You submitted your offer and are probably holding your breath right about now. After you’ve made your offer, the seller will be able to accept it as is, execute a counter offer, or reject it completely. During this time, I will be in constant communication with the listing agent. The number one question at this point is “when will we know?” and the truth is that it can be a few hours, or a few days. It will depend on the expiration date you set in your offer as well as the seller. If multiple offers come in, they may decide to set an offer review date even if there wasn’t one originally. The seller has full control over when and what to accept.
Accept
If the seller accepts your offer outright, congratulations! You’re under contract and things can start moving forward toward closing.
Counter
A counter offer can include modifications to anything in the offer, including but not limited to, the purchase price, the closing date, possession date, or items and appliances that are included in the sale. Negotiations can go back and forth several times before both parties agree to the terms. When an agreement is reached, and both you and the seller have signed the offer and initialled any changes, you are both in a legally binding contract.
Back-up
In some situations the seller may accept another offer but request that your offer be placed in back-up position. An addendum would be signed stating that if the original contract falls through your offer will be automatically accepted. There is no guarantee that the first buyers will back out, but it does happen. You are able to cancel this agreement at any time prior to your offer being accepted, which means you can keep working on finding your dream home.
Reject
Buyers will often go through at least one rejection before having their offer accepted. Since emotions are high, and stress may be a factor, it’s easy to get overwhelmed when you lose out on a house you had your heart set on.
I always try to get an idea of why the seller rejected an offer. Sometimes the listing agent lays it all out for me, but occasionally we never get a clear answer. If the seller rejects your offer, they likely received and accepted a different offer or yours was far enough from what they wanted that they didn’t feel the need to continue the conversation.
