how long does a seller have to respond to an offer (2024)

FAQs

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

The short answer is you'll usually have a window between 24 and 72 hours to get back to the buyer before an offer expires. But let's take a look at the factors that determine the amount of time a seller has to respond to an offer, and a few key considerations that can offer clarity as to the right path forward.

Since there isn't a legal requirement about how long you have to respond to an offer, you can take as long as you like. In fact, you don't have to respond to an offer at all (not that we'd recommend it). Our advice is to respond to any offer as quickly as possible.

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.

In theory, sellers can take as long as they want before responding to an offer, but most listing agents get back to buyers within a few days. For the most part, 24 to 48 hours seems to be the standard observed by most sellers and their agents, but there are some exceptions.

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.

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.

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.”

Employers usually allow for a couple of days to respond. If you need a week or two, there are ways to try for an extension. The risks, however, grow with each day of deferral. You could end up losing the first offer.

Depending on your reasons, you may be able to stall a job offer by one or two weeks, but don't try to delay responding too long or you may increase the likelihood of losing the job, especially if the offer was made by a small business.

If this happens to you, don't worry. In our experience it often means one of two things; you need to re-negotiate, or it just wasn't the property for you and there is a better one around the corner.

How do I know if my house offer will be accepted? ›

A faster reply indicates the seller is engaged and actively considering your offer. A response within 24-48 hours is typically a good sign. It shows the seller is eager to move things along, whether accepting, rejecting, or countering.

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.

When there are multiple offers, the seller typically takes one of three actions: Accepts the most favorable offer. Counters all offers to give everyone a chance to come back with a better bid in an effort to get the best price and terms. Counters the offer closest to the price and terms the seller's seeking.

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.

Well, that's not the case. Securing the winning bid on a house isn't always as straightforward as accepting the highest dollar amount. 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.

All auto-replies are excluded from CRR calculations, hence, you'll need to manually respond to a buyer within the 12-hour time frame in order to not affect your CRR. Replies to the buyer (regardless of your auto-reply) after 12 hours will be considered as a non-responded chat thread.

Each offer is valid for 24 hours or until an offer is accepted, whichever comes first. With a single item listing, the first buyer to accept the offer gets the item. With a multiple quantity listing, buyers can continue to avail of the offer until all items in the listing are sold or the offer expires.

Offers and Counter Offers are Binding .

All too often people sign offers on the spur of the moment. There is a common misconception that the terms of a real estate purchase agreement can be changed once escrow is opened. This is not true! A written offer is a legally binding document once it is accepted by the seller.

For the seller, having both the earnest money deposit (EMD) and the loan preapproval letter from your lender will prove that you can afford to buy the home. Within 24 to 48 hours of your offer being accepted, send that EMD to your real estate agent's broker. They will hold it in their escrow account until closing.