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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

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

69 replies

Frazzledmum123 · 06/02/2019 16:20

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!

OP posts:

WoodlandOaks · 06/02/2019 18:03

Our estate agent told us to do this. All offers were still under the oieo - waste of time in my opinion .

DogInATent · 06/02/2019 18:08

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

Ask your agent, it's what they take a hefty fee for. Ask them a few pointed questions. Ask them which properties are selling quickly in your area and what the difference is. Oh, and what did that one person say?

Remember the layout, the size or the presentation aren't important except as how they compare to everything else on the market. And the usual adage is true, location beats everything else.

Right now the market is flat in many parts of the country, particularly at the top-end of the market. No one expects house values to rise because of Brexit, so anyone buying is hoping for further falls. Lots of tyre kickers about, but no one making deals.

Have you tried approaching different agents?

cantbeb0thered · 06/02/2019 18:14

Mine was on for oieo £300k. We bought it for £285k

greendale17 · 06/02/2019 18:18

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

^This. And so I will only ever offer that and not a penny more

Original poster

Frazzledmum123 · 06/02/2019 18:19

@DogInATent the reason person gave us was the busy road at the bottom which is fair and which is what the EA has said could be the problem. We live on an estate and it's much bigger than most other 3 beds here, we have a large hallway, a downstairs loo and a bigger than average lounge and 2nd bedroom but it's priced the same as the smaller ones because of the road.
We have thought about changing EA but the ones we have are getting a decent amount of people through the door so short of forcing them to buy, I'm not really sure what more they could do.
It's odd because obviously I am biased but I genuinely thought it'd sell quick and in fact it did originally within the first week. Others are selling so I just wish people would say why they lose interest

OP posts:

MilkybarsROnMe · 06/02/2019 18:32

O.I.E.O always put me off offering when we were buying. To me it means we won’t take a penny under whatever price you have listed it at. Houses that were always on with O.I.E.O were always overpriced, we’d just laugh and say, “wait for them to drop it 20k when it hasn’t moved in 6 months.” If you want £430 for your house put it on for a bit more than that.

Berimbolo · 06/02/2019 18:47

I generally avoid OIEO houses but fell for it twice. 1st was over 375k and he actually wanted 400k because that was the agent told him it was worth...the 2nd we've just been gazumped on because even though our offer was accepted (and we'd offered 5k over the base price) someone else came along during the process and offered them more.
As a buyer is blooming hard trying to work out what sellers want, personally I'd put it up for what I needed or maybe a fraction more just in case people haggle

DogInATent · 06/02/2019 19:03

We have thought about changing EA but the ones we have are getting a decent amount of people through the door

That's not a measure of success. Success is 1 person through the door that makes an offer you accept. Twenty people through the door that don't make offers is a failure that's cost you time preparing and presenting the property.

Speak to other agents, ask them what they'd do if they had the property to market.

OnlyFoolsnMothers · 06/02/2019 19:06

My friend just bought a flat- oieo 250k - she got it for 237k...tbh I ignore the OIRO and OIEO, everything is negotiable around that price point

user1474894224 · 07/02/2019 12:18

Our original agent was very clear about wanting to qualify buyers before letting them view. I think he didn't want to waste his time letting people view that were not in a position to proceed if they liked the property..... versus big agents with lots of staff who can let anybody see the house. You could argue the more that look the more likely you are to get a sale. - as for your asking price ....if you are currently priced the same as a 2 bed but have 3 beds.....only downside is the noisy road....I would go for the larger house with the noisy road..... especially if I was stretching myself to buy it. It would last me longer etc etc So hold in there. You will get an offer.

MeredithGrey1 · 07/02/2019 12:35

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.

