Offers in excess of or just asking price

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About to put house on the market and estate agents asked if we wanted to put offers in excess of lowest value or an actual higher price?
Any opinions? I’ve no idea!

As a buyer I don't like "offers in excess of".

I'd rather know what the vendors are looking for and decide whether I agree with them

I hate bidding wars

Thanks. That’s my concern actually, I genuinely want an actual current value price for the property rather than some ridiculous inflated price that estate agents want to put it up for but at the other end of the scale am concerned not to give it away as it were as estate agent keep ‘promising’ to sell it within weeks. Hmmmm

What Olenna said.
I would ignore any instruction that told me what to bid anyway.

Depends why you’re saying offers in excess of.

I’ve done this before. My house was one of 2 semis on a main road of terraced housing with no parking.

Same style houses the few streets over but obviously away from the road were 30% more than the terraced houses on the main road. So I picked a price 15% above the terraced properties on offers in excess of. No idea where I fell in this bracket as unquie to the road so 15% above the terraced was as low as I’d go.

Ended up getting 5% less than the ones off the main road. And the current owners love the place.

You’ll alienate a few buyers, say their budget is 300k and you put your house on at offers over 310k. They may not even view thinking what is the point. But if you put it on at 310k/320k with no stipulations they may come and view thinking they can knock you down to 300k. Fall in love with the place and end up buying it for asking after stretching the budget.

It’s the risk you take.

Our house was valued by several agents at around £490k-£500k. We needed a quick sale so they advised us to put it on at "OIEO £475k".

We didn't receive a single offer! This was over the summer. We'll be going back on the market in the spring and will definitely not be doing offers in excess of again!

Thanks for this advice I feel like I’m being sold a line tbh. I did question it and they sales guy said no honestly it works really well.
I’m concerned they’re going to try sell it at more the bargain price end because I negotiated them down on their fee so much.

Get another (free) valuation from another EA. I did read somewhere (on BBC website I think) that although 'new' houses coming on the market was slowing down this was leading price increases as supply was less. There was also a bit about increase in the number of prices being OIEO. MOTWYW.

The only reason the estate agent doing this, that so they can have you in their books (ie 6 weeks contract) so if you don't receive any offers, they will advise you to drop the price. They will still get their commission.

You don't know what the value of your house is until you sell it. A house does not have any particular set value, except what someone pays for it.

@AnalyticalChick yes that’s why I’m trying to prevent an estate agent taking advantage of the situation. They’re the ones best placed to know if they’re having us on or not aren’t they!
I’ve had two round and they’ve both given same ballpark figure but one said put it up for max and the estate agent we prefer has said offers in excess of minimum price.

My mum was given three identical 'values' by 3 estate agents. She ended up selling over a year later for very considerably less. I think estate agents all know what other estate agents would 'value' a property at, and they all compete to give equal or better 'valuations' than each other (to flatter a potential seller and win the listing). Their 'valuations' are competing with each other to win your business, and have no relation to a sales value.

As a buyer I absolutely detest OIEO. It is really off-putting. I always think 'well, will a pound over that price be acceptable? If not, why not?' Surely it means the lowest you're prepared to accept? We once put an offer in on a OIEO house and were turned down bc they wanted 11% more than the OIEO price.

I don't like the sound of your estate agent. What's so wrong with just putting an honest price that you think the house is worth ? Where I live houses are selling ridiculously quickly at the moment. I watch the local market like a hawk and from what I can see most houses are priced realistically, rather than pie-in-the-sky wishful-thinking prices.

yes, everyone says it is the lowest the seller will accept, and then often later the oie price is reduced, and then again and so on. So it's not really the lowest price a seller would accept, because they end up selling for way less than their oie price. It's nothing more than an off-putting gimmick.

Ok I’m aware that estate agents could possibly be having me on...
Anyway I’m familiar with the way they work, they do indeed say a highly inflated price to get you to take them on, Ive disagree to both their highest prices and will accept this price with offers in excess as the minimum.
I’ve said I don’t want any silly business but I really don’t trust them. My property should sell quickly as it’s not a ‘normal’ property, we bought it 3 days after it’s been on the market . I would ideally sell quickly at what appears (from much stalking on the land registry) a fair price for the area plus a small premium for the property being a particularly well known one in the are. I am actually genuinely putting it up for oieo from my lowest price. I won’t sell if it’s lower than that not because I’m being arrogant but because I won’t be able to move up to what I want if I get anything less!
Thanks for the advice. Think you’re confirming my fears on oieo, I too as a potential buyer don’t like it

Why would you employ an estate agent you don't trust?

Having worked in property (but not selling them personally) I just wouldn’t trust any of them. I’m not saying everyone’s the same but I’m saying I have witnessed some of the things they get up to and I feel quite vulnerable saying sure we’ll go with whatever you want.
Properties priced correctly are selling fairly quickly in my area so they haven’t really got much incentive to do much to help me personally so I’m looking to make sure I don’t fall for anything silly. I asked for advice on here because my own opinion is I don’t like oieo but I never know if that’s just me.

OIEO doesn't work in this market. We tried it a year ago when we were desperate to match up a broken chain. Dropped from 425k to OIEO 400k thinking that would be the least we would get & could make it work. We had lots of interest & offers at 370-80k, which we couldn't afford to take, & at the time was what the "we buy any house" companies were offering. A year on & prices have tumbled visibly, we are proceeding at 385k. Find an EA you like & can trust. It took us 3 attempts before we found the right EA who sold it. Don't even think about going with an online EA either!