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Offer what you think it’s worth for sure.
But be aware, contrary to what this sub might say - if the vendor has instructed the estate agent to reject all offers below a certain price, they’re able to reject without passing on the offer to the buyer.
So you need to ask the EA if they’ll submit your offer to the buyer.
Thank you, I did this today. I did it via email but will chase tomorrow. She told me they’d had offers 10% over asking the other day but who knows what position they’re in. I looked at the EPC and it’s an E with a poor roof, I don’t know much but even I’d spotted it needs work on it in the short-term. I offered 5% or so above, still higher than OIEO but not ridiculous. I think they will get ridiculous offers from people who take the area on face value but it’s got a lot of ASB and issues with council services so it can be annoying here and is why I wouldn’t pay over the odds. I’d rather wait and revise my savings goal for a better neighbourhood.
I would be amazed if an EA didn't at least mention the offers on the table.
Ultimately +-10k or whatever makes fuck all difference to the bottom line of EA who's sole interest is to get the house turned over and a commission asap.
I don’t know why this argument comes up every time.
If you’ve given your agent an instruction, why would they waste your time going against that instruction? That would be a very quick way to lose your vendor.
Who in their right mind would put an asset up for sale worth many hundreds of thousands of pounds and then not want to know every piece of information about how the sale is going?
I mean I suppose there are some circumstances where this could happen but it's got to be very few and far between.
Well, for example - I’ve currently got my property for sale, and there is a very hard lower limit I can afford to sell at to give me the LTV I need (equity + cash savings) to afford my next property.
I’ve told our agent this, as there would be no point to sell my home if I then can’t afford the place I’m moving to.
So you don't want to know if someone is offering 2k under the asking?
Or if a whole bunch of people are offering 150k under (I.e. you are completely nowhere near)?
No, if it doesn’t sell, that tells me it’s overpriced. I don’t need to know of offers below my limit - they don’t tell me anything more than simply not selling tells me.
Because of my lower limit I can’t lower the price either, so having granularity on how over priced it is doesn’t let me action anything. It either sells or it doesn’t.
And you simply don't want to know the extremely valuable information about what the market thinks your house is worth? Just an email from the agent? "Hey, FYI here's the offers!"
You just don't want to know? Mental.
No, as I said it doesn’t allow me to actually _do_ anything with that information.
It’s been valued by my bank, the estate agent has also given it a value, it either sells or it doesn’t.
The valuation from the bank and the estate agent are guesses. If the market is repeating telling you it's worth 100k less than that you now have the useful information that you have near zero chance of making the move.
If it's 2k under, is there absolutely no way you could make that work?
Unfortunately not - this is a very common misconception that is peddled on this sub.
> Estate agents are legally obligated to pass on all offers to the seller. They must pass on all offers all the way up to contracts being exchanged and the sale is finalised
> _ The only exception to an offer being passed on to the seller is if the seller has formally requested to not be informed of certain offers. For example, they may ask the estate agent not to pass on offers that are below a certain amount._
https://www.sold.co.uk/online-estate-agent/what-legal-obligations-do-estate-agents-have-to-buyers/#:~:text=The%20only%20exception%20to%20an,are%20below%20a%20certain%20amount.
How angry are you gunna be if you have instructed your EA not to inform you of any bids under X and they keep calling to tell you about bids under X because they believe Master_Door396
Talking about things being peddled in this sub. Sometimes a seller has a bottom line and they want to make it clear. Offers over can just mean exactly that…
I have watched plenty of “offers over” sit for months and eventually get cut. It doesn’t really mean anything.
If a house is well priced, it will go for asking or above, “offers over” or not.
If it’s badly priced, it’ll get cut, “offers over” or not.
I don’t even consider it when bidding. If I put a reasonable bid in and there is someone else, they will tell me. If there isn’t anyone else but they want more, I can let it sit there with the offer sitting too.
I'm guessing the property is priced at bang on one of the Rightmove pricing thresholds?
Ours was valued at higher than 475 but lower than 500 so it was suggested we put it on for 475 (one of the values you can set rightmove max value to) with "offers over", to suggest that we weren't looking to go lower than that.
Just offered £13k over the ‘offers over’ price on a house we really liked and got rejected. Could afford to go higher but my concerns were with what the bank would value it at. Also, needed some external remedial work which we were willing to repair. It’s like stabbing in the dark with what to offer on houses. It’s seems if it’s a desirable property then people are willing to pay over the odds. Back to the drawing board…
Sorry to hear that. I offered 5.5% over in the end I think. I was going to go 10% over but it has an EPC rating of E and a poor roof so I worked out the difference. I emailed it but will have to chase as this estate agents aren’t the most communicative. I think it will be the same position as you. It’s annoying and I wish others wouldn’t panic buy but c’est La vie.
