Presumably this means “don’t even think about offering a penny less than the asking price”?

yes, basically.

“We think there’s going to be a lot of people wanting to buy it and the bidding starts at…”

Or “we’re really hoping that our public confidence in the stated starting price bluffs someone into paying full whack”.

Worth looking at Land Registry data to see if it’s realistic, of course.
It basically suggests the Estate Agent and seller are being greedy buggers and taking advantage of naive and desperate buyers with access to too much credit.

Personally I avoid these as they’re basically saying “we’re not prepared to negotiate even if the price is well in excess of any house like this in this area ever before”

It means “don’t even think of offering anywhere near the figure we have suggested but merely used to draw your attention”

we havent got what we wanted so have reduced & added ‘offers in excess of’ which will result in offers below what we want & we will end up taking off the market anyway 🙄

Download the Home Report, this will include the valuation so you can make more of an informed decision from there, however what it’s worth and what people are willing to pay are two separate things entirely.

None of these descriptions mean anyhting. View, and offer whatever you think you’d pay, whether below or what. The house could be for sale for a few months and end up going for way less (I have seen this a few times). Then if they get back in touch asking if your offer still stands you tell them you have had a change of finances and can only offer £8k less than before.

see “offers over” in Scotland, fairly standard (then it wasn’t, now it is again I think). Or offers in region of, offers around, etc..

Our current house was on for offers-in-excess-of. We offered less and got it.

The place we’re in the process of buying was also on for offers-in-excess-of. Again we offered less and it’s been accepted.

Just offer what you’re willing to pay.

All depends if you are in a property hot-spot.

+1 tomtom

+ 2 for what Tomtom said.

Just offer what you think it’s worth to you, if they’re being overly greedy and you end up being the highest/only offer they’ll accept, if they’re actually being realistic they’ll get plenty of higher offers and fair play to them.

All this talk about what the land registry says is an utter irrelevance, the only thing that dictates a houses’ worth is what someone is willing to pay for it and in the current fevered climate that’s likely to quite a lot, especially in the South East.

? what is your offer and what is their position, I’d think most people would regard cash and the ability to commit to a date (*ps for me cash means money in bank – as opposed to some other peoples descriptions – ie having bought a lucky euro millions ticket yesterday does not imho qualify) would carry some weight against on the market/sold subject to contract and in a bloody great chain………………………..

Offer what you think it is worth. We just got a house that was “offers over” for 5% below.

House prices are crazy where we are…we’ve see 20 houses and put offers in to 5 or 6. We’ve offered 25k over but it went for 50k over. We’ve also offered asking price a couple of times and been told the vendor wants more than the asking price.

Vendors and estate agents are milking the market at the moment and boosting the price by 30k/40k each time – people are panic buying and putting in ridiculous offers.

We’ve been looking since October last year.

I hate house hunting.

Offer what you think it is worth.

This is what we’re doing…trouble is, there’s always someone who’s willing to offer more where we are.

If we’d offered even as much as 50k+ over the asking price 6 months ago, we’d have a house that’s worth more now.

Just give it a few weeks when people start having mortgages turned down because of the new stress test. Prices are going to fall.

Well I hope so anyway.

That’s what I’m thinking.

The house that went for 50k over hasn’t completed yet, the offer was accepted about 4 months ago.

what it’s worth and what people are willing to pay are two separate things entirely

Actually, they are exactly the same… If they were separate, Apple would never sell a thing!

Sent from my Macbook 😉

The land registry is worthless “past” information, I bought my house for less than a 1/4 of it’s now worth (thankfully), but I have also extended & modified it when 90%+ houses in the street have no way of doing so, so if for example you wanted to live where I do (not that many) but require 2 bathrooms then you will have to pay what I ask, I appreciate that I may of just lost 75% of the buyers, but if you want to buy it then its on my terms!
It also works the other way, so if I actually had to sell it (rather than move) then it is only worth what someone is willing to pay & if all the current buyer is willing to pay is X & I need to sell then that is it’s worth at that time, tough titty, I can live with that.

