The seller may;
- Accept your offer
- Ignore your offer and not respond at all
- Reject your offer outright
- Make a counter offer to your offer
Counter Offers
The original offer you made was likely 9+ pages but the counter offer is usually only one page.
The seller’s counter offer will only change the things in your offer the seller doesn’t agree to.
The sales price is the most common item the seller will attempt to change with a counter offer. The seller, for example, may accept everything in your offer except the price so he will make a counter offer which only increases the sales price.
If you accept that price and sign the counter offer, then the original offer and the counter offer together become the binding contract.
Counter Offer #2
If you don’t like the seller’s counter offer, however, you can make an additional counter offer of your own (Counter Offer #2) that makes changes to the seller’s Counter Offer #1.
And so on with additional counter offers back and forth until an agreement is reached or it becomes clear an agreement can not be reached and negotiations are abandoned.
If you end up with several counter offers, it can become very confusing. Make sure you understand what you are agreeing to.
Other Items in Counter Offers
Although just about anything can be seen in a counter offer, a few items – besides price – are often seen;
- Changing the close of escrow date
- Changing the seller’s contribution to the buyer’s closing costs
- Including or excluding items in the sale (“Drapes in living room are not included in sale”)
Getting the most out of these negotiations is one of the top reasons to hire an Arizona real estate agent to advise you.
Call me if you have any questions.
I want to be your Realtor!