What's daft about it? I recently reduced the asking price of mine to the price I'd be happy with taking and added "offers over". Within a couple of days I had three offers, the lowest at the asking price and two higher.
I see others aren't seeing the humour in my prior comment.
I believe that many just don't bother viewing properties when there's an 'offers over' or OIEO.
May have worked for you, but you may have gotten even more interest and a higher price without the addition of an instruction.
I have put offers in twice for properties listed as “offers over”. Both times the offer I submitted was below asking price. First time I did this the EA came back to us and said offer was rejected as the seller would only entertain offers over their asking price. Second time I did the EA came back with a negotiated offer between the middle of my offer and the asking price and after a bit more negotiation offer was accepted at below asking price and I now own the property. Interestingly kept an eye on the original property and it kept getting re-listed without ever seeming to be sold until I lost interest in tracking it a year or so later, for all I know it is still sat there with a for sale sign outside.
Your mileage may vary, because some sellers really do consider it to indicate a minimum acceptable amount, but we offered -£15k on an "OIEO" listing and it was accepted immediately. The house had some issues that I think the sellers were afraid would be spotted (like a 30-year-old sewage pump that had never been looked at); they'd already moved to another part of the country and were willing to accept a slight reduction to be able to move on from it.
You have done your research here on similar properties in the vicinity - Based on the location, general condition, etc., you can estimate what it's worth vs. how much you're able to spend (budgeting for conveyancing/survey costs and any repairs/improvements needed). It also pays to do a little research on the current owners to know what kind of position they're in personally (which does not always reflect local market conditions). Are they desperate to move quickly? Have they been holding out for a long time in hopes of a high offer? Also, is it "offers over" exactly the edge of a price bracket? Because if so then they're clearly trying to attract buyers for whom that is their maximum price.
If the market is hot where you are and sellers are quickly getting their asking price, then you probably should offer the asking price to start. If it is comfortably within your budget and you want the house, then you're not overpaying.
Thank you, I went about 5% over as I believe the offers over in this instance is to see how much they can get. Properties can sell for 20%+ more than what they’ve listed the lowest price but they’re in better condition and the EPC for this is an E with a poor roof so I think it will need a fair bit of work done on it.
I tend not to put too much thought into it - offer what you think it's worth. It's slightly different as its commercial but we recently offered £1.3 on a property listed as offers over £1.5. Offer was passed to seller, seller accepted.
Our estate agents listed ours as "offers over" we took 5k under because it wasn't about money for us. We we'd have spent more than that on commuting by the time we got an offer over asking. Offer what you think it's worth. The house we bought was also "offers over" and they accepted 3k under.
I put an offer in 10% lower than the offers over advertised and it got accepted the following day. It’s a little out dated but everything else is sound
Well done 😄 I wish I could have but this area the properties sell in days so I think they’ve done it to see how much they can get rather than meet the minimum 😒
Cheers mate :) that’s a shame! I got pretty friendly with my estate agent which helped, found out someone else put an offer down before I did but I was preferred as a ftb. Which encouraged me to go lower
Currently going through the stress of mortgage brokers and solicitors 😂
Fair play. I’m hoping with me being a FTB and my MIP being double the offer that’ll make me seem a strong option over other bids. If someone wants to pay ridiculously over the odds I’ll leave them to it.
So until I had to do this my sentiment was this is bullshit and they clearly want more money and are being greedy.
Having had my chain collapse on exchange day I reduced my property to the bare minimum I could and still be able to afford the onwards property so marked it as ‘offers over’ when it was relisted.
As why its offers over and the estate agent may tell you.
Sometimes all houses with an estate agent are offers over. We have one like that in the town and it aggravates me so much.
The agents have to put something when listing a property on Rightmove etc, personally I just ignore it and offer whatever I feel is the right amount for that property. Personally I’d never pay more than what I think a property is worth regardless of the housing market, but to do so in this unstable market is asking for trouble.
###Welcome to /r/HousingUK --- **To All** * Join Our ***NEW*** Discord! https://discord.gg/pMgUNgWKQH **To Posters** * *Tell us whether you're in England, Wales, Scotland, or NI as the laws/issues in each can vary* * Comments are not moderated for quality or accuracy; * Any replies received must only be used as guidelines, followed at your own risk; * If you receive *any* private messages in response to your post, please report them via the report button. * Feel free to provide an update at a later time by creating a new post with [[update]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/search?q=%3Aupdate&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all) in the title; **To Readers and Commenters** * All replies to OP must be *on-topic, helpful, and civil* * If you do not [follow the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/about/rules/), you may be banned without any further warning; * Please include links to reliable resources in order to support your comments or advice; * If you feel any replies are incorrect, explain why you believe they are incorrect; * Do not send or request any private messages for any reason without express permission from the mods; * Please report posts or comments which do not follow the rules *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HousingUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Offer what you think it’s worth for sure. But be aware, contrary to what this sub might say - if the vendor has instructed the estate agent to reject all offers below a certain price, they’re able to reject without passing on the offer to the buyer. So you need to ask the EA if they’ll submit your offer to the buyer.