The new stress test won’t make a blind bit of difference. Mortgage sellers want to sell mortgages and any ‘scheme’ will quickly be circumvented. Henceforth prices won’t drop anytime soon.

Haha in London no one is actually buying a house to live in. Every single one I’ve seen sold has gone to an investor with cash up front. They’re just buying em to sell to another investor a year down the track. After all that’s what a house is for – right?

Whilst waiting for offers on our house, the one we wanted went down from a normal price to ‘offers in excess of’…the price we wanted to get it for.

So we went in below the ‘offers in excess of’ on the basis that the agent knew we were very interested before the price change anyway, then came back with the asking price but still not in excess and got it.

Install Firefox.
Install property bee.
Then use rightmove.

Very interesting 😉

@darren the lenders have been well aware of the “new” affordability tests for a long time, it won’t have an impact on the market. As I posted on the other forum there is a lot of pent up demand people who’ve wanted to move but have been waiting for a better market. It’s frustrating for me because what I want to buy is up 30% in 12 months and I am not able to move yet

A cheeky offer is still an offer. And a good solicitor will advise when you are taking the mick. Prevous records of house prices are important because they help you to calculate with other data when something is over valued – even if others are willing to spend their money can you really afford to spend yours?

Occassionally buy houses as part of my work. Between 2008 and summer 2013 My first offer was always below the “offers over” figure, and although I had to increase the offers I rarely paid over. In the last 10 months it’s changed and it’s proving difficult to get well priced property.

You can offer what you like, it doesn’t matter what they say. Offer 1p but I am pretty certain someone will offer thousands more.

You offer what you are prepared to pay for the house and that’s it

Shortage of housing in the south means that gazumping is still prime here. A friends sister has been trying to buy a house and generally they are being sold up to 20K above the original estimation on the marketing by agents. I sold my first house (25 years ago, mind) and the surveyor came round and said it wasn’t worth that for the mortgage, so I had to drop the cost for the sellers to get the mortgage. Wonder if that’s still the case for these over inflated prices?

Land Registry prices that I’m looking at in Bromley suggest there’s a big difference between asking and selling prices, and has been since back end of last year – 2 bed terraces on the market for £300-£325 selling for nearer £285/£290. Comparing Dec – Mar (presumably sales agreed a few months earlier) suggest v little rise.

I think it’s worth doing some research before believing that prices are shooting up everywhere at a massive rate.

Also worth bearing in mind a lot of people knew the lending criteria were being tightened up this month so quite likely a lot of FTB have been rushing in whilst they could still get a mortgage, which will have contributed to the recent hysteria…

The FPC are looking at tightening up further later this year, possibly a limit on multiples. Personally even if prices do continue to rise in the long term, right now is a lousy time for FTB – estate agents and sellers are taking massive advantage of young FTB panicking

As we explained before if you compared april 2014 to april 2014 buying and selling prices you would see little discrepancy in the selling for and buying for prices.

Your comparing 6 month old data to new.

Although i do agree about recent hysteria.

“offers in excess of”

or

“the estate agents valuation was a shed load less than we expected”

I’d read it as we would like offers in excess of £xxx,xxx but realise that we’re probably just chancing our luck

Round here it generally seems to mean “this is what we paid 5 years ago and we don’t want to lose out even if it’s worth less now”

I’d read it as we would like offers in excess of £xxx,xxx but realise that we’re probably just chancing our luck

^this
The house we are just going through buying now at 5% less was HIP’d at £200k, vendor wanted £210k, we offered £185k, and upped to £190k.

Thankfully vendor is buying of local builder who (as they were already signed up and committed to his house) got involved and insisted the took our offer.

Our friends daughter put a full asking price offer in on a flat and ended up in a bidding war which they won.
The flat in question has since been relisted at the winning bid price even though they are proceeding with the sale.
Let’s hope the greedy bastards get bitten somewhere down the line.