Acceptable timeframe 4 Seller to answer an offer?

keep looking for something else. The Broker is probably shopping the offer.

The "time frame considered acceptable" is sledgehammer's time frame. Tell the agent "If I do not have a response by such and such time, I am withdrawing the offer". And then it's hammer time.

Some brokers and sellers will take an offer and try to keep the buyer hanging until at least one more open house occurs. This way, the broker can tell everyone attending the open house that there is an offer and if interested they should act immediately. The broker may also call anyone who has previously expressed interest and use the offer in an attempt to parlay it into generating additional offers. 72 hours is the LONGEST time period I would leave an offer on the table barring unusual circumstances. 48 hours is perfectly acceptable. I think 24 is pushing it a little but some people do that.

Some brokers and sellers will take an offer and try to keep the buyer hanging until at least one more open house occurs....

All Brokers will do this

Withdrawing the offer does not mean much unless you have other options. You can always say no if they come back. I would not show that much interest as that gives them incentive to shop around. Just let them know, that there are a couple of others you are negotiating with.

I respectfully disagree with 300_Mercer. Signaling to a selling broker that you are wise to their game does not weaken your position at all. If the seller is interested in you, then the seller will respond. If the seller is greedy, then the seller risks losing the offer. If you withdraw it, and nothing else materializes for the seller, don't you think the seller will reach out to you and attempt to restart negotiations? Of course they will. The buyer loses nothing by putting a strict time limit on an offer.

wait, you mean when a broker says that a property has another offer, that there really is an offer? Puh-lease!

As an agent, I can tell you that our responsibility when listing an apartment is always wit our clients. We fit for the best deal so they get the most for their apartment. However, we also need to realize that the only successful deal is the one where both parties feel respected and like they got a good deal. I would rather my client consider an offer and/or counter the offer than to just ignore it. The buyer very well could walk away and find something else, and my client could lose an otherwise good.

When working with and representing the buying customer, I always advise the we find a potential backup. Even once you strike a deal, the deal is not done until you have closed and anything could happen. I would urge at least a little caution when demanding an immediate response. If threaten to walk away, then you better be willing to walk away. And if you do walk away, you need to find another property anyway. So it would be a good idea to just focus your energy on finding the backup property. It wouldn't hurt to let the broker know that you are shopping and hope to get into a contract somewhere soon. You can even give a deadline, but protect yourself by finding a backup option as well. Once again- even an accepted offer doesn't make it yours!

HarrisonJ, why does a seller need more than 48 hours to consider an offer?

imo, if a buyer asks that question, it means that the offer probly has not been accepted. Yes, broker probly shopping it around.

For a buyer in this position, I wonder if it's helpful to not follow up or withdraw the offer? To a great extent, it's a mind game.

What percentage below ask is the offer? Do you have comps to back up the offer? How lon has the apt been on the market?

>I respectfully disagree with 300_Mercer. Signaling to a selling broker that you are wise to their game does not weaken your position at all. If the seller is interested in you, then the seller will respond. If the seller is greedy, then the seller risks losing the offer. If you withdraw it, and nothing else materializes for the seller, don't you think the seller will reach out to you and attempt to restart negotiations? Of course they will. The buyer loses nothing by putting a strict time limit on an offer.

Except that this means that your time limit was meaningless too.

There is no deal until there is a deal. You are free to revoke your offer at any time until the contract is signed, and the seller has the same rights. Once you understand that, who cares about time limits on either side.

Here's why I put time limit on offers if I don't hear back within 48 hours. Every broker does, and should, tell others looking at a property if an offer has been made and is being considered. Nothing wrong with that. Part of their job is doing best for the seller. But if you withdraw the offer because the seller is dragging his/her feet, some brokers will "lie" or shade the truth and still tell others that there's an offer. But some percentage of brokers will behave more ethically (we can debate how small this number may be) and no longer state that there is an offer under consideration or outstanding. So as a buyer, you are really no worse off by putting an expiration date on the offer or withdrawing it.

This whole idea of being ready to walk away is utter, complete bullshit. You think a seller will let a good offer walk away because the buyer withdraws it before the seller responds? In what world? What possible rational motivation would a seller have to just accept that offer is gone and to never reach back out to the bidder simply because the offer is withdrawn in a formal sense? If the offer were one the seller had no real interest in countering, then they'll let the buyer walk, but that doesn't mean much since this wasn't a deal that was going to happen anyway--the withdrawal of the offer has no impact because the seller was never going to counter-offer in the first place. If the offer is decent and the seller just dragged his/her feet to see if it could be parlayed into something better from another prospective buyer, then even if the offer is withdrawn, the seller is likely to reach out to the buyer (perhaps with some lame excuse about his/her failure to respond earlier) and give a counter offer or ask if the buyer is still interested in speaking. In other words, if the offer is decent in the seller's eyes and could lead to a possible meeting of the minds on price, the seller isn't going to rationally just let it go away. The only offers sellers let truly "walk" are those that were non-starters for whatever reason.