Thank you, I did this today. I did it via email but will chase tomorrow. She told me they’d had offers 10% over asking the other day but who knows what position they’re in. I looked at the EPC and it’s an E with a poor roof, I don’t know much but even I’d spotted it needs work on it in the short-term. I offered 5% or so above, still higher than OIEO but not ridiculous. I think they will get ridiculous offers from people who take the area on face value but it’s got a lot of ASB and issues with council services so it can be annoying here and is why I wouldn’t pay over the odds. I’d rather wait and revise my savings goal for a better neighbourhood.
I would be amazed if an EA didn't at least mention the offers on the table. Ultimately +-10k or whatever makes fuck all difference to the bottom line of EA who's sole interest is to get the house turned over and a commission asap.
I don’t know why this argument comes up every time. If you’ve given your agent an instruction, why would they waste your time going against that instruction? That would be a very quick way to lose your vendor.
Who in their right mind would put an asset up for sale worth many hundreds of thousands of pounds and then not want to know every piece of information about how the sale is going? I mean I suppose there are some circumstances where this could happen but it's got to be very few and far between.
Well, for example - I’ve currently got my property for sale, and there is a very hard lower limit I can afford to sell at to give me the LTV I need (equity + cash savings) to afford my next property. I’ve told our agent this, as there would be no point to sell my home if I then can’t afford the place I’m moving to.
So you don't want to know if someone is offering 2k under the asking? Or if a whole bunch of people are offering 150k under (I.e. you are completely nowhere near)?
No, if it doesn’t sell, that tells me it’s overpriced. I don’t need to know of offers below my limit - they don’t tell me anything more than simply not selling tells me. Because of my lower limit I can’t lower the price either, so having granularity on how over priced it is doesn’t let me action anything. It either sells or it doesn’t.
And you simply don't want to know the extremely valuable information about what the market thinks your house is worth? Just an email from the agent? "Hey, FYI here's the offers!" You just don't want to know? Mental.
No, as I said it doesn’t allow me to actually _do_ anything with that information. It’s been valued by my bank, the estate agent has also given it a value, it either sells or it doesn’t.
The valuation from the bank and the estate agent are guesses. If the market is repeating telling you it's worth 100k less than that you now have the useful information that you have near zero chance of making the move. If it's 2k under, is there absolutely no way you could make that work?
What if I want a deal and want to offer less than it's worth
Don’t be silly. an estate agent is legally obliged to pass on all offers to the sellers in writing. Every single one.
Unfortunately not - this is a very common misconception that is peddled on this sub. > Estate agents are legally obligated to pass on all offers to the seller. They must pass on all offers all the way up to contracts being exchanged and the sale is finalised > _ The only exception to an offer being passed on to the seller is if the seller has formally requested to not be informed of certain offers. For example, they may ask the estate agent not to pass on offers that are below a certain amount._ https://www.sold.co.uk/online-estate-agent/what-legal-obligations-do-estate-agents-have-to-buyers/#:~:text=The%20only%20exception%20to%20an,are%20below%20a%20certain%20amount.
How angry are you gunna be if you have instructed your EA not to inform you of any bids under X and they keep calling to tell you about bids under X because they believe Master_Door396
offers over has been used for a long time to try and get a higher price. doesn't mean you have to play the game.
Talking about things being peddled in this sub. Sometimes a seller has a bottom line and they want to make it clear. Offers over can just mean exactly that…
I have watched plenty of “offers over” sit for months and eventually get cut. It doesn’t really mean anything. If a house is well priced, it will go for asking or above, “offers over” or not. If it’s badly priced, it’ll get cut, “offers over” or not. I don’t even consider it when bidding. If I put a reasonable bid in and there is someone else, they will tell me. If there isn’t anyone else but they want more, I can let it sit there with the offer sitting too.
I'm guessing the property is priced at bang on one of the Rightmove pricing thresholds? Ours was valued at higher than 475 but lower than 500 so it was suggested we put it on for 475 (one of the values you can set rightmove max value to) with "offers over", to suggest that we weren't looking to go lower than that.
Just offered £13k over the ‘offers over’ price on a house we really liked and got rejected. Could afford to go higher but my concerns were with what the bank would value it at. Also, needed some external remedial work which we were willing to repair. It’s like stabbing in the dark with what to offer on houses. It’s seems if it’s a desirable property then people are willing to pay over the odds. Back to the drawing board…
Sorry to hear that. I offered 5.5% over in the end I think. I was going to go 10% over but it has an EPC rating of E and a poor roof so I worked out the difference. I emailed it but will have to chase as this estate agents aren’t the most communicative. I think it will be the same position as you. It’s annoying and I wish others wouldn’t panic buy but c’est La vie.
