subject: Declining Counter Offers On Your House For Sale [print this page] A counter offer in real estate is defined as, "an offer that is generated by a house seller after a purchaser has submitted a proposal to purchase." Most of the time, a counter offer would specify that the seller is eager to deal with the buyer's offer however it would be subjected to particular particulars or conditions. The particulars are generally items such as total consideration (in other words a higher price for the house), increasing in size the earnest deposit of money, the right to change service providers, the decision to refuse to pay for specific fees and/or reports, modifying the closing or possession date, taking out certain personal property from the contract, and altering contingency time frames.
Sometimes counter offers go back and forth between the buyer and seller a number of times before the offer is accepted. Having an experienced real estate agent that is especially expert at finessing and negotiating counter offers will really help. A seller can present a counter offer to a customer. A buyer is also able to counter offer to a vendor and this is known as a "counter-counter offer" or "counter offer number 2." In the real estate world, counter offers are an everyday incident and there's no limit on how many could go back and forth between vendors and purchasers. The counter offers will flow back and flow until both parties come to an agreement about the property. However, until an agreement can be reached, the counter offers will continue. Several parties could come to an harmonious deal after 2 to 3 counter offers whilst for others it may take up to ten to twelve times. Sometimes sellers will offer incentives to purchasers for example, including electrical home devices with the deal. This makes the deal al lot more interesting for some purchasers while it has no effect at all on others.
It's vital to keep in mind that a seller doesn't by law have to answer yes or no to whichever offer. However that does not mean that the real estate brokers will not earn a commission if the seller declines to respond to any particular offer on their home. Real estate brokers would often expect payment whether an offer is settled or not. If you choose not to deal to a proposal, this doesn't mean you have to take the responsibility of paying the real estate broker from the house seller. The broker still did the work therefore he or she still needs to get paid.
There is more than one way to reject a proposal. The great majority of purchase contracts have a spot on the form where a seller can note that they have rejected the offer. In some cases a vendor could simply write the word "rejected" on the contract and then put the date on it and sign it. Many offers have an expiration date and if the seller does not respond by said date then by default it is determined that the offer was rejected.
As far as multiple counter offers are concerned, not all states have the same laws. In some this is permissible while in others it is not. To use California as an example, the law in this state is basis and straight forward. A vendor could in fact counter as many offers as they want from as many prospective customers and every counter proposal doesn't have to be similar to each person. If one of the purchaser's chooses to accept the counter offer knowing that others are counter offering as well, the sell does not automatically have to accept that the customer has accepted this scenario. If you want to know more about these kinds of scenario, it's best to speak with an attorney who manages real estate problems.
If a counter offer comes by way of a vendor the purchaser has the option of rejecting it or accepting it and then letting the vendor know it has been received and accepted. It is important to bear in mind that time is a very essential element here. Purchases offers have expiration dates, counter offers do have expiration dates as well. This means that a customer can take his time thinking over a counter proposal while a vendor can be accepting a proposal from another party. It is important to strike while the iron is hot.