How Long Can a Seller Wait Before Responding to an Offer? | Florida Land Network Leonard Dicks Realty, LLC | Florida Land Network, Leonard Dicks Realty (2024)

FAQs

How long does the seller have to respond to an offer? ›

In theory, there's no rule about how quickly a seller has to respond to purchase offers. You can take as long as you want before responding since there is no official time frame. However, the industry standard is to get back to interested buyers within 24 to 72 hours.

According to Florida law, a buyer or seller is able to terminate a residential real estate contract and walk away from the deal without penalty by seeking rescission.

Generally, after making an offer on a home, the seller's agent will respond to you within one to three days. If it does take longer than that timeframe, don't stress about it too much, there are plenty of factors that may lead a seller to be slow to respond to your offer.

The home buying process doesn't end once the seller accepts your offer. You'll have to complete steps to assure the seller that you're equipped with the proper financing to close the sale, and the seller will have to open the house up for appraisal and inspection to assure all parties that the house is sound.

What Happens If A Home Seller Doesn't Respond To An Offer? Typically, the original offer will include a deadline that provides the seller with a date when you'd need a response. If there's no response to your home offer by that time, the offer expires. This means you can walk away without any contractual obligations.

If you make an offer and the seller doesn't respond at all, your offer was probably too low. Some sellers might not respond on purpose to send you a message that they were “offended” by your offer. The real estate consultant is required to inform the seller of all offers, but the seller is not required to respond.

Bottom line. “Generally, a seller can't cancel without cause,” Schorr says. “You could build in some contingency, but absent that, you had better be committed to the sale.” Reneging because you fear you underpriced the house, or you actually receive a better offer, doesn't count as “cause.”

The short answer is yes, a seller can cancel a contract — but only under particular circ*mstances. Even then, there will likely be consequences for the seller, as the laws around real estate contracts tend to favor the buyer rather than the seller.

Yes, a seller can back out of a contract under certain circ*mstances. But you must show that you've upheld the conditions in the purchase agreement or face consequences.

While laws vary by state, in general, up until that contract is signed by both parties—even after counteroffers have been sent out—all new offers can be considered and accepted. Once both parties have signed it, however, the seller is pretty much locked into the deal.

How do I convince a seller to accept my offer? ›

Most real estate professionals want to respond within one business day, but some problems require more time and effort. Its important that the information a realtor gives their client is accurate and timely.

Most sellers hope to have multiple offers, but sometimes it's best to take the first offer you receive. It may be tempting to hold out for a better price when selling your home, especially when your home is newly listed.

When sellers receive more than one offer, they must carefully review them with their agent and choose the one that works best for them — and that does not always mean the offer for the most money. While some sort of response is typical, there is nothing illegal or unethical if a seller does not respond.

In our experience, there have been countless scenarios where the highest offer wasn't the one accepted by the seller—This is because the highest offer isn't always the strongest buyer. Several factors come into play when considering an offer acceptance.

A week is standard, but feel empowered to ask for the time you need to make a well-informed decision. Lai said that there's no exact number of days candidates have to think an offer over. “For some people, one week might be too short. For some people, one week is too long.

Home sellers aren't obligated to accept any offer on their home—no matter how much money it's for. 1 There may be other offers on the table or, in some cases, they may want to hold out for more money.