‘Offers over’ when selling a property

[PurpleFlower1983]

I have just put my rental property on the market. It’s only a 2 bed flat and has been valued at around the £75000 mark. I believe this is fair. One recently sold for £82000 but it it slightly bigger and one very similar sold for £76000. The thing is, the estate agent had put in on for ‘offers over’ £70000. I am now thinking I’m very unlikely to get an offer close to £75000 as people are likely to think I am happy with the lowest price when I’m not really. I have been recommended this estate agent as they are good at selling this kind of property but as they charge a set fee for lower priced properties I’m worried it’s not necessarily in their interest to get as much as possible.

Should I get in touch and tell them to increase the ‘offers over’ price or just ask them to put it on for £75000?

They say they do it this way for Rightmove.

Or would you leave it as it is and see what happens? I know the market is not good at the moment.

I don't like "offers over" personally. An offer over £70,000 could be £1 over?!
If you're unhappy, speak to then and tell them you want it priced differently. I'd put it at £75000.

Thank you. I think if they had put ‘in the region of’ I would have been happy. I would probably go down to £72-73000 but the valued said they would expect to achieve in the higher 70s and I don’t think the ‘offers over’ 70 suggests that at all.

I think that the number on the property anchors the property to that value, so yes if you want 75000 then it should be on for that value. In this market if I saw 70000 then I might even offer 67000, whereas at 75000 you are less likely to go under 70000. Different in a sellers market where there might be a number of people after the same property.

Surely they should have agreed with you the sale price beforehand? I don’t view ‘offers over’ as any different to a normally priced property and would still put in a below price offer if I felt it was justified.

Offers over can help incite a bit of a bidding war though, it gets people to view who wouldn’t usually too as it may be around or even below budget. Once people decide they want it they will be unlikely to give up on it. Happened with our house, on for offers over £110k, sold for £115k after someone out bid the first offer of £112.5k

I don't like " offers over " or " offers in the region " better to have a price and people will offer anyway
Tbh , Never known one with offers over to actually sell over

If you wouldn't take 70k, don't have it on for 70k. Do offers over the actual amount acceptable to you. Or fixed price at 75k.

When we sold two years ago the manager of the EA said try £245,000 and be prepared to drop. The newer staff said it was more modern to say 'offers over'. I agree with pp, offers over doesn't mean anything, so offers over £225,000 would mean people focussed on £225,000 as if that was the price, and then try to negotiate down.
In the end we tried £245,000, dropped after a couple of months to £240,000 and ended up selling for £230,000, which was probably a fair price. I don't think house valuation is an exact science, whatever agents would have you believe.

I think it depends how desirable your property is and how much in demand it is. It worked really well for us when we sold although I was sceptical about it at first. We wanted to move quickly so wanted to price it realistically. We had valuations of £270k, £274k from two other agents. We put ours on at offers over £275,000 as advised by the third agent. EA advised this figure due to Rightmove search criteria.

We had lots of interest and accepted an offer for £291k after just two days on the market. As long as you set the offers over price realistically and your property is presented well then I think it's a good idea.

'offers over' makes the seller seem 'difficult' from the start.
would put me off massively.
just put in asking price of 75000 and have in your head the lowest you would go for.

I’ve never understood the problem with ‘offers over’ on here.
The last house I sold was offers over £100,000. That was the lowest I was willing to sell for. Why piss about saying a price with the expectation that people will offer below that price? I’ve never understood this dance.

The property is not going to start a bidding war but a fair price is £75000 which the valuer agreed with and said it might go for a little more but they said for Rightmove purposes it would be listed in a band of £10k so between £70k and £80k. I went in to collect the provisional contract and it said ‘offers over £70k’. I need to go back in anyway with ID etc. as they lady I am dealing with but I wasn’t sure if this was normal practice.

Interesting to see different opinions. I’m not experienced selling houses as the one I’m in is my second property and the flat I’m selling was my first so never sold before.

Are you located in Scotland? Offers over is very common there from what I understand.

No, I’m in the North of England.

I think I am realistic about what the flat is worth and that’s definitely more than £70k.?

Sorry, accidental ?

Personally I would put it on for £80k and loose the offers over bit, people like to get a bit off

Rightmove will put it on for whatever you (estate agents) say. I would probably put it on for OIRO 75000, it clearly lies out the ball park figure, the rightmove search will show it whether it is on at 70000 or 79999 as that is the search band. To trigger a price reduction notification I think it needs a 2% reduction so if you need to you could reduce it and still stay in the same price bracket.

@PurpleFlower1983

Why not instruct the agent to say £75000 "fixed price" or whatever you really want. It weeds out the non-serious buyers.

We have never sold of the basis of accepting offers and when buying - if we want the house - always give the asking price. It prevents delay too.