Will The Sellers Accept My Offer?

I get this question alot, especially with new buyers - will the sellers accept my offer?

Well, I don’t have a good answer. There is no way to know for sure. Although in my experience if you make a full price offer the sellers will accept it, unless there is something odd in your contingencies or closing date.

You can try to guess all you want. Or try to figure out the sellers’ motivation based on time on the market (some feel that the longer the marketing time the more likely the sellers will accept…not true), or perhaps from what you have learned from theMLS - “Motivated sellers” shows up frequently. But that really doesn’t tell you anything. Most sellers want to sell, don’t they?

You may have learned they have bought another place? Or are relocating? Or are getting divorced? Will that help you figure out what the sellers will do with your offer? Perhaps.

I wouldn’t waste a lot of time wondering about this. If you are making a low ball offer based on comparables, chances are you KNOW what they will do - say NO. But if your offer is in the market range, there’s a good chance they will come back with a counter offer so you can negotiate. The first response from the sellers is generally pretty revealing about how things might proceed. Countering at full price, or coming down $1000 tells you one thing; a counter of $10K less tells you something else.

Oh, and keep in mind…the sellers are going to wonder…will buyers accept our listing price? Or our counter offer?