Question: If a seller receives a full price offer for their home, are there any potential consequences if they don’t accept the offer?

Answer: There is nothing that requires a seller to sell their property just because someone makes a “full price offer.” First, there is almost no such thing because offers, even full price offers, are usually full of contingencies. Some, like financing, can be more important than price in assessing viability of an offer. There are two potential consequences when a seller turns down a full price offer.  How serious they become depends mostly on why the seller is turning down the offer. The first is that turning down a full price offer can be evidence of discrimination. If the buyer is in a protected class, the seller better have a legitimate business reason for not taking the offer. I changed my mind and I’m not going to sell to anyone is a good reason (if it isn’t pretext) and so is the lack of financial ability of the buyer or some other acceptable reason. There also has to be a reason to head off a potential squabble over commissions. Arguably, the listing broker has earned a commission if a “full price offer” is produced. That being the case, the buyers agent may have a claim to the co-op commission if the listing broker actually collects a commission. If the listing broker doesn’t demand a commission, the reasonableness of that decision may be called into question. Of course, the reasonableness of the listing brokers decision will turn on the reasonableness of the seller’s decision not to accept the full price offer. So, what is the seller’s reason?