Negotiations

There will likely be some negotiation between you and the buyer after they submit an Offer to Purchase. You can outright accept or reject their offer, make a counter offer, or ignore their offer completely.

The list price is the price at which you listed your property, but there’s a good chance it’s not what a potential buyer will offer, at least not as a first offer. It’s up to you whether you accept a buyer’s offer. The buyer probably thinks your listing price is too high and you probably think their offer price is too low, so now what?

Negotiate! You can accept or reject the buyer’s offer, make a counter offer, or ignore the offer completely.

• if you accept the offer and it’s unconditional, congratulations! You’ve sold your home.
• if you accept the offer and it contained conditions, the buyer’s real estate professional will work with their clients to satisfy and waive conditions by the condition(‘s) expiry date
• if you reject the offer, it’s up to the buyers to decide what they want to do next – they can submit a new Offer to Purchase or look elsewhere.
• if you want to make a counter offer, discuss with your real estate professional the terms with which you were unhappy (price, possession date, inclusions, etc.). Provide a counter offer with the terms you want.
• if you choose to ignore the offer, it’s essentially the same as rejecting it. The buyers may submit a new Offer to Purchase or they may go elsewhere. If the buyer didn’t include an expiry date in their Offer to Purchase, the offer remains open for you to consider later unless they formally withdraw it.

In each of these situations, your real estate licensee will discuss your options with you, and highlight the pros and cons of each. Ultimately, it’s your decision how to proceed.

Multiple Offers

It’s also your decision how to proceed in the event of multiple offers. A multiple offer situation is when multiple buyers submit an Offer to Purchase on the same property, at the same time. As the seller, you determine the process to follow, including whether you want to disclose the multiple offer situation to potential buyers, and whether you want to disclose the terms and conditions of offers you receive to the other potential buyers.

Your real estate licensee should:

• immediately tell you of the multiple offer situation
• explain the choices you have and strategies available for offer presentation
• recommend you look at each offer before making a decision
• advise you of the buyers’ options and indicate that buyers may, and often do, remove their offer in a multiple offer situation
• inform you it is your choice whether to disclose the multiple offer situation to the buyers
• NOT disclose a multiple offer situation without your consent
• follow your lawful instructions
• try to present all offers in the same time frame
• continue to present all offers to you up to the expiry of a previous offer or to the end of the seller representation agreement

If you disclose the multiple offer situation to buyers, they will have to decide whether to:

• increase their offer prior to presentation
• leave their offer as it is
• withdraw their offer
• reconsider the terms, conditions, inclusions/exclusions of their offer

Potential buyers may include a term in their offer that prevents you, as the seller, from disclosing the details of their offer. If they include such a term, you must abide by it. They are also required to indicate if their offer is conditional on the sale of their current property, which may affect your decision.