OTTAWA REAL ESTATE
How to Make a Counter-Offer When Selling Your Ottawa Home
How to Make a Counter-Offer When Selling Your Ottawa Home
A counter-offer is your response to a buyer’s offer that proposes changed terms — usually price, but often the conditions, deposit, closing date, or inclusions too. To counter effectively, change only what genuinely matters to you, keep the counter reasonable enough to keep the buyer engaged, and understand that making a counter legally rejects the buyer’s original offer and puts a new one on the table. Done well, countering is how most Ottawa deals get shaped into a price and terms both sides can accept.
Here’s how to make a counter-offer that moves a deal toward closing instead of scaring your buyer away.
What a counter-offer is — and its legal effect
When a buyer submits an offer, you can accept it, reject it, or counter it. A counter-offer proposes different terms and hands the decision back to the buyer, who can then accept, reject, or counter again. It’s the engine of nearly every negotiation.
One legal point matters: making a counter-offer generally rejects the buyer’s original offer. You can’t counter, have the buyer decline your counter, and then circle back to accept their first offer as though it’s still on the table — by countering, you’ve let the original lapse. That’s why a counter should be deliberate, not casual. The agreement of purchase and sale that all of this runs on is governed provincially by the Government of Ontario, and a registered agent manages the exchange within the professional standards set by the Real Estate Council of Ontario.
What you can counter
Price is the obvious lever, but a counter can adjust any term, and often the smartest counters trade across terms rather than just pushing the number.
You can counter the price, of course. You can tighten or remove conditions to reduce your risk. You can ask for a larger deposit to strengthen the buyer’s commitment. You can change the closing date to suit your plans — valuable if you’re coordinating a purchase. And you can adjust inclusions — which appliances, fixtures, or chattels stay. Sometimes the best deal isn’t the highest price but the right combination: a slightly lower price with a firm, condition-free, well-deposited offer and a closing date that works for you can beat a higher, messier one.
Sell Your Ottawa Home for Just 1% Listing Commission
Why pay 2.5% listing commission to sell your home when you don't have to? Jason Polonski lists Ottawa homes for a simple 1% listing commission. Full MLS® and REALTOR.ca exposure, professional photography, powerful online marketing, expert pricing, and a skilled negotiator fighting for every dollar of your sale price. Top-tier service — you just keep thousands more when your home sells. Smart sellers are already making the switch. Your home deserves the best, and your wallet deserves a break.
How to decide your counter
A good counter starts with knowing your priorities and your data. Rank what matters most — is it top dollar, a fast firm close, a specific closing date, or certainty? Then ground your price position in evidence: recent comparable sales tell you what’s defensible, so your counter is anchored in value rather than hope. Sales data from the Ottawa Real Estate Board and national context from the Canadian Real Estate Association are the reference points.
Also read the buyer. How motivated are they? How strong is their financing and deposit? A well-qualified, eager buyer can absorb a firmer counter; a stretched buyer whose budget is capped by the mortgage rules the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada explains may have little room to move. Countering into a buyer’s real constraints wastes the negotiation.
Get Cash Back When You Buy a Home in Ottawa
Can you get cash back when buying a home in Ottawa? Yes. Jason Polonski, a Chairman's Club REALTOR® serving Ottawa and Kanata, shares part of his commission with buyers — up to $3,000 cash back at closing.* You still get full-service, award-winning representation: expert pricing, sharp negotiation, and hands-on guidance from first showing to keys in hand. No cut corners and no rebate-only shortcuts — just real money back in your pocket when you buy your Ottawa or Kanata home.
The art of the first counter
Your first counter sets the tone. Come back too aggressively — barely moving off your list price against a reasonable offer — and you risk insulting or discouraging a genuine buyer. Give away too much, and you’ve signalled weakness and left money on the table. The skill is landing a counter that holds your value while leaving the buyer a credible path to “yes.”
A useful principle: your counter should make the buyer feel they can still win. If your response says “come up meaningfully, and we have a deal,” most serious buyers will engage. If it says “you’re wasting my time,” they may walk — even when they wanted the home. Keeping the door open is almost always better than a hard line that ends the conversation.
Countering on terms, not just price
Some of the best counters barely touch the price. If a buyer’s offer is strong on price but loaded with conditions, your counter might accept the price while trimming the conditions or shortening their timelines. If the deposit is thin, you might counter for a larger one to firm up their commitment. If the closing date is awkward, that alone might be worth a counter.
Thinking in terms of the whole package gives you more ways to reach a deal. A buyer who won’t move on price might happily give you a better closing date or a firmer offer — and those can be worth as much to you as dollars. This is why reading the entire offer, not just the number, is the foundation of good countering.
How many rounds should you expect?
