How Long To Accept Offer On House

You've received an offer (maybe several) on your home and a big decision awaits. With and so much coin on the line, y'all need to give conscientious consideration to your side by side motility, whether it be rejecting the offer, making a counteroffer, or signing the agreement. While you don't want to give away the farm, it'd also exist a shame to allow an amazing offer sideslip past.

And then how long does a seller take to answer to an offering on a firm — and what if you lot demand more time? The short answer is yous'll unremarkably accept a window between 24 and 72 hours to become back to the buyer before an offering expires. But let's accept a look at the factors that determine the corporeality of time a seller has to respond to an offer, and a few key considerations that tin offering clarity as to the right path frontward.

A calendar that shows when you should accept an offer on a house. — Source: (Charisse Kenion / Unsplash)

Look for an expiration engagement

In many states, the residential purchase agreement has a blank spot for the buyer to insert their own expiration engagement on the offer. "In Florida, the buyer sets the deadline on an offer with an offer expiration date," explains Patty Da Silva, a top existent estate agent in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. "Sometimes the heir-apparent's agent sends an offer without an expiration date, but most ordinarily they give the seller 24 or 48 hours to respond."

Check the contract for your country

While some states allow the buyer to set the offer expiration engagement inside their offer, others have residential purchase agreements with built-in linguistic communication that gives the seller a deadline. For example, the standard California residential purchase agreement states that the offer "shall be deemed revoked and the eolith, if whatever, shall be returned to Buyer" if the seller fails to accept the offer by v p.k. on the third day later the buyer signed the offering.

All the same, in some areas of California, residential buy agreements may be written to extend that expiration engagement, in some cases up to 60 days. Your existent estate agent is your best resource to discover if your state has rules or the offer contract has linguistic communication that puts a clock on how long you take to respond.

Know the etiquette

Sellers are under no obligation to respond to offers that they receive. Even so, your agent may encourage you lot to respond to all offers promptly out of courtesy to prospective buyers. While not legally required, it'southward oft expected that sellers will provide a response within 24 hours to three days to interested buyers to permit them know where they stand.

Hesitate at your own risk

Let'south say yous've received a great offer on your firm, only you're hoping that a hot market will net y'all an fifty-fifty better one. So, you wait out the expiration appointment on the offer in mitt, but no better offering comes in. Should you miss the expiration deadline, you tin can become back to that buyer and enquire that they honor the terms of their original offering. They might agree, merely they don't have to, and your hesitancy could raise red flags.

"Sellers who have besides long deciding on whether or not to have a corking offering run the run a risk that the heir-apparent will get turned off and walk abroad — because a buyer who's serious and makes an incredible offer upfront will outset to feel similar the seller is existence greedy or unreasonable," warns Da Silva.

"For example, I had a listing where nosotros had 16 offers come up in, and two of them were cash offers for $ten,000 in a higher place asking. But my sellers tried to play games with them both to become an even better offering and both cash offers walked. So nosotros had to go to the third best offer to encounter if they were interested in increasing their offer, merely at that point it had been five days, then they knew my client must accept played games and lost with other offers. We wound upward selling it to that tertiary heir-apparent at request cost."

A phone used to accept an offer on a house. — Source: (Ana Bernardo / Unsplash)

Have, reject, or make a counteroffer

When an offer comes in, you can respond in one of three chief ways:

Accept the offer without any changes:

Should you receive a spectacular offer that gives you the cost and contract terms of your dreams, it could exist worth signing on the spot.

Send over a counteroffer:

Some offers may be shut to what you lot were looking for while yet containing a few deal breakers on your cease. A counteroffer lets yous adjust the terms and/or offer cost to run into your needs while keeping the conversation going. The ball is and so in the heir-apparent's court to have or reject your counteroffer by your expiration date.

Pass up the buyer's offer in writing:

"In a seller's marketplace, it'southward not uncommon for us to receive 15 to 20 offers, just really only 3 or 4 are viable," explains Da Silva. "Our office is unique in that every offer is going to get a response, even if that response is, 'No thank you.' It's just good concern to reject offers in a timely manner so that those buyers can move on to another holding."

On one hand, rejecting an offering in writing is the polite affair to exercise. On the other paw, should you reject an offer in writing, that buyer will likely move on to another property. This makes it more hard to extend that heir-apparent a counteroffer should your original accepted offer fall through.

Ignore the offer:

Some agents send out a "no thank you" in response every bit a mode to politely decline offers while letting buyers know where they stand. However, in a behest state of war situation, y'all also may opt to strategically "ignore" your backup offers for a short time until you are under contract on your preferred accustomed offer.

