Counter offers

A - Offer and Counteroffer: What are typical scenarios?

Anticipate the worst:

If you anticipate an unfavorable offer, you won't become unglued should this be the case. Expecting the worst will also help you to appear cool and calm. 

When reviewing the offer, be sure to consider that there are several items (besides price) that could be unacceptable to you. However, coming back with a different price, a shorter time frame for the buyers to obtain financing, different dates, terms, contingency modifications, etc. is expected–almost a tradition in selling a home, unless you initially get a great offer.  

A typical offer/counteroffer scenario: 

A counteroffer is used by a seller or a buyer to, in effect, accept some (or most) of the terms of the other party's latest offer, while modifying others.  There really isn’t any limit to the number of times that the buyers and sellers of real estate can counter each other. Let’s look at the basics of a typical negotiation on a home priced at $329,900.

1. Buyers make a home purchase offer of  $310,000 with possession at closing and want the appliances, including the newer refrigerator that the seller hadn’t listed as being included with the property.
2. The sellers counter at $325,000, eliminate the refrigerator and want possession for 10 days after closing.
3. Buyers counter at $318,000, but want possession at closing. The negotiations slow down. The next day the sellers offer to split the difference ($321,500) if the buyers will give them three days after closing for possession and they’ll throw in the refrigerator.
4. The buyers agree to the price and refrigerator but will give 48 hours after closing for possession.
5. The sellers accept this last counter offer.

In this situation, we only listed three items as variables in the negotiations (price, the refrigerator and the possession date). In reality, the offers back and forth could have included requested changes in the amount of earnest money offered, time limit for an inspection, a modification to an Attorney Review clause, who pays for specific closing costs, etc. And it’s hard to anticipate any negotiation since each situation is different in a home sale.