Guide price?

[AwkwardPaws27]

What do the estate agents mean when they list a guide price? We've made an offer which is slightly lower (3% under), waiting to hear back but the agent said they doubt that would be acceptable... I felt like saying why not blooming well list it as OIEO then?! Anyone bought a guide price property (or listed their home with a guide price) who can shed some light?

Guide price is typically used for auction properties and they will usually go for over that. I agree it's annoying of the agents.

Which country are you in?

I thought it was practice in Scotland to offer over the guide price.

With regards to auctions, the guide price is usually within 10% of the reserve, which is the price it won't be sold below.

Maybe, it's just gone on sale and the vendors expect more offers or maybe it's been on sale a long time and they're idiots.

Scotland generally has listings as Offers Over or Fixed Price.

Hi, it's not an auction property (as I said, I have placed an offer). I'm in England, London/Essex borders.

Sometimes, EAs use that to get people interested, suggesting quite a low price, then go to a best and final offers when they've reeled enough people in.

I didn't say it was an auction property. You usually only see it in relation to auction properties in England. Seems reasonable to think it is designed to generate interest but generally more than the guide price is wanted.

I complained to the Estate Agents regulatory body once (30 odd years ago now) as we saw a house open day advertised with a 'guide price' at the top of our price range. My OH turned down overtime so he could come, and the Estate agents said they were expecting to get almost double the price they had put as the 'guide price'. I was furious (as were some other people who had gone to the open house). Regulating body said it wasn't illegal (although not best practice).
You'd have hoped things would have moved on in the last 30 years.

A guide price is just that, they are welcome to sell it for the most they can get and they certainly don't need to sell below the guide price. Hopefully th agent will come back and tell you what they will accept. I'd say guide price is normally for an unusual property they are struggling to value.

I don't get why you think they should have listed for offers in excess of, you haven't even offered them guide price. And they didn't say it was offers below the guide price they were interested in.

I thought guide price was similar to OIRO, & that a slightly lower offer may be considered depending on the buyers position, but obviously I was mistaken . Thanks for your help. Just waiting for the call now

I had a similar conversation with an EA recently, they had listed a house with a 'guide price' of 250-260k and we were initially told by the EA that a vendor would typically expect to get a price somewhere in the middle of their price guide; we therefore offered 255k and were then told the vendor wouldn't consider anything less than 260K.

Why on earth they didn't just list it at 260K, then, I don't know. What a waste of everyone's time (ours, EA and vendor's!)

(Interestingly, house is still on the market a month later and has now dropped price to 250k...)

I find "guide price" rather annoying.

We saw a property listed for guide price £335k which sounded reasonable for our budget.

When I called the EA, they made a big thing about saying that the owner would not take an offer of £335k and that they were looking more for £355k.

I thought well why don't they just put OIEO £335k because that's what it is- or just list it for £355k?!

The EA said it's because they wanted to drum up more interest using the lower figure

Funnily enough, 12 weeks or more later and the property is still on the market, we didn't bother viewing in the end.

To be honest, it was the price that attracted us to it in the first place, not the actual property.

Glad I'm not the only one who finds it a bit misleading / confusing. I prefer an asking price, then you can either just pay that or make an offer if you feel it's worth a bit less.

I assumed it meant OIRO/asking price.

As far as I can tell, every house sold across the country by Savils is either 'Guide Price' or 'Offers Over', so obviously they missed the memorandum too!

IMO, any price on a property, I would read as "This is what we are hoping for" - you are always allowed to put in an offer over, or indeed under the price they are hoping for, and it is then up to the vendor to accept or reject it.
It seems ridiculous to me to market a property at any figure below what they are asking for, as folk who have the 'hoped for amount' to spend probably won't view it, and those that do view it, won't actually be able to offer what the vendors want. It's flawed logic to my mind.