How Do You Counter an Offer on Your House?

Pick the Terms Worth Losing This Offer Over

Countering costs you the offer you already have. Once you send one, the buyer's original offer is void and you can't go back and accept it, according to the National Association of Realtors' consumer guide on multiple offers.

Price is only one of the terms. The same guide says a counter can ask for a higher price, or keep the price and change the timing or the contingencies. And the strongest offer, it adds, may not be the one with the highest price.

On price, check the numbers first. In NAR's August 2026 survey, Realtors reported that 16% of homes sold above list price, down from 20% a year earlier. Most didn't. Those Realtors' most recent sales drew an average of 2.1 offers, against 2.5 a year before.

In Florida, single-family homes that sold in August 2026 went for a median 96.0% of their original list price, up from 94.8% a year earlier, Florida Realtors reports. That measure starts at the first list price. So it counts price cuts made before any offer, plus whatever moved in negotiation.

Our view: an actual offer is better evidence of your price than any guess. It's the market answering. And buyers leave when a price doesn't match the condition they saw in person, so a price counter has to fit the house they walked through.

Write Your Own Deadline Into the Counter

A counter with no deadline written in still has one under the Florida Realtors/Florida Bar AS IS contract: paragraph 3(a) says that unless otherwise stated, time for acceptance of any counter-offer is within 2 days after the day the counter-offer is delivered.

Those are calendar days. Weekends count. The form's Standard F pushes a deadline that lands on a weekend or a national legal public holiday to the next calendar day that isn't one, but it leaves out the time for acceptance in paragraph 3. Deliver a counter on a Friday, and the buyer gets no extra days for the weekend.

That default applies only when nothing else is stated. So the deadline is yours to write. Pick one you can live with if the buyer lets it pass.

Paragraph 3 also sets the contract's Effective Date: under 3(b), it's the date when the last one of you signs or initials and delivers the offer or the final counter-offer.

Other states use other forms. Read yours for any deadline on accepting a counter before you send one.

Choose Your Next Move Before the Buyer Answers

A counter cuts both ways. The National Association of Realtors' consumer guide on multiple offers says a counteroffer could result in a stronger offer, but it could also lead buyers who feel they've already made a fair offer to look at other homes instead.

Plan for that before you send it. Cash Flow Deals gives you the Fast Cash Offer, where we buy your house as-is and close, and the Premium Cash Offer, where a pre-approved FHA or conventional buyer we already have, ready to go, pays more and buys directly from you. You choose.

With the Fast Cash Offer, you get our as-is number, with only one walk-through by our team and no repairs for you to make. With the Premium Cash Offer, you sign with us at the number you agree to and let us bring in a buyer in our place. Scheduled buyer visits take 10 to 15 minutes and are arranged with you ahead of time. The buyer signs a new contract directly with you. Their lender funds it, title transfers once, and we're paid as a separate line item on the closing statement.

We cover repair costs, and we figure out a way, so nothing comes out of your pocket. On Premium, only what the buyer's lender requires gets fixed, with repair costs settled from the sale proceeds, from our share rather than your number. Fast Cash is bought as-is.

The number is agreed before any work starts, and it changes only if you agree. The one exception: if something structural surfaces that was not visible or disclosed before we signed — foundation issues, hidden moisture, old wiring, cast-iron drain failure — we re-cost it and bring the number back to you. You decide. You can walk away. We disclose what we know at offer time so this almost never happens.

If the Premium buyer's loan falls through, that is our problem, not yours. You can still choose between the Fast Cash Offer at its own number and the Premium Cash Offer if financing can proceed.

The Fast Cash inspection period is 15 business days; your Premium inspection terms are set out in your written contract. Our existing closing window is 45 days or less, on a date you help pick.

You aren't bound to anything until you and Cash Flow Deals both sign a written contract. You can read it with an attorney first.

In our view, the higher Premium number comes from a buyer whose lender funds the purchase.