it's perfect, they love the layout and the size but then it goes nowhere? Are people just afraid to be honest, I'd much rather they were so we'd know what to work on

*sale not same

Thanks people, it has been helpful in that it seems to vary a lot, just have to play it by ear I guess