Novocastrian

As I've mentioned elsewhere we moved into a rental flat in Newcastle at the start of September in order to have a base from which to search for somewhere to buy.

We now want to make an offer on a property we've viewed twice.

Now the asking price is phrased as "offers over £xxx,000".

You see "offers in the range of", "guide price" and just plain £s.

Do these terms actually mean something or are they randomly selected by the agent?

Advice please.

christmasoompa

Offers over means just that, the rest all mean the same thing i.e. 'this is the price we would like but we're open to negotiations'. Hopefully you can negotiate a good price, depending on the market in Newcastle. I've no idea what it's like there but it will depend on that, plus the vendors situation as to what you can get off the price - we got £100k off our house due to various things, but that's pretty unusual!

I've moved your thread as you posted in the Back Home forum btw.

Novocastrian

But how long do you think it would take before someone seeking offers over e.g. £x60,000 would countenance accepting £x57500?

I know... piece of string question. Sorry.

christmasoompa

If it's offers over, then they'd be very unlikely to take anything less - usually that figure is set for whatever reason (i.e. they need that as a minimum to buy the house they're moving to) and you can't go under it, but you never know. Always worth a try!

Novocastrian

I think in this case the vendor is simply trying to recoup the price he paid for it in 2013. But thanks for the translation of the phrase(s). I'll probably offer £2500 over the asking. Which would be very good value IMHO.

Wish me luck.

Pulaski

Given that contracts for sale of real property have to be in writing, anything the estate agent says is potentially meaningless, though given their duty to get the best price for the seller, anything they can say (that is accurate and truthful) that will generate higher offers is to be expected.

I think, looking at the thread so far, you have reached the right conclusion, but you should only bid what you think the property is worth, and if that is less than the "minimum" bid then so be it, bid lower or don't bid at all.

Novocastrian

I know. It's a bit ironic that I've bought or sold places in four different countries, but never before in the UK.

WRT the property in question, I actually think it's worth more than the asking price to us, but one has to play the game, what?

quiltman

You can always pay another agent to value the property.Then base your offer on a combination of the selling agents price - offers over £xxxxx - and your own valuation of £yyyyy. Go to UK's number one property website for properties for sale and to rent or Zoopla > Search Property to Buy, Rent, House Prices, Estate Agents and both these sites have a list of prices fetched recently. Alternatively you can go to the Land Registry site and find out the actual prices paid.

brits1

This type of marketing is becoming a bit more common in England maybe because the housing to buy market is a bit "!all over the show" at the moment in some areas. In your case and you wanted to make an offer on the home It can all depend on a few things on what to actually offer, ie has the home been on the market long, are the vendors in a hurry to sell, this time of year is not a good time to sell so offers might be excepted. You can put an offer in of what you are comfortable with and what you think is a fair price for the property, really the Estate Agents should let the vendor know of any offers made but sometimes the Agents are just trying to also get more money anyway which to be fair is their job. Good luck I would put an offer in and see what happens.

MrsFychan

offers over is just a way to eek out jokers putting stupid offers in. Its the minimum amount the seller has told the agent they are willing to sell for, basically the agent has to present all offers over the stated amount even if its one pound over.
Also just a bit of advice, never tell the agent what your top offer is, if its anything like in NZ the agent has the responsibility to the seller to pass on any information they have.

Novocastrian

All good advice thanks. As I mentioned we've moved around a fair bit but never owned in the UK (I left when I was 27 ). We've decided to put in the offer I mentioned earlier (a bit over threshold) on Monday, but it now occurs to me that I don't actually know how to do that in the UK. Edit: oops, in England.

Do I just tell the agent what our offer is over the phone/by email/ on some standard template or what?

Sorry to be a pest.

Novocastrian

This bit is true the world over I'm afraid. (Except, surprisingly, in France).

Tirytory

You just phone the estate agent and say this is what we would like to offer, nothing more although you can outline why yours is going to be a better offer than someone else's ie no chain, cash buyer etc if that's the case . You should also expect the barter situation unless they're desperate to move. The agent will phone you back with their answer.

Anecdotally.. We considered a house once with offers over.. It totally put us off putting an offer in at all - slightly above what we wanted to pay, only to find out subsequently than it went for a lot less than their offers over price. Pulaski is right.. The property is only worth how much *you* are prepared to pay for it.

How long has it been on for?

ottotheboar

Put in an offer based on what your valuation less than their suggested price if you think that is the case. In most cases like this the seller knows exactly what the property is worth likewise the estate agents as they are just hoping someone will pay over the odds. Given the amount of property of sale in Newcastle if the estate agents can not value it find another one.

Novocastrian

Thanks V. Of course, no chain, cash buyer as you know. It's a funny one because the vendor is a rather well known choir master who has a standing offer to move to a job in Berlin.

He listed it with one agent in July, then got pissed off with them (I could explain why because we've had experience and they're useless). It was put on in September with the new agent.

If we get it, I'll post a pic of the stunning view.