Offers Over..... ?

[sel2223]

What does it actually mean? Is there a set amount above that which the sellers want?

We'rr relocating back to the UK and, after months of watching the market and virtual viewings, we have finally found the perfect house for us. It's been on the market a week.

It's listed with an offers over price so we went in with an offer at 1% over that price - we are in a great position as are cash buyers, no chain, looking to complete asap (subject to survey and searches of course) as I'm pregnant and want to be in somewhere before the baby arrives.

The offer was rejected. No counter offer, just an explanation from the EA that the sellers wanted a 'higher price'.

We waited a couple of days then put in a revised second offer at 2.5% over the price. Also rejected, again no counter offer.

What would you do now? We love the house and haven't found anything else suitable but we are right at the top of our budget now.

Do these people actually want to sell? It's an empty house, no upper chain. The EA has been no help whatsoever so we don't know who the seller is, why they are selling or how much they are hoping for etc. It just seems so unethical and a complete waste of peoples time to list the property at a certain price to get interest but actually want a much higher price.

Feeling very despondent tonight.

When we bought our house 6 years ago we paid 19% over the asking price. I think that's quite normal depending on the location

I hate 'offers over', just say how much you want! If they want more than you can afford then at least you know. I'd let this one go and find a home with a clear price tag within your budget

If it's in Scotland, the home report is usually ,circa £20k above asking price and people will expect £10a-£20k above that

@Grumpyat40 was yours also offers over? 19% seems outrageous to me… I can’t see it being that much where we are but then again the average px here is a million or so.

@sel2223 I’m not surprised you’re not getting anywhere going that low that soon. They’ll be wanting to test the market for at least a month before accepting something so if you want it agreed sooner you’d need to go higher otherwise they’ll wait to see if someone else will. I don’t know how much higher, maybe 5-10%. But you need to be clear where your final offer is. Chances are they’ll just use you as a backstop though. I agree it’s a greedy way to sell.

I think feedback to the EA that the lack of price transparency is frustrating would be v valid. They are supposed to be advising their client and if it’s not working the client needs to know.

I hate estate agents and blame their constant greed for the crisis we have around house prices in the UK. They’re utter cowboys mostly.

I would ask the agent directly how much are they looking for? You can then decide whether you think the house is worth that.
If they are not in Scotland I think in the current market offers over is a risky strategy and it is really a buyers market.

I think a total review of the whole system is long overdue.
I. Scotland we have this offers over situation & in the rest of the UK, gazumpibg & chains falling spart.
I can figure out which is worse.

I think an offer accepted should be legally binding frankly

Offers over only indicates that the Sellers hope to get at least that price, but if there’s no interest they will get less and if there’s a lot of interest they will get more.

I would be telling the EA you would like a counter offer from the Sellers ( though they don’t have to oblige).

All you can really do is keep increasing the price if you think the house is worth paying more for, & you can afford it. To go from 1% over to 2.5% over was a rather small increase. I would try offering 5% over next time if you want to keep increasing the offer to secure it.

I just recently bought a house in Scotland & we simply offered what we thought it was worth. Which happened to be £46k over asking price.
We got it by a whisker - I'm happy. Houses (or indeed anything ) is only worth what someone is willing. To pay

the seller will have a set price in mind (likely a fair bit over the the advertised offers over amount) but want to attract people in by not stating it.

Tell the agent your circumstances, that you are “desperate”, serious and not looking to mess around but to land a house.

Ask them what price would take the house off the market for good - and take it from there whether you want to pay that to secure, wait a bit and counter-offer, or leave it.3

Thank you for the replies, this is in Northern England, not Scotland, and the advice i have had from family and friends living in the area is that 'offers over' doesn't really mean anything and just treat it as a normal asking price.

It's the first house I've viewed with an offers over listing price - if they're expecting 10%+ more than that then why not just list it at a higher price so they're getting the right people viewing? (although that would take it way over market value and my budget). Regardless, if they would just come back with some kind of figure at least I'd know whether I'm wasting my time or not and could continue my search elsewhere.

I've been living outside the UK for so long I'm totally out the loop with the UK property market - where I'm from the buyer pays a 10% non refundable deposit to secure the property and contracts are signed straight away so you're legally tied in from the beginning. There are a few set circumstances where you can pull out but not many.

Are you in Europe?

can one of you fly back to view it? I think a lot of sellers would be wary of overseas buyers who haven't viewed it, so would hang out for a much higher offer from them, if they accept at all. (They're at high risk of a buyer pulling out once they've actually viewed it).

However, with an OO it would depend on too many variables as to what % age I'd offer over, some I'd actually offer under, if that's what it was worth to me

id squeeze the EA until they squealed!!

in your current position id just tell the EA that im not interested in trying to buy from an unmotivated seller who cant even be bothered to engage in the process.

good luck buying a house & moving back home.and your baby! Such an exciting stage of life! Try to enjoy it x

It meant fuck all with the agent who sold our house and the one we bought. They happily accepted offers well under the prices they had listed at offers over.

Thank you, I'm not in Europe unfortunately and we have another daughter so not easy to keep flying back and forwards - although I've had my mum and brother view this house, video etc, and I've sent the agent my proof of funds, fully explained our position

I've asked outright how much they want but just get told 'they haven't said'

The market where I'm looking in England is fairly stable and a lot of properties do accept offers within a month or so of listing so it didn't seem super early. Also it's already priced pretty accurately for the area so wouldn't want to go massively over even if I was able to.

