Making an offer when guide price is 'between £380k and £420k'

[hackneybird]

We're seeing a house in London tomorrow that I have high hopes about. It's in an area we want to move to, it's in our price range and it's a good size. It needs a lot of cosmetic updating but that's fine.

But when guide prices sit between two different figures how are we supposed to know what level to go in at?

Just wanted to add that in this area property tends to sell very quickly and there aren't a huge amount of houses on the market to choose from currently.

We're under offer on our own flat and buyers had the survey done today. My DH was in when the surveyor came round, who said we had nothing to worry about.

I don't understand why they price this way. It's very confusing. One agency in our area does it all the time. For what it's worth, a house on our road was for sale at an asking price of £389k which we thought was excessive. It didn't sell and the buyers have put it on with a new agency who are asking £360k to £390k. I see that as a price reduction to £360k but not sure whether the sellers see it this way.

If you love the house and can afford it, I think you should go in at £389k stressing the fact that you are under offer and that your buyer already has his mortgage offer. A secure buyer is worth a lot to sellers.

It's hard if you are in London which is still a very competitive market. In my area (slow market), one agent does this as standard, and you basically ignore the higher figure and treat the lower figure like you would any other asking price (i.e. offer below).

Does this agent do this with all their properties, or is it just this one?

Where does the Rightmove/Zoopla results page place the price in the results pages (i.e. do they use the higher or the lower figure?) I think agents can specify this when they list on these portals, so that might be another clue.