Making an offer
Competing offers and counteroffers
Best-and-final requests, counteroffers, and why raising your price just because another buyer exists skips the evidence step.
- Agents must pass on offers unless specifically instructed not to, and must tell you if yours won't be submitted.
- A counteroffer is a new proposal, not an edit — confirm exactly what changed before responding.
- A best-and-final request doesn't override your own evidence-based walk-away number.
- If a written offer is rejected as too low, the agent must update the advertised price accordingly — unless it was rejected for another reason.
Multiple offers are ordinary, not a crisis
Private-sale negotiation can genuinely involve more than one buyer making an offer at the same time (Consumer Affairs Victoria, verified 30 Jul 2026). Agents must pass every verbal and written offer on to the seller unless specifically instructed otherwise in writing, and must tell you if your offer won't be submitted (Consumer Affairs Victoria, verified 30 Jul 2026). A "there's another offer" statement is worth taking seriously as a possibility, but it's still an unverified agent statement — record it as one, and respond with your evidence and limit, not with an immediate price increase.
Counteroffers reset the negotiation
A counteroffer isn't a modification of your original offer — it's a new proposal that ends the original one. Before responding, confirm in writing exactly what changed: only the price, or also conditions, inclusions or the settlement date. Reassess against your evidence and walk-away number each time terms change, rather than only tracking the price.
Best-and-final requests
A seller may ask several interested buyers for a single best-and-final offer. Review your existing evidence before responding rather than making an immediate verbal increase — a best-and-final process is still bound by the same walk-away number you set from evidence, not by what the process's pressure suggests you should offer.
When a rejected offer forces a price update
If a seller rejects a written offer specifically because it's too low, the agent must update the indicative selling price and any advertised price below that offer — but not if the offer was rejected for a different reason, such as its conditions (Consumer Affairs Victoria, verified 30 Jul 2026). If your written offer is rejected and the advertised price doesn't move, that can itself be informative about why it was actually rejected.
Worked example
A buyer offers $680,000, subject to finance. The agent says "there are two other offers, one higher." The buyer doesn't increase immediately — they ask whether the other offers carry conditions, reconfirm their own evidence-based range, and decide their walk-away number is $690,000. They raise to $690,000 once, in writing, and hold there. The property sells to another buyer at $705,000. The outcome is a normal result of a competitive process, not evidence the buyer's evidence or process was wrong.
Practical checklist
When facing competition or a counteroffer
- Record any 'other offer' claim as an unverified agent statement, not a fact
- Confirm in writing exactly what a counteroffer changes: price, conditions, or both
- Reassess against your evidence and walk-away number before responding, not immediately
- Avoid repeated small increases with no new evidence behind them
Questions for a professional
- Does this counteroffer change anything besides price that I should factor in?
- Should I ask the agent whether a rejected offer of mine should have updated the advertised price?
Official resources
Sources and methodology
- Buying property by private sale — Consumer Affairs Victoria (retrieved 30 Jul 2026)
- Underquoting information for real estate agents — Consumer Affairs Victoria (retrieved 30 Jul 2026)
Figures on this page are drawn from Delora's local knowledge graph, refreshed from these primary sources and checked for changes on a regular schedule. If a figure here looks out of date, the official source above is always the authority — please let us know.