[Fat Elvis]

I think some of the folks here are penny smart and pound foolish. I'm glad the OP was able to negotiate a deal, but sometimes a counter offer will result in a no sale. You have to know the market you are dealing with and what is your probable competition.

I know the last house we sold, we accepted the offer without a counter and I'm glad we did. We got what we expected we would for the house; it was a little under the asking price, but still above what we anticipated would be an initial offer. After the sale, we found out that the buyers were also looking at a brand new house where the builder was offering $100K off the asking price to get it sold.

Likewise, when we were looking to buy a house after selling that one, we were putting in an offer for a house and the builder countered. We told him to go screw himself because we had other houses we were interested in. He wound up selling it for significantly less than what we had offered after having to hold it and pay the interest on it till it sold 11 months later thereby costing him even more money.

Sometimes countering works, sometimes it doesn't....


Edit: I should clarify that this responce is in regards to selling in a buyers market.....