Agreed, we've just sold our flat and had an offer accepted on a house and we didn't look at any that said OIEO. Granted, within our budget and area there was a lot of choice, so it was easy to just dismiss the OIEO, but I did find it annoying to not know from the price whether we could actually afford it, and since there were lots of others to look at, we didn't bother wasting our time.

thecatsthecats · 07/02/2019 12:43

I've only ever seen it when buying on houses where the owner was looking for an above average price for either:

a) A well cared for but disastrously old fashioned house that most people would want to gut. I.e. the owners had been there years and taken great pride and care in their home, and you could live in it, sure. But most people would gouge their eyes out first.

b) A house done up expensively by a housing developer (almost always specifies a Neff kitchen!), often in quite a modern, high spec style, who wants the best possible return for their investment. Which could pay off, if someone liked enough to pay top whack (I often think they're fugly - especially in old traditional houses that just don't fit with the style). Mostly though, I've seen them go for less.

I steer clear in either case.

Trillis · 07/02/2019 13:46

We offered on 2 houses that said this. The first, there were 3 people interested so we were all asked to put offers in over the OIEO price. They accepted ours (£3k over). The 2nd, we offered the exact price, and they said no becasue they wanted 'in excess of'. They said no to an extra £50, but yes to an extra £500.

I just assume it means thats the price they want, but I would still happily view and offer less if I thought that was all that was warranted. I certainly wouldn't want to offer more, unless we were bidding against others and really wanted it, or thought it would sell very quickly and wanted to snap it up.

chillpizza · 07/02/2019 14:01

The amount of viewings you get plus lack of offers is a reason to bin the agents off. Agents arrange viewings to people but don’t always make sure it’s even what they are looking for.

Our old agent used to drag us around to three bed houses where the 3rd room was no more than a storage cupboard when we told them we wanted three double bedrooms, things like wanting the kitchen to be at the front vs the back but they wouldn’t listen and we would end up at some house we would never of picked to view and when we checked online it would be because it’s one that just isn’t shifting but getting a viewing means the agent can go but look people are looking at it. The comments we fed back to the agent wouldn’t be passed on as it would of shown them as incompetent.

AnxiousMcAnxiousFace · 07/02/2019 14:04

I’ve always assumed that I could make an offer for that price and it be accepted but not an offer at any less than that price.

alwaysreadthelabel · 07/02/2019 14:22

This aggravates me when house buying. Just put it on for what you want to achieve. All the OIEO Offers Over bollocks is just estate agents trying to drum up some viewings.

If you haven't had any other offers by now, then it is obviously price that is putting people off. Have you genuinely been realistic in what you have marketed it for? Not just what the estate agent tell you to get you to sign the contract?

You could put the right move link on somewhere like the mse house buying forums. It can be brutal but really know there stuff. 90% of the time it is down to price.

BarbaraofSevillle · 07/02/2019 14:33

The price you need to move bears no relation to how much the house is worth. It sounds like it's priced about right and you are getting people through the door. A lot of the time it's down to luck, attracting a buyer willing to pay the price you want and seeing the process right through to a completed sale, without either party pulling out.

But different people interpret prices and terminology differently.

Some will see a price and want to bid below that price, regardless of OIEO etc.

Some will take your OIEO price and bid that and not a penny more, or they may add on a penny/£ to be pedantic.

Without being explicitly guided by the EA, not many are going to see your £425k and think 'I'll offer £430k because that's what they want for their house'.

MrsKoala · 07/02/2019 14:43

When we started looking round here it was quite booming so all the houses were OIEO. It was very frustrating because we thought that was the minimum and they may take a few grand more. But it meant between 25-50k more. They would have an open house and then the offers would come in. The agents would say to us they wont take less than 25k more and often they ended up with 50k more.

It's a way of generating interest and then the estate agents hope if you love it you can stretch yourself even further. We had comments like 'cant you just borrow an extra 30k from your parents?' or 'can you just extend your mortgage a bit more?'

OneStepMoreFun · 07/02/2019 15:36

We were told by agents to put it on at a lowish OIEO price because that generates interest and gets people through the door. We got one offer under the price (rejected) and one a fair bit above (accepted). But I agree it's not an easy marketing ploy for anyone, because we didn't know whether to accept the first OIEO listed guide price, or hold out for better.

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