Recognize when you need more time

There are a number of valid reasons why you might need more fourth dimension than the buyer initially provides with their offer expiration date:

You're waiting to agree a public open up house or a brokers' open up business firm: It'southward difficult to know you're getting the all-time offering on your business firm if hardly any buyers take seen it. If yous have an open firm scheduled in the almost future, information technology may exist wise to await until after the event to increase your chances of receiving the best offer.
You want to review all offers at once: It's a good idea to wait until all offers are in before responding to buyers. Let'due south say you lot've shown your home five times in i week and four of the buyers indicate that an offer is forthcoming. Your amanuensis will advise those buyer's agents to set their expiration dates accordingly and so that you have time to consider all awaiting offers.
You're asking buyers for their " highest and all-time ": Giving buyers' agents a heads up that they're in a bidding state of war situation not only slows the timeline downwards, but information technology also encourages the contenders to sweeten the deal by raising their cost or waiving contingencies to compete.

How to buy more time if you lot need it

While offer expiration dates tin can be intimidating, they are not set up in stone. Buyers may be amenable to extending the borderline — peculiarly if they know that their offer is beingness seriously considered. Here are a few ways to cushion your timeline:

Utilise weekends and after-hours as off-fourth dimension:

Should you become an offer in the middle of the week or subsequently, you can ask to extend the expiration appointment into the next business week, giving yous two extra days over the weekend to consider. Similarly, if y'all send a request for an extension after hours on a weekday, that should buy you lot another twenty-four hours just to get the paperwork for extension sorted. Offers made around federal holidays tin purchase y'all a picayune extra time, too.

Set expectations for delays with buyers:

Sometimes circumstances make it impossible to respond to an offer in a timely manner, such equally a family illness, unexpected travel, multiple owners, or other issues. Should life events prevent you from responding before an offer expires, you can discreetly let the heir-apparent's agent know well-nigh your personal situation, while also communicating that y'all received the offer and aren't playing games.

"If an offer expires or the acceptance period is too short, we can request an extension. "For example, I recently had an offering on an inherited house with four owners, merely the offering phase was merely 24 hours," recalls Da Silva.

"That was as well short for me to get approval and signatures from all four owners who have different schedules and live in dissimilar places. And then, I told the buyer's agent that the sellers were agreeable to their endmost date and price, simply they needed to resubmit the offer with a longer timeframe to get all of the paperwork signed."

Enquire directly for an offering extension:

Sometimes, the best style to go what you want is to inquire for it outright. Whether you need extra fourth dimension for logistical reasons or y'all simply want more than time to consider the merits of the offering, have your agent enquire the buyer if they will extend their expiration borderline.

A seller talking to an agent on the phone about accepting an offer on a house. — Source: (Toa Heftiba / Unsplash)

Strategies to pick an offer without stalling

Selling a business firm is a major financial decision and a huge commitment, and so information technology'south just natural to drag your feet a bit when deciding on which offer to accept. Stall also long though, and y'all may current of air up losing out on the all-time bargain.

Here are two ways to assist you lot exist gear up to accept the best offering when information technology comes your way:

1. Commit to the sale before you lot list

Cold feet aren't a phenomenon you simply see at weddings. Avoid the unpleasant experience of losing out on a great offer by working through any pangs of seller'south remorse earlier you hit the market. Give yourself the fourth dimension and space to reverberate on the memories of this home and how it'south served y'all, while focusing your attention on the future and how this could propel y'all forrard.

2. Piece of work with an agent to navigate offer terms

Committing to a abode sale is a lot less stressful when you lot have a real estate skilful by your side. Partner with a acme real estate agent with verified experience to aid you pick the "best" offer, non but the highest ane.

"Sellers oftentimes focus solely on the offering toll when picking which one to take, but sometimes the highest offering isn't the best offer. The highest bid buyer may be selling a dwelling that's not fifty-fifty under contract all the same, or set a closing date that's 3 months away, or even accept a mortgage lender that's difficult to work with," advises Da Silva.

"I create a spreadsheet for my sellers that has all the information on it that they need to know nearly each offer, including the offer price, closing appointment, requested inspection menstruum, hostage money, and anything else they need to know to pick the best offer."

3. Silence "what ifs" with pro/con lists

A spreadsheet is an ideal way to conspicuously run across the benefits and drawbacks of all offers on the tabular array — just it cannot make the decision for you. At some betoken yous demand to pull the trigger and pick an offering. If y'all discover yourself hesitating because of all the "what ifs" that arise from the unknowns, create a pros and cons list for each offer to help you encounter through the uncertainty.

Allow's say your all-time offer has a hard 30-day endmost menstruation, but you're moving into a new build that might non be ready in time. Your second-all-time offer has a flexible endmost period, but it'southward for $10,000 less than your best offering.

With the first offer, yous may need to put your belongings in storage and live out of a hotel for a month earlier your new home is set. With the second offer, the flexible moving date eliminates the double-move concerns, simply you lot'll exist netting $10K less.

Working through the pros and cons here creates a more binary choice between convenience or money.

Respond to offers with confidence

The pressure of the ticking clock when you receive an offering on a house is plenty to make whatsoever seller anxious. First, make sure you lot know what the expiration date is. And so, to navigate the pressure of this borderline, work with your agent to recognize a swell offer when you come across one or craft a counteroffer when a buyer misses the marking. Know when y'all have leverage with multiple offers, and have the time to review all offers before y'all make a decision. As always, clear advice goes a long way.

Header Image Source: (Simon Rae / Unsplash)