You have gone over the details and made your first offer. You might
get your offer accepted or you might get back a Counter Offer. Don’t
take the Counter Offer personally; the Seller isn’t insulting you. The
bad news is that the Sellers are saying that the first offer was
unacceptable. The good news is that they might be willing to sell to you with
just a few changes. Your next step is to decide if you want to accept,
reject, or counter the Counter Offer.
Accepting the Counter Offer
You agree to all changes made by the Seller and have just made a
binding contract to buy the property. Keep in mind that the Counter Offer
replaces the original terms of your offer.
Rejecting the Counter Offer
If you don’t want to accept the offer, you can walk away from the deal
and tell your agent you want to sign a “Notice to Terminate Contract
and Release of Earnest Money.” You’ll get your Earnest Money back and
start over at square one.
Counter Back with Your Own Counter Offer
The smartest option may be to counter back with an offer that meets
the Seller somewhere in the middle. Maybe they want a higher price
or a shorter time to closing. Spell out what conditions are acceptable
to you. You’ve already spent quite a bit of time and effort on this
deal, why not see if you can you can come to a meeting of the mind with
the Seller.
Sometimes Counter Offers can fly back and forth several times before an
acceptable compromise is reached. Once the Seller and the Buyer agree
to the terms then the deal is essentially done. It is rare for things
to get sideways at this point and usually all that’s left is for the
closing documents to be signed and the keys handed over to you.