How Does Making A Counteroffer On A House Work?
Several scenarios may warrant a counteroffer, and the countering process looks a little different for home buyers and sellers.
As A Seller
A seller can counter a buyer’s initial offer to change the purchase price or increase the earnest money deposit.
For example, let’s say you’re the seller and you list your home for $220,000. However, a buyer offers you $200,000 instead. Maybe you're still interested in signing a contract with that buyer for your home. If so, you make a counteroffer of $210,000. At this point, the buyer may agree to that price, or the buyer may counter in response to your counteroffer. To make your offer stronger, you may want to provide comps, or comparable homes in the area, to show why that price is reasonable.
Sellers can also make counteroffers for other reasons, such as changing the closing date or contingency periods. Sellers will typically communicate the terms of the counteroffer through their listing agent or real estate agent, and may also put an expiration date on the counteroffer to speed along the home sale process.
As A Buyer
A buyer can also counter a seller’s counteroffer, as we’ve mentioned in the previous example. There are no limits to the number of counters you can submit as a buyer.
Home buyers first create an offer that may be below the asking price when they want to negotiate the house price presented by the home seller. The home seller may counter with a higher price than the buyer’s original offer, but lower than the original asking price. If the buyer thinks the price is still high, they could counter it.
Let’s take a look at our previous example, only this time, you’re the buyer. A seller lists a home for $220,000, and you, the buyer, offer $200,000. If the seller comes back with a $210,000 counteroffer, you could accept the deal or counter $205,000.
In another scenario, you might counter because a home inspection reveals issues with a property, such as a cracked foundation. You can ask the seller to take the price down to $200,000 if you find out that fixing the foundation issues will cost $20,000.
Buyers resend the counteroffer terms to the home seller through their agent.
