Offers over vs. Guide Price

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Discussion

omniflow

Original Poster:

3,177 posts

165 months

Yesterday (13:23)
quotequote all
What's the thinking on listing a house as offers over £1,400,000 rather than a guide price of £1,500,000?

There's a coastal house right on the beach in Lyme Regis, it's not something we're even remotely considering as we can't afford it, but we are keeping a careful eye on lots of coastal properties.

It popped up on Rightmove about 2 - 3 months ago with a guide price of £1,500,000 and then yesterday it popped up again as offers over £1,400,000. If no one bought it at £1.5million - maybe offering £1.45million, then they're not going to buy it at £1.4million plus a bit more - e.g. £50,000.

Am I missing something here?

popegregory

1,758 posts

148 months

Yesterday (13:30)
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You’re not missing anything - no one wanted it at £1.5m and if no one wants it at £1.4m and ten it’ll either vanish as they keep it for a bit or reappear at £1.3m

DKL

4,731 posts

236 months

Yesterday (14:09)
quotequote all
You are really buying the position not the house there. But there was a large landslip just down the road earlier in the year so that won't help anything. It's very steep. The Hix restaurant has closed and been replaced. Whatever you think of him it was a draw.
You are out of holiday let price there (mostly) so I tend to find that whilst small houses (2 bed - 2 in Eype sold for 450 and 550) sell very well (maybe less so with the council tax thing) 7 figure houses aren't as affected by the coastal thing in quite the same way except for a few places.
A house sold in Seatown for 2mill fairly quickly but it was a much better house. That really is all the money for a 1300sq ft house so it could be there a while.

PhilboSE

5,146 posts

240 months

Yesterday (14:09)
quotequote all
It’s worth exactly what someone is prepared to pay.

ChocolateFrog

31,663 posts

187 months

Yesterday (14:14)
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£123k tax for a second home owner.

At that price point that must be a factor.

Wills2

25,985 posts

189 months

Yesterday (14:16)
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Quite often a estate agent will over value the house to get the instruction they then start to walk the vendor back as it becomes clear they are out of step with the market, same with those that offer a private unlisted sale "we've got buyer lined up for this" after while it's put on the market.

The key is to get the instruction especially in a quiet market and then try and work it from there.


PhilboSE

5,146 posts

240 months

Yesterday (14:19)
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It’s worth exactly what someone is prepared to pay.

Sheepshanks

37,013 posts

133 months

Yesterday (14:33)
quotequote all
omniflow said:
What's the thinking on listing a house as offers over £1,400,000 rather than a guide price of £1,500,000?

There's a coastal house right on the beach in Lyme Regis, it's not something we're even remotely considering as we can't afford it, but we are keeping a careful eye on lots of coastal properties.

It popped up on Rightmove about 2 - 3 months ago with a guide price of £1,500,000 and then yesterday it popped up again as offers over £1,400,000. If no one bought it at £1.5million - maybe offering £1.45million, then they're not going to buy it at £1.4million plus a bit more - e.g. £50,000.

Am I missing something here?
I'm struggling to imagine this happens at higher price levels, but at more ordinary prices, an EA told me people won't look at properties listed above their budget

There's also the matter of trying to hit search price ranges - ie OIEO of £300K catches people who have £300K as their lower limit and same for people who have it as their max.

RoVoFob

1,455 posts

172 months

Yesterday (22:58)
quotequote all
omniflow said:
What's the thinking on listing a house as offers over £1,400,000 rather than a guide price of £1,500,000?
It’s nothing but a game to extract the most money from potential buyers, with estate agents and sellers pulling in different directions at different times. Think they just try to make the price look more palatable to get people through the door and then drive offers up by creating a sense of competition.

I’ve been watching the market pretty closely in my area and know of a decent local agent that seems to get big premiums over asking, such as more than £750k for a house advertised at ‘offers over £675k’ (they received 14 offers from the one open day, apparently!) and another at ‘offers over £600k’ that sold for more than £650k.

Both of these sold the Wednesday after a Saturday open day. Another one with a different agent was advertised at £625k (think it was more than this initially), they refused an offer of £615k, pushing for £620k and then a few weeks later reduced the price to £600k.

Yet another agent showed people around a house advertised at £700k on the Saturday and lowered the price by £50k on the Monday before even going back to the people who viewed on the Saturday…

To be honest, I don’t think most agents have any idea what they’re doing!

CLK-GTR

1,480 posts

259 months

Yesterday (23:32)
quotequote all
The market is knackered right now so agents are trying anything to get people through the door.

At £1.4 you've got a few more potential buyers, some of whom could be talked up to £1.5. But not if they never called in the first place.

