I have been getting a ton of lowball offers on a fixer I have listed and I am duty bound to present all offers. Every single one. We present them all because the law and the Code of Ethics do not give us a filter.
Under common-law fiduciary duty and California DRE guidance, a licensee must disclose and present all offers to their principal—including oral offers—unless the principal has given contrary written instructions.
If you are a REALTOR®, Article 1, Standards of Practice 1-6 and 1-7 require you to submit offers and counteroffers "objectively and as quickly as possible" and to continue presenting them until closing unless the seller has waived that obligation in writing. Your obligation does not end when one offer gets accepted. It continues until the transaction closes. If a better offer comes in the day before recording, you still have to present it.
The Seller's Four Choices
Once the seller sees the offer, they have four options .
· Accept the contract exactly as written and a binding agreement forms the moment both parties sign.
· Reject formally; in California, the standard CAR purchase agreement includes rejection signature checkboxes.
· Counter by modifying any term—price, contingencies, closing date—which legally rejects the original offer and proposes a new one.
· Do nothing. The seller is not legally required to respond at all, and if they neither sign nor counter, the offer simply lapses when its acceptance deadline passes.
Accept and reject are self-explanatory, do or do not, but things get interesting when we start looking at countering and “doing nothing”, the “try” options.
This is a great place to be especially if you’re doing multiple counters.
When you counter an offer, you are rejecting the buyer's original proposal and making a new one. That original offer is no longer open for acceptance—your client cannot change their mind and accept it later, unless both parties expressly kept it open in writing, which almost never happens in residential practice.
The fun starts when you can send multiple counters.
When a seller issues multiple counters, they are rejecting each buyer's offer and making a new proposal to all of them at once. Nothing is binding until the seller picks one response and signs again. Each buyer can accept, counter back, or walk away, but every response must be presented back to the seller promptly because until that second signature, all of them are just offers on the table.
The Expiration Clock: Tactical Advantage
Every offer to purchase has an expiration date baked into the form; the offer normally expires by default 24-72 hours after submittal. If you do not respond before that window closes, the offer automatically becomes void.
Silence is a legal response. By doing nothing, you let the clock run out while you wait for better offers to materialize. The buyer either comes back with improved terms, or they walk, and you lose nothing you had to begin with.
Here is where things get interesting, especially when, like me on this listing, the offers come in well below asking. The expiration window is not just a formality—it is one of the few leverage points that favors the seller—by not responding the seller leaves the window open to sign the offer and counter it back at a later date.
Responding to Expired Offers
This is where communication is key. The agent submitting the offer is our colleague and we need to communicate with them. My advice is to be direct and honest from the very start. Let them know what has happened with other offers that the seller has received.
For instance, I've been getting offers $100k less than asking on a listing. The seller has done exactly the same thing for every offer we received below what they're willing to accept: they counter to a certain price.
I tell the agent I will present the offer and give them a few options. Present the offer and expect a counter to $XXX. Present it and send back a presented and rejected. Or present it and let the offer lapse.
That is why non-response can be a tactical tool in negotiations.
Letting an offer expire is not the same as rejecting it, and sometimes that pause can give the buyer time to improve the price or terms. It lets the seller come back to the original offer and counter it. In other words, expired offers do not disappear from the negotiation table — they just come back on the seller's terms.
This works best for agents that have investor clients—you know who you are—that are always looking for a deal.
Practical Advice If you are an agent sitting on a stack of lowball offers, do your job. Present every one. Follow your client's directions. But remember: every offer your client decides not to respond to is an opportunity to revisit an interested and qualified buyer.
Keep the lines of communication open to the agents that have submitted. Let them know you appreciate their time. Build relationships with your colleagues. It’s a good thing.
This and many more articles on my website: www.americasells.com/blog
I have been getting a ton of lowball offers on a fixer I have listed and I am duty bound to present all offers. Every single one. We present them all because the law and the Code of Ethics do not give us a filter.
Under common-law fiduciary duty and California DRE guidance, a licensee must disclose and present all offers to their principal—including oral offers—unless the principal has given contrary written instructions.
If you are a REALTOR®, Article 1, Standards of Practice 1-6 and 1-7 require you to submit offers and counteroffers "objectively and as quickly as possible" and to continue presenting them until closing unless the seller has waived that obligation in writing. Your obligation does not end when one offer gets accepted. It continues until the transaction closes. If a better offer comes in the day before recording, you still have to present it.
The Seller's Four Choices
Once the seller sees the offer, they have four options .
· Accept the contract exactly as written and a binding agreement forms the moment both parties sign.
· Reject formally; in California, the standard CAR purchase agreement includes rejection signature checkboxes.
· Counter by modifying any term—price, contingencies, closing date—which legally rejects the original offer and proposes a new one.
· Do nothing. The seller is not legally required to respond at all, and if they neither sign nor counter, the offer simply lapses when its acceptance deadline passes.
Accept and reject are self-explanatory, do or do not, but things get interesting when we start looking at countering and “doing nothing”, the “try” options.
This is a great place to be especially if you’re doing multiple counters.
When you counter an offer, you are rejecting the buyer's original proposal and making a new one. That original offer is no longer open for acceptance—your client cannot change their mind and accept it later, unless both parties expressly kept it open in writing, which almost never happens in residential practice.
The fun starts when you can send multiple counters.
When a seller issues multiple counters, they are rejecting each buyer's offer and making a new proposal to all of them at once. Nothing is binding until the seller picks one response and signs again. Each buyer can accept, counter back, or walk away, but every response must be presented back to the seller promptly because until that second signature, all of them are just offers on the table.
The Expiration Clock: Tactical Advantage
Every offer to purchase has an expiration date baked into the form; the offer normally expires by default 24-72 hours after submittal. If you do not respond before that window closes, the offer automatically becomes void.
Silence is a legal response. By doing nothing, you let the clock run out while you wait for better offers to materialize. The buyer either comes back with improved terms, or they walk, and you lose nothing you had to begin with.
Here is where things get interesting, especially when, like me on this listing, the offers come in well below asking. The expiration window is not just a formality—it is one of the few leverage points that favors the seller—by not responding the seller leaves the window open to sign the offer and counter it back at a later date.
Responding to Expired Offers
This is where communication is key. The agent submitting the offer is our colleague and we need to communicate with them. My advice is to be direct and honest from the very start. Let them know what has happened with other offers that the seller has received.
For instance, I've been getting offers $100k less than asking on a listing. The seller has done exactly the same thing for every offer we received below what they're willing to accept: they counter to a certain price.
I tell the agent I will present the offer and give them a few options. Present the offer and expect a counter to $XXX. Present it and send back a presented and rejected. Or present it and let the offer lapse.
That is why non-response can be a tactical tool in negotiations.
Letting an offer expire is not the same as rejecting it, and sometimes that pause can give the buyer time to improve the price or terms. It lets the seller come back to the original offer and counter it. In other words, expired offers do not disappear from the negotiation table — they just come back on the seller's terms.
This works best for agents that have investor clients—you know who you are—that are always looking for a deal.
Practical Advice If you are an agent sitting on a stack of lowball offers, do your job. Present every one. Follow your client's directions. But remember: every offer your client decides not to respond to is an opportunity to revisit an interested and qualified buyer.
Keep the lines of communication open to the agents that have submitted. Let them know you appreciate their time. Build relationships with your colleagues. It’s a good thing.
This and many more articles on my website: www.americasells.com/blog
