Offer/counter offer

[PinkMartini]

How many of you ended up being turned down after agreeing to a counter offer?

I ask because this is DH & I's first time trying to buy a house and our original offer was countered today, we went in, agreed to the counter and now are waiting to hear back. There was 1 other offer (put in the day after ours) that also got countered.

Part of me thinks if we agreed to the counter then we'll get it, right? But then who knows what the other offer was, so maybe it was better than ours. But why even deal with us if the other offer was better? Why not just turn us down and go on with the other people???

Gahhhhhh why am I stressed out about this? Please tell me this process gets easier...

[IrishEyes]

If they are still negotiating with the other party that made an offer, and you don't have their signature on a contract (or word from your agent that they've done so), then there's no way to say if you've got it or not.

Perhaps there's a difference between what the two parties (yourself and the other bidder) have offered/asked for in terms of price, closing cost help, inspection, amount of deposit (cash down), financing.

This may be a good time to forward a letter to the sellers about you and your family and why this house would be a good fit for you. I know some others on CC have done this when there are multiple offers on the table to try to make themselves stand out.

And no, it doesn't get easier. Until I signed the papers at closing, I was nervous all the time. I did not enjoy the process, that's for sure!

Good luck!

[mamax2]

I'm confused, how could the seller's counter both of your offers? Did they have specific terms in the counter or just come back and say "give us you highest and best?" Are they just trying to get you and the other prospect into a bidding war?

IME, if you accept a counter-offer, the deal is as good as done. However, I know in other parts of the country it's a lot more cut-throat, so I don't know what to say about your circumstances.

A personal letter is nice, also think about being as flexible as possible on everything - settlement date, contingencies and amount of deposit specifically.

Good luck!

[PinkMartini]

I'm confused, how could the seller's counter both of your offers? Did they have specific terms in the counter or just come back and say "give us you highest and best?" Are they just trying to get you and the other prospect into a bidding war?

Yea, I didn't understand that either.. They wanted $7k more on the price and $2k more of a deposit. And that's all. Nothing else was different. We agreed to both.

I don't know how legal/illegal this may be, but DH thinks there was no other offer and they're just trying to get a higher price. The house sat on the market for A LONG time without ANY offers at all and the day after we make an offer, someone else does? I'm sure it happens, but who knows? Talk about crappy luck :(

[greenbunny]

This happened to us, and we lost the house. Our agent found out later that the other buyer was offering cash, and we think they were just using us to jack up the other offer.

[villanelle75]

I don't see hwo this is legal either. My udnerstanding was that an offer was binding. If it was accepted within the time sepcified, it had to be honored. So I dont' know how they could write 2 binding contracts to offer their house to 2 different parties.

[LRL]

We have been in this situation. We were one of three serious offers which were countered. Our realtor called it a multiple counter situation. In our area I did not question that there were actually other offers. They countered each of the bidders to a higher amount (higher than their original listing price). We had already bid 50K above asking, and they countered at 30K above that. We were not amused, apparently all of the offers had been pretty high.

Our realtor told us that they possibly could have everyone walk, or could have one person accept and be greedy. I understood that once they countered, and they got back the accepted counters, that they then decide as if it was the first time they recieved offers. (ie. they take the offer which had the shortest closing, less inspections, etc). We also could have decided to counter the counter.

In our case we ended up walking away. Good luck with your counter offer!

[mamax2]

My udnerstanding was that an offer was binding. If it was accepted within the time sepcified, it had to be honored.
An offer isn't binding and when a counter-offer is written, it makes the original offer (or immediately preceeding offer if it's a multiple counter-offer situation) null and void.

LRL's situation sounds like what might be happening here. If they counter-offer both parties, they null the original offers. So, even if both prospects accept the counter, it's kind of like you're right back to square one and the seller chooses between those two offers. It doesn't work that way in my area.

I can tell you that when I sold a house in NJ, we had 6 offers on our house the day it went on the market. We gave ALL parties a 'general counter-offer' and told them to come in with their highest and best offer. People did a variety of things from personal letters, foregoing appraisal, shortening closing time, putting more earnest money and, of course, increasing their offer price. We did NOT want a bidding war situation so we made it clear there were multiple offers and everyone had this one shot to re-evaluate then we'd make a choice. The whole thing was over within 24 hours. I certainly find that to be the more fair and honorable way to handle a multi-offer situation.

[PinkMartini]

Well our counter offer got accepted!!! OMG I am on top of the world right now... Thanks for the good luck wishes, they must've worked :D

[Jenyfer9]

That's great news! Congratulations!

[gecko_gyrl]

congratulations! how exciting.

[SweetRed]

After posting in your thread about wood stoves, I was wondering if you got that house. A huge congratulations!

[LRL]

Congrats PinkMartini! How exciting!