Offer in excess of???

[redpickle]

Just wanted to gather thoughts on this. We've had little interest in our house and looking to reduce. Agent has suggested a big drop to an 'Offers in excess of' figure. Our bottom line lowest that we could afford to take is in the middle of the current asking price and the O.I.E.O figure so would need to get around £15k over the O.I.E.O price. Now I don't know about you but if I see somewhere at say O.I.E.O £400k, I would be thinking they won't consider offers below that figure but could probably get it at £405-7k.
The market has really died in the last few weeks where I am and we've not seen anything we like and our competition isn't selling either, even following reductions. We're reluctant to make such a big drop unless we're likely to reach our minimum. All the other agents we spoke to said we should expect to achieve at least our minimum figure so this feels a bit like underselling
So what are your thoughts about O.I.E.O? How much I.E.O would you expect to go in a reasonably slow market?

It depends where you are. In Scotland, the offers over system is the common one. Sometimes people put a very desirable house on at a very low offers over, knowing that there will be a bidding frenzy 10, 20, 40% + over. However, sometimes people put it on too high, and they get no interest.
In England, I'd be very wary of offers over, simply because people are not familiar with it, and will likely still put in offers under.
Realistically, if nothing is selling you might need to sell for under what you need. Or stay where you are until the market recovers. I've been in that position before and it is gut wrenchingly awful. Wishing you all the best.

I would take OIEO to mean, they won’t consider anything below the asking price. So when we were looking if we saw an OIEO house we knew it would be at least that price, if not higher. Ours went up at OIEO at the advice of the estate agent and we ended up accepting an offer just over the asking price… we would have accepted asking price not nothing under.

We've just bought a house listed as offers over, we were the first to put an offer in and offered asking price - it did go for more as there was another couple interested so went to best and final. If the market's calmed down where you are, I'd list it as offers over your minimum amount, no guarantees you won't get offers under that amount but you can easily refuse them. I think if you set the price lower and someone offers that but then you refuse, as a buyer I'd be miffed that you had that as your initial price and would be less inclined to offer more.

Ours was OIEO. We just offered that value.
I’ve often wondered if we should have offered a bit less.

We were advised to do this at a comparatively modest OIEO price because of our specific circumstances by our estate agents, to get people through the doors — we weren’t living in the house any longer — and ended up selling for £30 k above that.

I appreciate I may be unusual, but I hate OIEO. In fact I hate when things aren't priced in all walks of life - carboots and fb selling pages. Just tell me how much it is so I know if I can afford it.

Unless a property was OIEO a sum much lower than my budget, I wouldn't even view it.

My concern is always how much in excess? like you say, if someone offers you 5k more than the OIEO then that wouldn't be enough. How is anyone supposed to know that? 5k is IEO. That's what you asked for. Say I offer much lower that the secret sum that the seller wants, will they be insulted and refuse to consider subsequent offers? So do I go in high and potentially over pay? Who knows. It's a mystery.

I think OIEO is a complete minefield and I'd avoid it like the plague.

@Faranth

I appreciate I may be unusual, but I hate OIEO. In fact I hate when things aren't priced in all walks of life - carboots and fb selling pages. Just tell me how much it is so I know if I can afford it.

Unless a property was OIEO a sum much lower than my budget, I wouldn't even view it.

My concern is always how much in excess? like you say, if someone offers you 5k more than the OIEO then that wouldn't be enough. How is anyone supposed to know that? 5k is IEO. That's what you asked for. Say I offer much lower that the secret sum that the seller wants, will they be insulted and refuse to consider subsequent offers? So do I go in high and potentially over pay? Who knows. It's a mystery.

I think OIEO is a complete minefield and I'd avoid it like the plague.

But even if vendors don’t market at OIEO, but just give a price, no buyer is obliged to offer it, and people routinely go in under the asking price, anyway. OIEO is saying ‘we won’t accept an offer unless it’s above this’ — the minimum we were prepared to accept — thus cutting out the people who were going to offer way under.

I appreciate I may be unusual, but I hate OIEO

I hate it too, it just makes me think the sellers want more but are getting low offers.

I also wouldn't offer anything over the actual OIEO so I don't really see the point.

OIEO is saying ‘we won’t accept an offer unless it’s above this’ the minimum we were prepared to accept thus cutting out the people who were going to offer way under.

