# Right of first offer

A holder's right to bid first before the owner can shop the business.

It is the softer sibling of a [right of first refusal](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/right-of-first-refusal), and the difference decides how much it can cost you. A first offer only obliges the seller to come to the holder before going to market, and if they cannot agree the seller is free. A first refusal lets the holder match whatever you negotiate, which turns your bid, your diligence and your legal spend into the stalking horse for somebody else. Read which one a landlord, a franchisor or a minority holder actually has before you spend anything, because one of them can take the deal at the end of it.

In numbers: The difference is what your diligence is worth: $40k of accountants and lawyers buys a deal against a first offer, and buys somebody else a matched price against a first refusal.

Source: https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/right-of-first-offer
Not dated: A definition is editorial: what a term means, why it matters, and an example. None of it reads a source that can go stale, so there is no date to take and a stamped one would be the build time wearing a costume.

Site index for machines: https://searchspheresource.com/llms.txt