LooneyTunes

8,241 posts

172 months

Although the agent is trying to create a price floor by stating “offers over”, there’s still nothing stopping someone offering below that figure.

If somewhere has been listed for £1.5 and not sold, it wouldn’t be beyond the realms of possibility that the agent were trying to get some improvement on (perhaps rejected) offers well below the new “offers over” figure.

SEDon

242 posts

77 months

A) The agent has told them it's worth 1.5, they've got that figure in their head. To soften the blow of lowering the price cos no one is interested they say 'we'll put it at offers over' as if it's going to magically create a bidding war. They might have even had an offer at 1.4 that they rejected, now the buyer has moved on


B) They genuinely won't accept anything below 1.4 and might even reject 1.4

Most likely A




OutInTheShed

11,247 posts

40 months

I was chatting to our agent about this.

He tells people in the current market they need to get out and look at houses, even if they are noticeably over budget.

But buyers are very reluctant to even look at houses which seem to be out of reach.
If you will take say 500k for your house, many people who can afford 500k probably won't even see it on RM if you put it up at 550.

The 'offers over' bidding war mentality seems to have become baked into the market.


The thought processes of house buyers is not a trivial subject!
The rules of the game are unwritten and ever-changing.

TA14

13,079 posts

272 months

SEDon said:
A) The agent has told them it's worth 1.5, they've got that figure in their head. To soften the blow of lowering the price cos no one is interested they say 'we'll put it at offers over' as if it's going to magically create a bidding war. They might have even had an offer at 1.4 that they rejected, now the buyer has moved on.
A quick Rightmove search on map view would suggest that they may struggle to achieve over £1M.

Sheepshanks

37,013 posts

133 months

RoVoFob said:
omniflow said:
What's the thinking on listing a house as offers over £1,400,000 rather than a guide price of £1,500,000?
It s nothing but a game to extract the most money from potential buyers, with estate agents and sellers pulling in different directions at different times. Think they just try to make the price look more palatable to get people through the door and then drive offers up by creating a sense of competition.

I ve been watching the market pretty closely in my area and know of a decent local agent that seems to get big premiums over asking, such as more than £750k for a house advertised at offers over £675k (they received 14 offers from the one open day, apparently!) and another at offers over £600k that sold for more than £650k.

Both of these sold the Wednesday after a Saturday open day. Another one with a different agent was advertised at £625k (think it was more than this initially), they refused an offer of £615k, pushing for £620k and then a few weeks later reduced the price to £600k.

Yet another agent showed people around a house advertised at £700k on the Saturday and lowered the price by £50k on the Monday before even going back to the people who viewed on the Saturday

To be honest, I don t think most agents have any idea what they re doing!
Interested to know how you’ve got this level of detail, and what area you’re in?

Appreciate the market will vary, but it mostly seems to be pretty flat now. Our area has gone from pretty well nothing available to now my daily Rightmove notification is 75% a list of reductions.

Our OIEO experience- selling late FILs place - was weird as everyone bid exactly the OIEO price.

omniflow

Original Poster:

3,177 posts

165 months

Sheepshanks said:
RoVoFob said:
omniflow said:
What's the thinking on listing a house as offers over £1,400,000 rather than a guide price of £1,500,000?
It s nothing but a game to extract the most money from potential buyers, with estate agents and sellers pulling in different directions at different times. Think they just try to make the price look more palatable to get people through the door and then drive offers up by creating a sense of competition.

I ve been watching the market pretty closely in my area and know of a decent local agent that seems to get big premiums over asking, such as more than £750k for a house advertised at offers over £675k (they received 14 offers from the one open day, apparently!) and another at offers over £600k that sold for more than £650k.

Both of these sold the Wednesday after a Saturday open day. Another one with a different agent was advertised at £625k (think it was more than this initially), they refused an offer of £615k, pushing for £620k and then a few weeks later reduced the price to £600k.

Yet another agent showed people around a house advertised at £700k on the Saturday and lowered the price by £50k on the Monday before even going back to the people who viewed on the Saturday

To be honest, I don t think most agents have any idea what they re doing!
Interested to know how you ve got this level of detail, and what area you re in?

Appreciate the market will vary, but it mostly seems to be pretty flat now. Our area has gone from pretty well nothing available to now my daily Rightmove notification is 75% a list of reductions.

Our OIEO experience- selling late FILs place - was weird as everyone bid exactly the OIEO price.
I would be interested also.

You've got to be a special kind of special to turn down an offer of £615K when you're asking £625K

SEDon

242 posts

77 months

TA14 said:
A quick Rightmove search on map view would suggest that they may struggle to achieve over £1M.
The location is appealing for many. This went for over 1.6m. Bigger but no better condition

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/121109594#/...