To make this offer on a house

[Strawberries86]

Genuinely don’t know so looking for wisdom.

Iv just had an offer on my house, it’s a first time buyers house so lower end of the price scale. We had a discussion about what work needed doing and what I thought was fair. They agreed. Fabulous.

The market of price remit of the houses I’m looking for seems quite stagnant in my area, nothing leaving rightmove on certain areas for weeks on end, lots of reductions.

My aibu is around a property we are considering with offers “in excess of” listed. Now this property happens to be recently added. Is it a no no to offer the exact price it’s listed at? Do I offer slight more? I know they can decline but I don’t know the etiquette having only ever had one property and in that case, we haggled and came to an agreement half way between what i offered and their asking price.

Any wisdom or experience welcome. I don’t want to over pay in a quiet market but also houses are worth what people are willing to pay aren’t they?

aibu to offer the price listed even though it says in excess of?

You can offer whatever you wish and they can decide to accept, negotiate or reject out of hand. I have my eye on a properly that would require a small lottery win (!) and it says ‘Offers in the region of £X’.

If I got my lottery win I would offer £25k below the asking because the kitchen is on the small size, so I would extend into the conservatory, and the exterior landscaping needs doing. They could say yes/no/offer me £X more and I will think about it. No skin off anyone’s noses… plus it’s been on the market since November 2023 and I would be a cash buyer…

Offer what you can afford and what you think it’s worth to you - value is in the eye of the beholder…

PS. I think this whole etiquette thing is an old fashioned concept - it’s not rude to offer lower, providing you are serious about your offer and not wasting anyone’s time. You never the circumstances of the vendor and what is acceptable to them. Plus we’ve all seen houses that agents have massively overpriced and which the vendors then cannot shift.

I don’t like ‘offers over’. I think it’s very ambiguous and not helpful if you’re considering an offer.

If it’s recently added, I think the vendor will be certainly be looking for more. The question is, how much over you’re prepared to go for them to take it off the market and how much it’s worth to you. Do you know what similar houses have sold for, or advertised at, to give you an idea?

It also depends on whether it’s offers over £400K for example, or offers over £200K. The expectation will be different.

Some years ago now, but we offered the price that was stated in the 'offers in excess of...
' figure'. Still here some 35 years later.

@Bluevelvetsofa it is so ambiguous! That’s what I was thinking but couldn’t articulate.

Im torn, I really like it, I need to find somewhere quickly and exactly, with it just on, the sellers surely have every reason to be optimistic. But as a self declared property expert in this geographical area (solely based on 1000 hours of recent rightmove stalking)... I just worry paying what they want will leave me overpaying in the current market.

I appreciate the advice. I know like the pp said, it’s up to them and can’t predict what they will do, I just wondered where people’s head is at when they list with the excess thing.

What have you got to loose??

I honestly wonder if the ‘in excess of’ = agent’s greed…

Offer what you think the property is worth to you, what youd be willing to pay.

I can value my house at whatever I wish, whether someone else thinks its worth that and pays it is another matter...