Timeline after getting an offer

I have been recently interviewing with a few real estate companies in various aspects (debt/equity brokerages, private investment firm, development firm).

All of these companies are on the smaller, flexible side and if I am to get an offer from one of these companies, and still want to explore the other options, how long would be appropriate to wait to accept or decline the offer.

 

The 'market' timeline I think for this is a week or 2. Especially during this time of the year, you can say things like 'I have some travel/family events coming up and want to mull it over while I'm away for the holidays', or 'I am deciding between a couple of different offers and need a few days to think', etc. Anything more than that you run a real risk of them extending the offer to someone else.

"Who am I? I'm the guy that does his job. You must be the other guy."
 
Most Helpful

I agree with this from personal experience. Once you're past a week, you must tread carefully, and in general, you need to be tactful about it. The suggestions above are all ones that I've given. Most importantly, you just need to feel it out and follow your gut. If it feels like they are really putting the pressure on and don't have the patience (likely because they have other candidates they like just as well), then you likely need to make a decision more quickly. If the overall process felt slow and they do not appear to be in a great rush, you likely have more time, but 1 maybe 2 weeks is really all you should count on to be safe. I have also seen this play out internally when we were hiring - if a candidate is taking too long to make a decision or being sketchy in general, we've pulled the offer for the sole reason of not believing they are really that interested, which means we could be in the same position looking for someone else within a year or less. Most importantly - the easiest way to buy time when you're really in a crunch in between offers - negotiate (within reason).

 

They should let you know when they give you the offer in my experience.

My friend got an offer from Related, and they said to let them know within 24 hours (on a Thursday). He emailed back and said he needed the weekend to think it over. Contacted them again on Monday to accept, and they gave the offer to someone else because they assumed he wasn't interested/were annoyed he didn't accept within 24 hours

So I guess the lesson is..adhere to their timeline

 

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