Both home sellers and buyers can face tense times when it’s time to evaluate and make offers for purchase. While Realtors® on each side facilitate the process, there are quite a few rules they’re governed by to ensure they consistently maintain their fiduciary responsibility. Your Realtor® should always clearly explain what steps you’re able to take. Let’s pull back the curtain to see a list of what can happen during the offer process.

Offers and Counter Offers

∙ The seller determines how offers are handled. For example, they may accept offers at any time or they may designate a specific day after coming on market to consider all offers if they know they’re in a hot location that will have multiple offers.

∙ The seller doesn’t have to respond to an offer and a buyer doesn’t have to respond to a seller’s counter offer. A purchase isn’t likely to happen in such cases, but at least you know that no response means that there’s no deal.

∙ A listing agent is required to present all offers or counter offers to the seller unless otherwise instructed in writing by the seller.

∙ A buyer’s agent is required to present all offers or counter offers to the buyer, unless otherwise instructed in writing by the buyer.

∙ A seller or buyer can change their mind about the offer at any time before written acceptance by modifying or rescinding the offer or counter offer.

∙ A seller can accept a back-up purchase contract from another buyer if appropriate language or an addendum is used. Such a contract is only used to replace the first buyer’s contract if certain contingencies listed in the contract can’t be met within the stated timeframe, such as financing or selling one’s home before purchasing the next one.

Multiple Offers

∙ All of the same rules apply as above plus the following.

∙ A seller can instruct the listing agent to reveal to all buyers that there are multiple offers.

∙ A seller can also instruct the listing agent not to tell anyone whether there are other offers. A buyer’s agent will probably ask, but in such an instance, the listing agent would have to respond that they are not at liberty to say.

∙ The seller decides if the listing agent can reveal terms and conditions of competing offers to each buyer. The seller might decide that she wants to keep the others in the dark about their competitor’s terms so that they bring their best offer forward from the start. Or she may decide that revealing the details will persuade each buyer to improve their offer.

∙ The seller can counter more than one buyer’s offer at a time if they use appropriate language when doing so with the separate parties to let them know the situation. This language would need to include that all offers are subject to final written approval of the seller.

∙ The seller does not have to accept the highest offer. They only have to accept the offer they want. While sellers obviously care about getting the most money possible for their home, they’re also interested in other terms such as the closing date, need for inspections or appraisals, cash versus government financing, or contingency versus no contingency. For this reason, most buyer’s agents will recommend that you keep terms as simple as possible in a known multiple-offer situation to increase your odds of getting the home.

Platinum Service Realty