‘Guide Price’ - off putting?

[Peridot1]

Our house is on the market currently and is on at ‘Guide Price’. Agent put that on the listing and I haven’t given it much thought until I saw on another thread that some people find it off putting.

I dislike ‘Offers Over’ and ‘Offers in excess of’ on property details and can see why that is off putting but I’m not getting why ‘Guide Price’ might be?

I always assume ANY house price is a guide really. It’s all open to negotiation surely?

I really wasn’t aware it could be an issue and as we are not getting many viewings I wondered if it might be having an impact.

[Peridot1]

@Clettercletterthatsbetter - it’s yours! Open to negotiate. The price listed is just a guide.

I had another good look at lots of listings. Lots. And the majority were listed as ‘Guide Price’. I think it doesn’t mean what some people think it means. It is a guide. Obviously at an auction it’s different but having ‘Guide Price’ on a regular listing is not the same.

I haven’t seen many - any actually- with a guide price between £x and £y. I think in that case it is a bit more confusing really.

We are leaving ours as it is. It is on at Guide Price and for us and the agents that means we are open to negotiate. It doesn’t mean it’s the minimum we want.

Our agent was completely dumbfounded that people would be put off and not even ask. When we were looking I call the agent and ask is the price negotiable or if there is ‘wriggle room’. I thought that was the norm.

[Freetodowhatiwant]

I've sold one property recently (well agreed sale end of Feb and it finally went through in July) which was my first with a 'guide price'. The agents told me they put it on there to capture more people viewing it. Our guide price was £750-775k and we got £760 for it which was fine by me.

[Clettercletterthatsbetter]

@Peridot1 I’m afraid I’m another one who finds ‘guide price’ rather off-putting.

We have fallen in love with a house which is advertised as guide price (sounds quite similar to yours actually, though without the land, just a garden) and also for sale with a ‘larger houses in the countryside’ type of agent.

I had assumed the vendors wanted offers over the price stated but your post prompted me to look at the other listings by that agent and they’re all ‘guide price’!

So perhaps we can afford this house after all... (wouldn’t it be funny if it was yours? If it is, I’m very nice...please sell it to me)

[Peridot1]

@jackstini - I’ve never seen that. It does seem odd.

[jackstini]

I don't mind if it says Guide price £X

Hate it when it says Guide price £X to £X. Who is going to offer anything except the lowest value?!

[Peridot1]

@SirSamuelVimesBlackboardMonito - he can’t just take it off as their default is to have something. The computer says no! At the moment anyway.

To be honest I’m not that worried about it now. As I said having looked at lots of listings for properties in the same price bracket it is very common. More common than not.

[Peridot1]

@Notsurewhatsgoingon - it’s a guide. Guide Price £500,000 is a figure that they hope to achieve. But it’s negotiable. It’s always negotiable. Just like just having £500,000 on the listing is negotiable. So you can offer under.

I also wonder if it’s just seen as being more polite than just sticking the figure on! They are agents who sell large country estates etc. So maybe it’s a hang up from a sort of class thing? Where it’s seen as rude to discuss money. So you have a gentle ‘guide price £‘ rather than its ‘£‘.

[SirSamuelVimesBlackboardMonito]

It doesn't mean that to him, but he's not the one buying is he? Do I take it that he's not removed the wording, even though you want it changed? I'd get a different agent if I were you.

[Notsurewhatsgoingon]

@Peridot1 "He was very surprised that it might be thought of as off putting. It is just a guide. It doesn’t mean they are expecting more or that it is a minimum. It doesn’t mean it’s an auction property. It doesn’t mean there is a difference of opinion as to the price it’s listed at."

So what does it mean?

[Peridot1]

Well I spoke to the agent this morning and apparently I’m the first person to ever query it! They don’t have a default to have just the price. The vast majority of their listings have ‘Guide Price’ on. He was very surprised that it might be thought of as off putting. It is just a guide. It doesn’t mean they are expecting more or that it is a minimum. It doesn’t mean it’s an auction property. It doesn’t mean there is a difference of opinion as to the price it’s listed at.

Other options are:

Fixed Price
Overs over
Offers in excess of
Reduced price
And something like “offers in and around” - I can’t remember the exact wording he used.

We’ve looked on Rightmove again and in the price bracket our house is in most properties seem to have Guide Price on the listing. Particularly with certain agents. Hamptons, Strutt Parker, Savills and similar.

