Understanding offers

Price is one term among several

An offer is a set of terms, and the price is the one that is easiest to compare and therefore the one that gets all the attention. A higher price with six thousand dollars of concessions, a financing contingency, an appraisal contingency, and forty-five days to close can leave you with less money, later, and with more ways for the deal to fall apart than a lower cash offer.

Our comparison puts the terms side by side and annotates them factually, which offer is highest, which asks for concessions, which has the fewest contingencies. It deliberately does not produce a score. A single number would collapse 'pays more' and 'more likely to close' into one figure and hide which one is driving it, and those are different questions that only you can weigh.

What each contingency actually does

A contingency is a buyer's right to walk away for a stated reason within a stated number of days, and get their earnest money back. Each one you accept is a window during which the sale can end and you are back where you started, having taken the home off the market.

• Inspection. The buyer can withdraw, or ask for repairs, over what an inspection finds. The most commonly used, and the most commonly renegotiated.
• Financing. The buyer can withdraw if their loan is declined. A pre-approval reduces this risk but does not remove it; approval depends on the property too.
• Appraisal, if the lender's appraisal comes in below the price, the buyer can withdraw rather than make up the difference in cash.
• Title. The buyer can withdraw if the title search finds a lien, an easement, or a boundary problem.

Earnest money, and who holds it

Earnest money is the buyer's deposit, and it signals commitment: a larger deposit deposited sooner is a buyer with more to lose by walking away. It is held by a third party, a title company, an escrow agent, or an attorney, and it is credited to the purchase at closing.

It is never held by us. We are not an escrow agent, holding client money is a regulated activity, and the product refuses an offer that names us as the holder. If anyone ever tells you to send a deposit to this platform, that is fraud.

Countering is normal, and every round is recorded

A counter is not a rejection. It replaces the terms on the table with yours, and the buyer can accept, counter again, or walk. Each round is stored permanently and cannot be edited afterwards, so months later you can see exactly what was proposed, by whom, and when.

A counter also resets the clock. Your counter carries its own expiry rather than inheriting theirs, which would otherwise mean sending something already dead.

What accepting does

Accepting creates a binding contract on those terms. The home goes under contract, your deadlines start running from the date of acceptance, and backing out afterwards has consequences that depend on your contract and your state.

Accepting one offer does not automatically decline the others, and the product will not do that for you. Sellers sometimes keep a backup, and quietly killing your other options is not a decision software should make.

Read anything you do not understand before you accept, not after. If a term is unclear, your broker or an attorney can explain it in an hour; a contract you did not understand can take months to get out of.

One thing you will not be shown

Buyers sometimes include a personal letter about their family or why they love the home. You will not see these. They routinely contain information about familial status, religion, or national origin. Characteristics you are not permitted to consider, and a seller who has read one cannot prove they did not act on it.

The letter is stored, and you are told one arrived. Not showing it protects the buyer from having their application judged on the wrong basis, and protects you from a fair-housing complaint you would struggle to defend.