I'm assuming this is Scotland.
That's not the case at all. There's no rules or figures like that at all.
The home report is a valuation around what the house is worth.
Overs over is that the vendor hopes for more, and depending on market you offer what you think the house is worth / enough to secure a purchase.
I've bought one house at 10% above, but seen silly purchases of 30% above(!). I bought one at the 0% over. I bought another 'offers over' property for 20% below...
As ever so much of this is a negotiation and some vendors have unreasonable expectations - particularly in the difficult market there is in many places at present.
I would ask estate agent for a figure the vendor is looking for.

To add: remember that the lower of the home report or mortgage valuation is what is used to calculate your loan to valuation. Your offer above home report or mortgage valuation is therefore from your deposit.

Honestly for whatever reason it sounds like they don't want to sell to you. You are in a good position move on and find somewhere else.

I can only presume as they’ve only had the house on the market for a week, that they are waiting for other offers and maybe have viewings this weekend. My neighbour is currently selling her house, she’s now in the stage of second/third viewings from people, one has offered lower price but is a cash buyer, he keeps coming back at £10,000 increases, the other 2 coming are re-visiting today, but haven’t as yet put in an offer, so she cannot bargain/accept the first offer yet. It’s annoying saying offers over, but it’s to try and stop people viewing and offering below asking price.

Yes, that makes sense that they may have a weekend full of viewings booked which they want to get through first (the EA should just say that).

The reason for offering 'early' from our point of view was to avoid getting into a crazy bidding war with other potential buyers but, with no guidance from the seller/EA, we are working blind with what amount would get them to take it off the market now - surely they have a figure in mind?

I'm reluctant to just keep upping the offer, not least because it's only worth so much in the local market and that's already where we are at.

My reply above was based on the assumption you are in England.

Just wait in this one and keep looking elsewhere.

They obviously want a ridiculous account (the idea that the estate agent doesn't know what price they want is ludicrous, either bonkers or bullshitters!)

The sellers want to test the market which is fair enough, the house hasn't been on long and most sellers want to pick the best offer/best buyer from a choice of a few.

If you are at the top of your budget and this house is too expensive then you need to keep looking in the meantime if this place doesn't sell or comes back on the market you might get another chance with your original offer.

Houses are worth what buyers are prepared to pay so the asking price is only ever a guide, whether it's "offers over" or "guide price".... the seller and EA will try and get the highest price possible, especially with the budget looming and threats of higher stamp duty on the horizon for Spring, and if they have only been on the market a week they are right to wait and see if they can get more than you offer. If you want it off the market you will have to make an offer considerably higher than 1% over the asking price, I would imagine...

We offered just under then they countered with 5k over, we offered £2k over and asked for a garden structure to remain, which they agreed to (they were trying to sell that separately). They must have a price in mind. I’d wait a week and maybe go back on Thursday to ask for guidance on a price or you won’t believe they’re genuine sellers and walk away. Depends how much you like the house but I’d be put off by the games.

Not unreasonable to go for offers over.

Sellers might have a minimum price they need or want to move, but be uncertain of the actual value. Some houses can be very hard to value.

Sellers are no more "greedy" for wanting top price for their asset than you are "greedy" for wanting to pay as little as possible.

Where a seller might be being unreasonable is the feedback they are giving to answers, and I suspect most agents would want them to give more information for purchasers to act on.

For example answers like "we were thinking more along the lines of xK given the enquiries we have had so far" or "we are thinking of waiting a little to see more what the market can deliver" are both valid responses. Flat out rejections with little feedback are not really helpful, and I would be surprised if an agent would give them out, as after all the agent wants a sale, and they are only going to get that if they deliver pricing information to potential purchases to enable them to make a bid that will be accepted.

Thank you for the responses. It's really interesting to me being outside the UK looking to move back to see just how much the sales market varies across different parts of the UK.

In some parts this seems completely normal, in others (like the area we will be moving to) it is less common and a lot more ambiguous.

While I don't think it's greedy to want the best price and to have a minimum price in mind (I would think that applies to everyone selling their house whether they state offers only or not), I do think it's pretty unreasonable to provide no feedback or counter offer or any information at all to try and start/ continue negotiations. That was more the reason behind this post as I'd never come across this lack of transparency before and am finding it incredibly frustrating.

I've done a bit of research in the meantime and it seems the properties advertising as 'offers over' in this area normally go for between 1-4% over the listing price (average) - nothing as high as some of the amounts quoted in these replies - but I'm reluctant to just keep increasing my offer without some kind of indication from the seller of where they are at. The house is also currently right where it should be in terms of the current market, recently sold prices in that area and other properties up for sale. So, while it's true that a property is worth whatever someone wants to pay for it, there is an upper cap and it would be silly to go too far beyond that. The sellers should be realistic.

I just want to know from the EA if we're wasting our time here or not. I don't mind waiting a short while but if we're way off what the seller is hoping for then I'd rather know so I can put this one to bed and continue in our search (I'm cutting it fine to get anything completed before baby is due anyway)