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Negotiations

There will likely be some negotiation between you and the seller after you submit an Offer to Purchase. Sellers can outright accept or reject your offer, make a counter offer, or ignore your offer completely.

  • if the seller accepts your offer, congratulations! If your Offer to Purchase contained conditions, your real estate licensee will help you do what needs to be done in order to satisfy those conditions
  • if the seller rejects your offer, you can either submit a new Offer to Purchase or look elsewhere
  • if the sellers provide a counter offer, carefully review it and any terms and conditions. A counter offer likely contains a different selling price, but the sellers may also counter on possession date, inclusions/exclusions, terms, or conditions. If you want to accept their counter offer, make sure you review everything in it. If you want to change anything, you are essentially providing the sellers with a counter offer rather than simply accepting their counter offer
  • if the seller ignores your Offer to Purchase, it’s essentially the same as rejecting it. It’s up to you how you want to proceed. Do you want to write a new Offer to Purchase or look for a different property?

Multiple offers: A multiple offer situation is when multiple buyers submit an Offer to Purchase on the same property, at the same time. It’s the seller who determines the process, including whether they want to disclose the multiple offer situation to potential buyers. If the seller discloses a multiple offer situation, your real estate licensee will:

  • tell you of the multiple offer situation
  • advise you of the seller’s options
  • attempt to personally attend the offer presentations
  • advise you of YOUR options, including:
    • increasing your offer prior to its presentation to the seller
    • leaving the offer as it is
    • withdrawing the offer
    • reconsidering the fixtures, chattels, terms and conditions of the offer
  • advise on other considerations that could improve your position including:
    • a term or condition that will compel the seller to deal with the offer at the time of presentation or face withdrawal
    • a requirement that the seller not disclose the price and terms to any other buyer or face withdrawal