Sign the buyer agreement first
If an agent represents you, California requires a written buyer representation agreement. The Department of Real Estate’s notice on the 2025 law says it must be signed as soon as practicable and no later than when you sign an offer.
The agreement has to state the agent’s compensation. For an individual buyer, its end date can be no more than three months out. Commissions are negotiable. Many agents will ask you to sign before the first showing, because their trade-association rules set an earlier point than state law does. Our guide to choosing an agent covers what else to read in that agreement.
What goes in the offer package
A complete package answers the seller’s two questions: what are the terms, and can this buyer close. It usually holds:
- The signed purchase agreement with your price and terms.
- Any acknowledgment or addendum the transaction calls for. Two common ones are a contingency tied to selling your current home and an escalation clause.
- A current pre-approval letter for the loan amount you are requesting, if you are financing. See what a pre-approval letter should show. Our home loans page explains how to start one.
- Evidence of funds for the rest of the price and the closing costs, or for the full price in a cash offer, with account numbers hidden.
- Whatever the listing itself asks for, such as a named escrow company or a specific form.
Your agent should already have given you the agency disclosure before you sign.
Share financial documents only through the secure route your agent sets up, never by ordinary email. A seller can ask for evidence that you can close. That is not the same as your whole loan file.
Who receives the offer
When you are represented and the home is listed, your agent delivers the offer to the listing agent, following the instructions in the listing. Some sellers set an offer deadline; some ask for offers at one address. The listing agent presents it to the seller. You do not negotiate with the seller directly.
Have your agent record when the offer was delivered and when it expires. An offer states its own expiration, and it lapses if the seller has not accepted by then. Until an acceptance has been communicated, the seller is free to take a different offer.
What the seller can do with it
The seller can accept your offer as written, answer with a counteroffer, reject it, or let it expire.
With several offers in hand, a seller may counter more than one buyer at once. With a seller multiple counteroffer, your signature alone does not secure the home. Read its instructions for the seller’s final selection and for delivery back to you or the person named in the form.
How counteroffers change the timeline
A counteroffer is a new proposal. It changes some terms and carries its own deadline, and you answer it in writing before it expires. You can accept it, counter back or walk away.
Nothing binds either side while counters are still moving. A phone call that says “congratulations” is not an acceptance. Before you answer a counter, rerun the price, the credits and the cash to close; the section on recalculating at a counteroffer shows how.
When it becomes a contract
The Department of Real Estate’s reference book puts it plainly: there is a contract when the last party signs the other side’s terms without modification and communicates that acceptance.
In practice, the signed acceptance has to reach the party who made the latest offer or counteroffer, or the agent authorized to receive it, before the deadline and by the agreed method. If the seller accepts your offer, it comes back to your side. If you accept a seller’s counteroffer, it goes to the seller’s side. A signature that was never delivered does not finish the job. Neither does an email that was sent but not received the way the contract requires.
Ask your agent to confirm in writing the date and time the acceptance was received. The contract’s clocks start from that point. The listing’s online status can lag, so rely on the signed acceptance and not on whether the home shows as contingent or pending.
The dates your agreement controls
Use the signed agreement to calendar the deposit, the contingencies, the closing and possession. These are negotiated terms, so read them off the contract the day it is accepted:
- When the deposit is due in escrow.
- The end of your inspection period. See the home inspection guide.
- The appraisal and loan contingency dates, if you are financing.
- When the seller’s disclosures are due and how long you have to review them.
- For a condo, the review period for the association’s documents. See the condo and HOA checklist.
- The final walkthrough, the closing date and the day you get possession.
Record delivery dates separately: the day each disclosure reached you and the day you returned it. California law gives buyers a separate period to cancel after certain disclosures that arrive late, under Civil Code section 1102.3.
A hypothetical shows how the counting works. If acceptance is received on a Monday, the contract counts three business days for the deposit and no holiday falls in between, the deposit is due that Thursday. Your contract’s numbers will be different.
The first days after acceptance
Escrow opens with the fully signed agreement, and the escrow company sends instructions for your deposit. Before you wire anything, confirm the instructions by calling a number you already had for the escrow officer, not one in the message. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s warning on closing scams says never to follow wiring instructions that arrive by email.
The deposit is purchase money held in escrow. What happens to it if the purchase is canceled depends on your contract; our guide to canceling a purchase and the deposit explains the rules.
On the same day, send the signed contract to your lender, book the inspections and ask for insurance quotes before your contingency ends. If the home has an assumable loan, ask the servicer what its process needs now that the contract is signed; see the assumable offer checklist.
If the seller takes another offer
Ask whether the seller will accept a written backup offer. The signed terms decide your place in line and what has to happen before your purchase moves ahead. Our guide to backup offers covers when that is worth doing.
Questions buyers ask about making an offer
Is my offer binding once I sign it?
No. It binds when the seller accepts it in writing without changes and that acceptance is received by you or your agent the way the documents require. Until then, the seller can accept a different offer.
Do I have to sign an agreement with my agent before making an offer?
Yes, if an agent represents you. California requires the written buyer representation agreement as soon as practicable and no later than when you sign the offer. It states the agent’s compensation, and for an individual buyer its end date can be no more than three months out.
How much is the deposit and when is it due?
Your contract sets both, so read them off the signed agreement. Confirm the wiring instructions by phone, using a number you already had, before you send money.
Does a verbal yes from the listing agent mean we have a deal?
No. There is a contract only when the signed acceptance, with no changes, has been received the way the documents require.
Can the seller counter more than one buyer?
Yes. With a multiple counteroffer, your signature alone does not secure the home. The seller still makes a final selection and delivers it back as the form requires.