Offers and negotiation: the seller's side
Helps you compare offers on more than price and respond to them in a clear order.
- Compare each offer on price, conditions, deposit, settlement date and who the buyer is.What does Settlement mean?Settlement day is the day you pay the balance of the purchase price and the property becomes yours. settled.govt.nz (Te Kāhui Kāinga Ora / REA): Settling on settlement day
- A clean offer with few conditions can be worth more than a higher price with many conditions.
- When you counter, you can change conditions and settlement as well as price, and give the counter an end time.
- With several offers, ask your agent how a best-and-final round works, and do not share one buyer's terms with another.
- Ask your lawyer what happens to the deposit and risk once the contract goes unconditional.
Check the details. Check each offer and counter with your lawyer and your agent before you sign anything.
Official pages
Shortened from a Berry article first written 2026-05-16. Figures we could not check against a public source were taken out. This is general information, not advice.