What To Do If Your Offer Was Rejected

After a lengthy search with many house viewings, finally finding the home of your dreams and putting in an offer can be an exciting moment. But what if the seller rejects your offer outright or doesn’t even respond? This is perfectly normal and there may still be a path forward.

Learn what to do if your offer gets ignored or rejected and empower yourself to ultimately succeed at buying the right property for you.

What If The Seller Rejected Your Offer Without A Counter?

If a seller rejects your original home purchase offer, determine if you’ve truly put your best bid forward. There are really two choices left after having a home offer rejected. You can make another offer, potentially getting into a bidding war with other potential buyers, or you can decide to walk away.

Before you make that call, you might be wondering why a seller would decline your proposal in the first place. While it’s impossible to know all the reasons why a seller decides to accept or reject an offer, it's a good time to reevaluate your home purchase strategy.

Common Reasons House Offers Are Rejected

While you may feel that you’ve made your best offer, sometimes it might not be enough to seal the deal. Here are several common reasons a seller might pass on your home purchase bid.

• Your offer came in lower than that of competing buyers.
• The seller has unrealistic ideas about what their home is worth.
• The seller might prefer buyers who meet specific financing requirements.
• The preferred closing time frames may not be aligned between the buyer and the seller.
• Requests for repairs might be considered unreasonable by the seller.
• The seller has some other elusive motivation that the buyer can't pinpoint.

No matter what the reason, look over your original offer and determine if you need to restructure your terms or make a home search rebound.

What If The Seller Did Not Respond To An Offer By The Deadline?

The original offer will typically include a deadline that provides 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.

There is a chance that getting no response means your offer was too low to be considered seriously by the seller. On the other hand, if the seller is simply slow to respond, speak with your real estate agent to follow up with the seller's agent. Ask them to find out if there is a counteroffer or if the seller can provide any reasoning behind having your house offer rejected.

The next action you take all depends on how willing you are to wait or how quickly you need to move on. You can try your hand at the long game, hoping that the seller will justify your home offer and reduce their asking price. That said, you might have more luck finding a new home that's better than the first.

What Options Does A Seller Have After Receiving An Offer?

Sellers have several options when receiving a bid: make a counteroffer with revisions, reject your offer or accept your offer as-is. A seller can counter and ask for changes to the earnest money deposit, purchase price or any repair requests. Likewise, a buyer can also counter a counteroffer by negotiating the seller's demands.

Your buyer’s agent will help you stay in the loop with the most recent changes and tell you when your offer becomes a fully executed contract.

When To Walk Away If Your Offer Is Rejected

After several rounds of negotiations between you and the seller, you find your offer rejected once again. Knowing when it's time to say goodbye may work in your favor in the long run. It might be time to walk away if you find a better home on the market, find significant repair issues or are capped when it comes to your financing.

Waiting too long to let your agent know about your cold feet might make things harder down the line, especially when it comes to paperwork. Speak to your agent about your concerns before your potential house is under contract. There may be many more houses awaiting your discovery, so keep in mind that losing out on a particular home is sometimes a difficult but temporary part of the home buying process.

The Bottom Line: Having Your Home Offer Rejected Is Not The End 

The housing market carries potential challenges and pitfalls when attempting to buy a home. Your best bet is to make a fair yet sensible offer and hope that it meets the requirements of the homeowner then proceed from there. Some sellers have their own reasons why they wouldn’t accept or reply to your initial bid, so you’ll have to decide if it is worth continuing to pursue purchasing their home or to move forward elsewhere.

Take at least one element of worry out of the process by getting preapproved for a mortgage. Start the approval process with Rocket Mortgage^® and be ready when a seller ultimately accepts your offer.