When negotiating offers, take into account more than just the price of the house. Your house has been on the market and now you have an offer.

What should you consider when deciding whether to accept, reject, or counter?

First, remember that the offer is not just about a price for your house. The potential buyer has written all sorts of other things into their offer. They want your refrigerator, curtains, and even your grill. Can they do that?

Understand what’s in the offer
A home sale offer can include these things and more. It is very common for a buyer to want appliances such as your refrigerator, washer and dryer included in the home sale. Curtains are also a standard inclusion. However, the buyer might also want the custom-built furniture that fits perfectly in that little nook or your workbench in the garage. If the buyer wants it, they can always ask for it in the home sale offer.

Also look out for contingencies, such as the buyer needing loan approval or selling their home. These can create problems down the road, should either not come through.

Decide on your response
Once you have read through and understand the offer, how do you decide what to do next? First, is the price satisfactory to you? If the offer is at or above what you had hoped to get for your home, take another look at any contingencies. If there are none and everything else in the offer is satisfactory, then you should probably accept, or counter offer to get the sale details exactly right.

But what if the price is right, but the sale is contingent on the buyer selling his home? This is where you’ll want your REALTOR®’s expertise to help you gauge the market. Did you have a lot of other interested buyers? If so, another offer may soon come your way. But if it took a while to get to this offer, you may want to take it despite the sale contingency, or counter offer for slightly more because of the contingency.

Counter offers
Perhaps the offer was a bit under what you had hoped to get for your home, but the buyer is pre-approved and there are no other contingencies. In this case, it makes sense to counter offer. Many buyers submit first offers that are lower than what they’re willing to pay, so you’re likely to get a bit more for your home. Even if the offer price is right, you may counter offer on some other points in the contract, such as occupancy date or taking your appliances with you.

So this is the basic overview our REALTORS® will help you throughout the negotiation process. This will give you less to worry about.