Updated September 2026
An offer on your home comes with a deadline. In Ontario, there is no set legal time for a seller to respond. Instead, the buyer writes a deadline into the offer, called the irrevocable date, and you have until then to decide. Here is how it works and what your options are.
The irrevocable date
Most Ontario offers are written on the standard Agreement of Purchase and Sale. It includes a clause that says the offer is irrevocable by the buyer until a specific time and date. Until then, the buyer has agreed to keep the offer open for you to accept. If you haven't accepted by that time, the offer becomes null and void and the buyer's deposit is returned.
How long buyers give depends on the market and the situation. When several buyers are competing, the window is often a few hours. When there is less competition, it may be a day or more. Your agent will tell you the deadline the moment an offer arrives.
Your three options
Accept it. You sign the offer as written. It becomes a binding agreement once your signed acceptance is delivered back to the buyer's side before the irrevocable time runs out.
Sign it back. You change terms such as the price, closing date, conditions or deposit, initial the changes, and send it back with your own irrevocable time. This is a counter-offer. The buyer can accept, sign it back again or let it expire. Once you sign back, you can't go back and accept the buyer's original offer unless they make it again.
Let it expire or reject it. You don't have to respond at all. If the deadline passes, the offer is void.
If you need more time
Sometimes an irrevocable date is simply too short, for example if you need to speak with your lawyer or a co-owner is travelling. Your agent can ask the buyer's agent for a later deadline. The buyer doesn't have to agree, and any extension should be confirmed in writing.
Deposits and conditions
Read the deposit clause. If it says the deposit is paid "upon acceptance," the standard form means the buyer must deliver it within 24 hours of the offer being accepted.
If the offer is conditional, for example on financing or a home inspection, the sale isn't firm until the buyer waives or fulfils those conditions by the dates in the agreement. If you accept a conditional offer while hoping for a firm one, ask your agent about an escape clause. It lets you keep marketing the home and gives the first buyer a set time to remove their conditions if a better offer arrives.
When you have more than one offer
Ontario's Trust in Real Estate Services Act (TRESA) sets the rules for competing offers. According to RECO:
Every buyer who submits a written offer must be told how many competing offers there are.
The details of the offers can only be shared if you give your agent written direction. If they are shared, every competing buyer must receive the same information.
No one's personal information, or anything that would identify a buyer, can be shared.
Only written offers count. A verbal offer is not a competing offer.
Buyers can also ask RECO to confirm the number of offers that were received on a property.
Holding offers until a set date
Many sellers set an offer date so that every interested buyer can see the home first. Under RECO's guidance, your agent must pass every offer to you as soon as possible unless you have given clear, detailed written direction otherwise. If a buyer sends an early offer (often called a pre-emptive or bully offer) and you decide to consider it, your new instructions have to be in writing. Everyone who has shown interest in your home must be told in writing that the offer date has changed.
How to be ready before offers arrive
Decide with your agent, before you list, how you will handle early offers and whether you will share offer details.
Know the lowest price and the closing dates that would work for you.
Be reachable on offer night, and have your lawyer's contact details handy.
Look at the whole offer, not just the price: deposit size, conditions and the closing date all matter.
Talk to us
Our team has sold more than 5,000 homes since 1989, and we walk every seller through each offer line by line. Call us at (905) 830-9111, or read about how we sell homes.