Negotiations often take two or three rounds — offer, counter, counter-back, agreement — though some settle in one and others run longer. Each round is information: how the buyer responds tells you how much room they have and how badly they want the home. Move in measured increments so you don’t concede too fast, and let the pattern reveal where the deal will land.
The goal isn’t to “win” every point; it’s to reach an agreement both sides will actually close. A negotiation where the buyer feels bruised can sour the rest of the transaction — including the inspection and any repair discussions that follow — so aim for firm but fair. A buyer who feels they were treated reasonably is far more likely to be flexible if a small issue comes up later. General guidance on the buying and selling process from CMHC treats this back-and-forth as the normal path to a deal.
Multiple offers and countering
When you have several offers, countering changes shape. You might “sign back” — counter — to one buyer while holding the others, or in some cases invite buyers to improve their offers. The rules and etiquette around multiple offers matter here, and how you handle competing buyers must be fair and compliant. Whether the moment favours a hard counter or a softer one depends on genuine demand, which tracks broader conditions in Statistics Canada housing data and how actively buyers are watching comparable homes on REALTOR.ca.
The core discipline is the same as with a single offer: counter on evidence and priorities, keep serious buyers engaged, and don’t let the presence of competition tempt you into overplaying a hand the market won’t support.
Timing and how to deliver a counter
A counter isn’t just content — it has timing built in. Your counter carries an irrevocable period: a deadline by which the buyer must respond before it lapses. Set it thoughtfully. Too short and you pressure a buyer who might need to consult their lender or partner; too long and you leave yourself exposed, unable to consider other buyers while the counter sits open. In a fast-moving segment shaped by where rates sit through the Bank of Canada‘s decisions, a tighter window can be appropriate; in a slower one, giving a buyer room to say yes is often wiser.
Don’t let a counter drift, either. Responding promptly and professionally keeps momentum and signals you’re a serious, organized seller. A negotiation that stalls between rounds gives a buyer time for second thoughts — the enemy of a deal you want to close.
When not to counter
Countering isn’t always the move. If an offer is already excellent — strong price, clean terms, solid buyer — accepting it outright avoids the risk that a greedy counter pushes a great buyer to reconsider. And if an offer is truly unworkable from a buyer who clearly can’t or won’t move, a polite rejection that leaves the door open can be more efficient than a counter that won’t bridge the gap. The judgment is knowing when a counter adds value and when it just adds risk.
Common counter-offer mistakes
A few recur. Countering so high you kill a good buyer’s momentum. Giving away too much, too fast, and signalling you’ll keep caving. Focusing only on price and ignoring conditions, deposit, and closing that could improve the deal. Forgetting that your counter voids the buyer’s original offer, then wishing you could take it back. And letting emotion — pride after a low offer, or anxiety after time on market — drive the number instead of the data.
The through-line is discipline: know your priorities, anchor in evidence, keep the buyer engaged, and treat every counter as a deliberate move toward a deal you’ll actually close.
Jason Polonski is a full-time Ottawa REALTOR® with Right at Home Realty who structures counter-offers to improve a seller’s position while keeping serious buyers at the table — seven days a week across Kanata, Stittsville, Barrhaven, Manotick, and the wider west end. His Bachelor of Commerce from Concordia University, a double major in Marketing and Finance, means every counter is built on real analysis of value, terms, and the buyer’s likely room to move, not on emotion.
Drawing on work with hundreds of Ottawa buyers and sellers, Jason turns the back-and-forth of negotiation into deals that close on the strongest terms available. If you’ve received an offer and aren’t sure how to counter it, a quick strategy conversation before you sign back is exactly what protects your result.
How to Make a Counter-Offer (FAQs)
It’s your response to a buyer’s offer proposing changed terms — price, conditions, deposit, closing date, or inclusions — which hands the decision back to the buyer to accept, reject, or counter again. Countering is how most deals get shaped.
Generally yes. Countering rejects the original offer, so you can’t counter, have the buyer decline, and then go back and accept their first offer as if it were still open. That’s why a counter should be deliberate.
Any term: the conditions (tightening or removing them), the deposit (asking for more), the closing date, and inclusions like appliances or fixtures. Sometimes the best deal is a slightly lower price with firmer, cleaner terms.
Firm but not discouraging. Barely moving off your list price against a reasonable offer can push a genuine buyer away, while giving away too much signals weakness. Aim for a counter that holds your value but leaves the buyer a credible path to yes.
Often, two or three — offer, counter, counter-offer, agreement — though some settle in one, and others run longer. Move in measured increments and let the buyer’s responses reveal how much room they have.
Usually, yes, rather than rejecting outright. A calm counter anchored in comparable sales keeps a potentially serious buyer engaged and often turns a low opening offer into a workable deal.