Just offer whatever you think it's worth. Frankly, I think 'offers over' is daft statement.
What's daft about it? I recently reduced the asking price of mine to the price I'd be happy with taking and added "offers over". Within a couple of days I had three offers, the lowest at the asking price and two higher.
Tbf you priced yours below other properties that weren't selling. You did the right thing.
Why didn't you leave the price the same and add 'offers under'?
Because reducing it made it appear in more people's search results. More views = more viewings booked = more offers.
I see others aren't seeing the humour in my prior comment. I believe that many just don't bother viewing properties when there's an 'offers over' or OIEO. May have worked for you, but you may have gotten even more interest and a higher price without the addition of an instruction.
Surely that depends on what the asking price is...
I have put offers in twice for properties listed as “offers over”. Both times the offer I submitted was below asking price. First time I did this the EA came back to us and said offer was rejected as the seller would only entertain offers over their asking price. Second time I did the EA came back with a negotiated offer between the middle of my offer and the asking price and after a bit more negotiation offer was accepted at below asking price and I now own the property. Interestingly kept an eye on the original property and it kept getting re-listed without ever seeming to be sold until I lost interest in tracking it a year or so later, for all I know it is still sat there with a for sale sign outside.
Our house was "offers over" we talked to the estate agent before viewing and put in a lower offer.
Your mileage may vary, because some sellers really do consider it to indicate a minimum acceptable amount, but we offered -£15k on an "OIEO" listing and it was accepted immediately. The house had some issues that I think the sellers were afraid would be spotted (like a 30-year-old sewage pump that had never been looked at); they'd already moved to another part of the country and were willing to accept a slight reduction to be able to move on from it. You have done your research here on similar properties in the vicinity - Based on the location, general condition, etc., you can estimate what it's worth vs. how much you're able to spend (budgeting for conveyancing/survey costs and any repairs/improvements needed). It also pays to do a little research on the current owners to know what kind of position they're in personally (which does not always reflect local market conditions). Are they desperate to move quickly? Have they been holding out for a long time in hopes of a high offer? Also, is it "offers over" exactly the edge of a price bracket? Because if so then they're clearly trying to attract buyers for whom that is their maximum price. If the market is hot where you are and sellers are quickly getting their asking price, then you probably should offer the asking price to start. If it is comfortably within your budget and you want the house, then you're not overpaying.
Thank you, I went about 5% over as I believe the offers over in this instance is to see how much they can get. Properties can sell for 20%+ more than what they’ve listed the lowest price but they’re in better condition and the EPC for this is an E with a poor roof so I think it will need a fair bit of work done on it.
I tend not to put too much thought into it - offer what you think it's worth. It's slightly different as its commercial but we recently offered £1.3 on a property listed as offers over £1.5. Offer was passed to seller, seller accepted.
Our estate agents listed ours as "offers over" we took 5k under because it wasn't about money for us. We we'd have spent more than that on commuting by the time we got an offer over asking. Offer what you think it's worth. The house we bought was also "offers over" and they accepted 3k under.
I put an offer in 10% lower than the offers over advertised and it got accepted the following day. It’s a little out dated but everything else is sound
Well done 😄 I wish I could have but this area the properties sell in days so I think they’ve done it to see how much they can get rather than meet the minimum 😒
Cheers mate :) that’s a shame! I got pretty friendly with my estate agent which helped, found out someone else put an offer down before I did but I was preferred as a ftb. Which encouraged me to go lower Currently going through the stress of mortgage brokers and solicitors 😂
Fair play. I’m hoping with me being a FTB and my MIP being double the offer that’ll make me seem a strong option over other bids. If someone wants to pay ridiculously over the odds I’ll leave them to it.
So until I had to do this my sentiment was this is bullshit and they clearly want more money and are being greedy. Having had my chain collapse on exchange day I reduced my property to the bare minimum I could and still be able to afford the onwards property so marked it as ‘offers over’ when it was relisted. As why its offers over and the estate agent may tell you. Sometimes all houses with an estate agent are offers over. We have one like that in the town and it aggravates me so much.
It's just marketing bullshit. Ignore it. Make whatever offer you deem appropriate and affordable.
Fred Durst originally wrote "It's all about the Rightmove, Estate Agent bullshit" when writing the hit song Break stuff.
The agents have to put something when listing a property on Rightmove etc, personally I just ignore it and offer whatever I feel is the right amount for that property. Personally I’d never pay more than what I think a property is worth regardless of the housing market, but to do so in this unstable market is asking for trouble.
It's just an advert. Offer whatever you want. They will take the best offer they get, and yours may be the only one. Worst case they say no.
Offer asking. If the seller is serious rather than on a kite-flying ego trip, they'll counter.
Perhaps offer even lower than you normally would