Thanks for your inputs. The price is pretty good as per comp value and while i see potential in the place, i just didn't have a crush on it. I consider it more like a practical purchase as i'm paying the same money in rent right now.
I do not feel pressured to buy this year as i'm sure prices are bound to fall more but since i'd be paying the same amount as rent money, it doesn't matter so much to me.
However, it's almost been a week since i made an offer and the mortgage rate i was given last week is gonna be at least 0.25% more right now if my offer is accepted which annoys me a bit.

>This whole idea of being ready to walk away is utter, complete bullshit.

You take this issue way too personally. Put in your offer. If you don't get your reply timely, move on. If you've moved on and haven't yet bought another place, and the seller on the first place calls you back, go see it and re-assess your level of interest.

Personally, as a seller, I'd take the signaling effect of a 48 hour offer as an indication to me that the buyer might not be so serious about my place anyway.

All this basically leads back to square one - as I said, as HarrisonJ said - the deal isn't a deal until it is in contract. Anything else isn't. There's no ethics involved in it at all because the line for a deal is very bright, well-understood, and equal on both sides.

hunter, you may misunderstand me--I am an advocate of never making it personal and keeping it just hard business. part of business means i take it seriously as I expect the other party to. i believe you make an offer and wait. but if there is not a response in a reasonable time (i ask the agent when I can expect to hear, listen to the answer, and proceed accordingly), i then communicate an expiration date. If the delay is because the seller is away on business or their kid had strep and the agent couldn't reach them to fully discuss it, that could explain the seller needing another day or two. But I generally made offers on Mondays and never let them hang past Friday. Nothing heavy handed in this and the manner of my offers was always calculated to demonstrate serious intentions. They were accompanied by a thumb nail financial sketch, information as to how much I intended to put down, and whatever info I made sure I wanted my agent to pass along. One thing I would not tolerate was a broker telling everyone at open houses that there was a bid on the table if we weren't moving seriously toward a contract. Nothing personal at all. Just good business.,

>One thing I would not tolerate was a broker telling everyone at open houses that there was a bid on the table if we weren't moving seriously toward a contract. Nothing personal at all. Just good business.,

So if you like the place, and you know the price at which it makes sense for you and offer that, but the agent tells everyone at the open house blah blah blah, you'll walk?

"This whole idea of being ready to walk away is utter, complete bullshit."

does sound a tad passionate, imo

Let's not get too caught up on one sentence, dwell. Okay?

More important is that you've found a place that you like but you'll walk just because a broker doesn't follow an acceptable protocol.

No. If the seller were interested in the offer, the seller would have responded. The deal doesn't fall apart because you withdraw an offer after 5 days. It was never going to happen anyway. After several days pass, the only thing you can do to attempt to resuscitate the deal is precisely to withdraw the offer which may have an off chance of getting the seller/agent to focus on your offer again. It provides an excuse for more contact, another email, whatever, of some substance and that doesn't consist of the equivalent of you whining from an inferior position that the seller still hasn't gotten back to you. Look, we can disagree on this. Anyone making an offer who somehow stumbles upon this thread is going to read both points of view and decide for themselves.

Which leads to, What's the best way to make an offer?
Is it in writing with an expiration date?
Verbal with the same?
Do you as the buyer play games?
"oh, I need to know by Wed. because I have an offer on another property".
Very interesting topic. Design an offer protocol that best benifits the buyer in todays re enviornment.
That's an interesting thread...with benifits.

"Do you as the buyer play games?
'oh, I need to know by Wed. because I have an offer on another property'."

I advocate never lying during a negotiation. It isn't necessary. There are more effective strategies. Once a lie backfires and blows up, there typically is no way to recover. Even if you feel the other party is lying, you are still better served by remaining truthful in anything you say.

this works both ways. as a recent seller (just closed in the past month), i can tell you that we had 2 very comparable offers, both of which were acceptable to us, but we went with the purchaser who didn't play games, and responded promptly to counter-offers, requests for more financial info, etc. selling a co-op in particular is a many stepped, time consuming and often frustrating process, so it was important to us to know that the buyer was very serious about buying the property, and wouldn't use one of many possible opportunities to derail the sale b/c they saw this as a game, and not as an important transaction for both parties.

I agree Kyle. I also hate mind games but unfortunately Agents create that dynamic. Pretty much of them i met during an open house have exercised some kind of mind game trying to put pressure on me saying things like "we already have an offer, can you beat it?" or "We've had unsual traffic on this property which means it should be sold by the end of the month" Blah, blah, blah!
The truth is what bother me most by the lack of prompt answer is that i'm pretty sure i've lost the great rate i was given last week, and also that in this market, i dont quiet understand why a seller would take its time to get back to us. Yes! Our offer was less than asked but not low balling to the point the seller shall feel offended and not consider us as serious buyers.

I'm a first time buyer and in my case we just attempted to accept the seller's last counter-offer on price (after a few rounds of negotiations through our agents) - the seller refused to respond. Instead, he sent a text to his agent to "hold off until the weekend" delaying his recognition that we have conceded to his last offer on price (approx 2% below listing for a 1-bedroom UWS co-op) for 4 days as well as scheduling an open house. What, if anything, should I do here? I am trying not to let my emotions get in the way of my rational decision-making, but I don't understand the game he's playing. Maybe he doesn't want to sell? Or is hoping for a last minute bidding war? (The unit has been on the market for over 4 months already...) Please advise...