The Counter-Offer
When you receive an offer on your home, you'll have a specified time period in which you must do one of three things:
- Accept the offer as is
- Reject the offer entirely
- Submit a counter-offer
If it's a serious offer, but it falls short of what you'd like to sell for, discuss a counter-offer with your real estate agent and/or your lawyer or notary.
Almost everything is negotiable.
In your counter-offer, you can propose a new price, a different closing date that better suits your needs, or the inclusion or exclusion of chattels or fixtures that may or may not have been listed in the original offer. See the Listing Agreement to learn more about chattels and fixtures.
Like the buyer's offer to purchase, your counter-offer will stipulate an expiry time and date. Similarly, your buyer will have the same three options: to accept your counter-offer, to submit his or her own counter-offer or to reject it entirely and walk away.
Both you and your buyer can submit as many counter-offers as you wish until you reach an agreement or one party chooses to end the negotiations.
You and your buyer will also need to reach agreement on the possession date, which is when the buyer will begin to occupy the property.
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