Your initial offer although serious and well thought through should be really looked at as an information gathering tool about the sellers willingness to negotiate and motivation for selling. This is where your agent has the opportunity to earn his commission. If your realtor is able to attend the presentation of the offer with the seller and their listing agent he should be able to draw out valuable information for you to use going forward with negotiations.

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Are the sellers downsizing or retiring, is there a job relocation or an unfortunate divorce situation. What was the attitude of the sellers were they stubborn, withdrawn or very vocal and involved. The seller's agent usually tells their clients not to say a word that would divulge any information, in fact most agents like to keep the clients away from the actual negotiations but close by for consultation and sign-backs. There are times however that having a client or even both clients with their agents at the negotiating table can work to everyone's advantage, it takes good agents to know when this situation would work be best.

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Once your offer is presented you will see the reaction of the seller through your realtor and a sign-back will tell you more. If the seller refuses to reduce his price from his listing price, this may indicate that they aren’t in any hurry to sell. On the other hand, if they quickly respond  with a sign-back that is lower than their list price but higher than what you offered it shows they are willing to comprise on their price and possibly in more of a hurry to sell.

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Once your agent has presented your offer he should be ready to defend your offer by having ready actual data on recent sales of similar homes in that neighborhood that support your offering price and be able to convey these stats in a calm and convincing manner.

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When sellers receive an offer of purchase on their home they have three options:

1) They can accept the offer.

2) They can make a counter offer. 

3) They can reject the offer

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Similarly you have three options when you receive a counter offer from a seller.

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1) If you received a sign-back (counter-offer), the seller may have made changes to terms, conditions, price, closing date, chattels est. and have signed the offer and initialed all the changes that were made. Realize that that document is a legally binding contract as a counter-offer from the seller to you. At that point if you do not make any further changes you can accept the offer "AS IS" and the deal is done, Your Realtor will show you how to agree to the counter-offer by signing the acceptance and initialing each change the seller made.

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2) If the sellers counter-offer to you is just not acceptable and you have been back and forth mainly on price, try to find other areas of value that the seller could compromise on that gets him his price but would be of value to you, such as repairs, minor renovations, contributing to the closing costs or even asking the seller to taking back the difference in the form of a second mortgage. (but check if this second mortgage would affect your qualifying on the first).

Make another counter offer to the seller a few days later emotions have cooled and there has been no better offers. don't make offers at a price just below major numbers ie. $699,900 or worse $999,999 round your offer up to $700,000 or 1,000,000

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3) If you can’t come to an agreement with the seller after much negotiating and he just won't come off his price don’t worry. There will be many more homes for sale it might actually be a blessing in disguise. But be always open and willing to walk away.

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Congratulations!