[notheragain4]

Guide price is used around here a lot so I don't assume auction. I do find it weird though because when it's on for a range like £320-345k I always think who is going to offer anything above the bottom price? Particularly if it's been on a little while.

[FlumpetCrumpet]

I sold a house recently with a guide price which was about £30k under what the estate agents thought it was worth.

It was on for a about 3 weeks, had an open day and we had 8 offers! All around about what the agents value originally was.

I think this is exactly why agents do it, to get more people through the door with a more tempting price and create a buzz to get people to offer more. I can see the logic but I think it could be risky strategy if the buzz doesn't materialise. (Glad it worked for you Noodledoodledoo, 8 offers must have been a great day!)

There was one I had my eye on that was listed for 450k for ages then suggendly dropped to a guide price of 375k we viewed it and the seller wanted 420k for it, the agent said so as we were looking round. Personally I thought it was worth the 420k but if someone's max budget is around 375k they are never going to magic up an additional 45k from somewhere and if you hadn't had it sitting in your list of rightmove favourites and watched the price suddenly tumble you'd have no idea that this was the case. I think it is this that makes me wary of guide prices (although admittedly as a first experience with a guide price this is an extreme example!)

[Peridot1]

Thanks so much for all of your views. It’s really helped.

I will just say from our viewpoint though - we had no idea, it wasn’t that we wanted more than the ‘asking’ price. We have always assumed that any number quoted on Rightmove etc is a starting point. Open for negotiations. We have always assumed that other than the unusual circumstances of a few interested parties bidding that we would achieve less than the asking price. We are buying a property that we offered over asking pricing on as there were other offers. Then we got gazumped. I’ve always seen it all as a negotiation strategy.

[Wearyheavyladen]

I think overall there are very few buyers who find this appealing and the majority would find it off putting. Why estate agents and vendors do it is beyond me. Many solid potential buyers are turned off.

It’s unnecessary. Just stated price. We all know that negotiations are possible and that offers below may be rejected. Complicating things with ridiculous terminology serves no useful purpose.

[gurglebelly]

OIEO/Offers over/OIRO/guide price would all put me off if there are other potential properties with an actual price stated.

Frankly it is way too stressful buying a house anyway, trying to second guess the magic number a seller has in their head (without a crystal ball) is far too much hassle. At least with an actual price you have a real idea of what they may want

[purpletrees16]

Doesn’t put me off because I am a FTB in a price bracket without many other FTB so I offer low to take advantage of my one time only chain free position (I’m sure others would agree it’s worth a 1-2% discount to the seller, and if it’s not they just have to say.)

[SirSamuelVimesBlackboardMonito]

I would assume auction, and that it would actually go for a lot more than the guide price. Which would mean I couldn't afford it, as I'd be searching at the price I could buy, not 20% below it.

[Viviennemary]

I hate seeing guide price. It puts me off. I looked it up. One web site said offer 10-20%below the guide price. That can't be right can it.

[AmelieTaylor]

Good move to get it changed.

I think it adds a level of misunderstanding/confusion that no one needs!

Good luck with selling.

We live nothing more than a listing to take over & make suggestions for if you want to name change & ask. Beware though, it can be brutal!

[daisypond]

I would assume it’s either at auction and/or the final price will be quite considerably more. It would put me off.

[Namechangr9000]

Nearly all houses on right move near me say guide price. I dont take any notice and certainly wouldnt assume it was an auction property unless it specifically mentioned it. I prefer it to OIEO.

[Noodledoodledoo]

I sold a house recently with a guide price which was about £30k under what the estate agents thought it was worth.

It was on for a about 3 weeks, had an open day and we had 8 offers! All around about what the agents value originally was.

[lazyakita]

There's a bit of ambiguity with "guide price" that I and many others seem to find off putting. I don't really know why, other than despite having spoken to several estate agents I still don't understand how a guide price differs from just putting a price on it. Here guide price generally denotes an over priced property.

[Zarara]

It doesn’t put me off exactly but agree it’s not very clear. I always assume they want more or less than the guide price and it’s a bit of a gamble as to which one. It depends how desperate you are but I saw an advert that had a price then ‘open to offers’ which I liked. No one likes making an offer if they think they’re going to offend the seller so that makes it clear that the sellers are open although I know some would say it looks desperate... just sticking with a price is probably the most straight forward.

[Frazzled13]

It would put me off because I don't know what it means. Do they want higher? Or are they open to offers? At least with a regular asking price (in England) you know that unless you get into a bidding war type situation, the asking price is the max the sellers are expecting.