Evaluating and Accepting Offers on Your Market Property

The Initial Agreement and Deposit

Once you and the buyer agree on terms, both parties sign the initial purchase agreement, and the buyer places earnest money in an escrow account. An escrow agent — typically a title company or attorney — acts as the neutral third party holding, receiving, and distributing funds until closing.

The earnest money deposit demonstrates the buyer's serious intent. State laws vary, but most agreements require some form of consideration to be legally binding. The deposit is typically held pending fulfillment of contingencies and applied toward the purchase price at closing.

A few practical tips for the agreement and contract phase:

Keep written records of everything. Counter-offers, verbal agreements, and addendums should all be documented in writing and signed by both parties. We help draft all written records and provide copies for both parties.

Stay on schedule. The purchase agreement includes a timeline for completing all contingencies. Meeting deadlines isn't optional — it ensures both parties stay in compliance and prevents contract breach issues. We track every deadline and keep you ahead of each requirement.

Counter-Offers and Multiple Offers

In active markets, multiple offers come in at the same time. The decisions about how to handle multiple offers — disclosing competing offers, requesting highest-and-best from all parties, or selecting a single offer to counter — significantly affect the outcome.

We guide you through the strategy for multi-offer situations to maximize your final price without losing qualified buyers. Different markets and different properties warrant different approaches.