WEEKLY PRACTICE TIP
COUNTER TO OFFER NULLIFIES OFFER OR PRIOR COUNTER OFFER
Q: I am a buyer’s agent who made an offer on a single family home at $850,000. Seller countered at the full listing price of $895,000. My buyer thought that was too high, so we countered the seller’s counter-offer at $875,000.
We then learned that another offer had come in and my buyer instructed me to withdraw their counter offer in writing and accept seller’s counter at $895,000; which I did and delivered to listing agent. Listing agent now says we do not have a deal. Is she right?
A. Yes. It is a basic tenet of contract law that a counter offer once delivered supersedes and terminates a prior offer or counter offer.
A counter offer is legally treated just like an offer, and basically constitutes a rejection of the original offer or prior counter offer. Once an offer or counter offer has been countered, a party cannot go back and accept the original offer or prior counter offer.
So, if you deliver to the listing agent (or to seller directly) a counter to seller’s counter-offer, it has the effect of killing the original seller counter-offer.
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