I know people who have under OIEO & got the house. I think it restricts your buyers pool which may not be a good thing.

It means the sellers have a clear idea of the absolute minimum price they will accept, so there’s no point in wasting their time in going in at ‘asking price minus 10%’, but also that they’re happy to wait and see what the demand is like.

Thank you for all the replies. I agree with all of this so you've all confirmed what I was thinking. I don't really like O.I.E.O either. I think we will just reduce to an asking or guide price.

@minniebin

OIEO is saying ‘we won’t accept an offer unless it’s above this’ the minimum we were prepared to accept thus cutting out the people who were going to offer way under.

I know people who have under OIEO & got the house. I think it restricts your buyers pool which may not be a good thing.

In our case it expanded it, because the OIEO price was lower than the asking price would have been, to reflect exact local conditions, and two more glossily finished and staged houses of the same type for sale in the immediate vicinity. It got more people through the door, and for at least some of them, for whom the neighbouring houses were out of reach, made them realise that our house could be similarly renovated, and was on a nicer, more secluded plot.

I've only ever seen OIEO for houses that are overvalued & have reduced over time however I guess it depends on your local market.

@redpickle

Just wanted to gather thoughts on this. We've had little interest in our house and looking to reduce. Agent has suggested a big drop to an 'Offers in excess of' figure. Our bottom line lowest that we could afford to take is in the middle of the current asking price and the O.I.E.O figure so would need to get around £15k over the O.I.E.O price. Now I don't know about you but if I see somewhere at say O.I.E.O £400k, I would be thinking they won't consider offers below that figure but could probably get it at £405-7k. The market has really died in the last few weeks where I am and we've not seen anything we like and our competition isn't selling either, even following reductions. We're reluctant to make such a big drop unless we're likely to reach our minimum. All the other agents we spoke to said we should expect to achieve at least our minimum figure so this feels a bit like underselling So what are your thoughts about O.I.E.O? How much I.E.O would you expect to go in a reasonably slow market?

When I see OIEO I mentally think the buyer may accept that price. So my daughter is looking for a property up to 450k (can't go over that amount as has lifetime ISA) and we would still view a property for her that said OIEO 450k.

However, that is for a flat in London where many properties get reduced in the end anyway. As you have already reduced, I don't think I would say OIEO but state a higher price to begin with as otherwise people may offer the OIEO price listed or 1k above.

I think the problem with offers in excess of is that everybody has a slightly different understanding of it. I would see it as, that’s the price if nobody else is interested but if there are multiple offers, you might need to go over.

@redpickle Depends where you are I think OP, and what your local property market is like. We’re in Scotland and “Offers Over...” is hugely common here. Typically properties are expected to sell at around 10% above the offers over price as a general rule - although obviously that can be much higher or lower depending on the specific property and circumstances.

In Scotland it's not really the offers over price that matters it's the home report value

"The market has really died in the last few weeks where I am and we've not seen anything we like and our competition isn't selling either, even following reductions. We're reluctant to make such a big drop unless we're likely to reach our minimum. All the other agents we spoke to said we should expect to achieve at least our minimum figure so this feels a bit like underselling"

If the market has died and your competition isn't selling where are those other agents getting their information. Other agents will always tell you what you want to hear. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. If the price is too high you just won't get any offers.

We are looking in a popular area. Desirable stuff goes to best and final which ends up way above asking however it is termed (whether it is called asking, or offers in region of, or oieo). Less desirable stuff with too high a price tends to just sit.
I think people take the price as a ballpark figure then offer what they think it is worth around that, whatever it says in terms of oieo, asking price etc

When I see oieo I would only ever offer the price shown at most, and probably less. It wouldn't make a jot of a difference to me.

Just say what you want please !!! We offered £500 over the OIEO price and the estate agent laughed and it wasn't enough they never said what they wanted . buyers aren't mind readers and it put me off that entire estate agent I won't be buying a property off them.

I’ve offered less on an OIEO house before and had it accepted, but it was less than 2% of the asking price. The OIEO made me think they wouldn’t accept much lower than their ask and so I didn’t ask for a huge reduction.

Saying that if it had been reduced and then OIEO that would make me think the sellers couldn’t shift it and I’d probably offer a little lower still (depending on what the house was worth compared to alternatives).