Counter offers in real estate finance: A short-term fix or long-term risk?

You’ve been searching for a role, interviewing – often across several stages - and you finally receive an offer. You resign, and suddenly your current employer counters: “We’ll give you more money, title, responsibility… stay!” It’s flattering. It feels validating. But before you sign on for the “stay deal”, ask yourself: Is this really the win it seems? In real estate finance, timing and market cycles can shape your career path just as much as technical ability. The right move at the right moment can open doors to new capital structures, asset types, and deal exposure that staying put simply can’t.

Below are six reasons Cobalt Recruitment has seen across its 24 years working on real estate and finance roles as to why accepting a counteroffer is often a mistake - and how it may hurt your real estate and finance career in the long run.

Counter Offers in Real Estate Finance - The Key Insights

• Counter offers that are accepted last on average for only 6 months.
• Even when you accept a counteroffer from your current employer, you’ve damaged your trust with them, meaning you’ll be overlooked for new opportunities, and they may even begin succession planning for your role.
• You can earn more in the short term with a counter offer, but it can harm your medium and longer-term earning potential.
• By accepting a counter offer, you can end up staying in the same environment you wanted to leave in the first place – not getting to experience a new culture, job, market, structure or organisation, and all the opportunities that could bring.
  
  

The resolution is temporary

What do bubble-gum and duct tape have in common? Both can provide a sticking solution, but will rarely last longer than a finite period. It’s the same with counter offers in the real estate finance space.

Why don’t counter offers work out well?

In our 24 years of experience, counteroffers don’t work out well. It’s on average about 6 months after accepting a counteroffer that a candidate is looking again – either because they are disgruntled at continuing issues or because their employer has now moved on from them and they’re out of work. When it comes to real estate finance roles, this can mean that they’ve missed out on transaction exposure, fund launches, or the promotions they’d have received at more agile firms.

You lose the trust of your employer

Once you’ve handed in your notice, the balance shifts. Even if your employer accepts your decision and offers a counter, you may never be viewed the same way again. You know it, your manager knows it.

How will my employer lose trust after a counter offer?

Your employer will lose trust, become less loyal to you, and less willing to invest in your long-term development, because they know you were willing to walk. You may be overlooked for promotions or be less likely to be included in strategic projects. Your manager or HR department may even be looking at succession planning for your role, or lining you up for redundancy, knowing that you’ve had an interest in leaving recently.

Money matters – thinking short-term vs long-term

Sure, everyone wants more money – but does the offer you’ve received in the short-term influence what your earning potential could be in the medium-term?

How much can I expect to be offered in a counter offer?

During a counter offer, you could be offered a ‘salary match’ to what you’re being offered in your new role, or they may even offer to improve on it by an extra few thousand dollars to incentivize you to stay instead of joining the other firm.

When salary increases aren’t possible, or have hit a limit, they might look to offer you benefits and concessions to stay – more flexible working, and increased 401(k) contribution, payment for travel, etc., in the hope that this will appease you for the reasons you had for wanting to leave.

These can force a candidate into a tough decision. Potentially take a matched or even greater salary than the offer they’ve been made by their prospective new employer, and get that immediate win, or make the move for the salary you’ve agreed to for all the other reasons outside of money that you started your job search because of in the first place.

Salary matches or increases with current employers often only happen once – the short-term, but starting with a new organization, you can begin your pathway to proper, planned salary increases in the medium to long term.

Actual Growth vs Artificial Growth: What staying put could mean for your career

As mentioned previously, some companies will try to counteroffer with the promise of a promotion – either to the next rung on the ladder, or to a newly created position – designed to make sure you stay put and continue your career with them.

Should I take a promotion when offered in a counter offer?

On the face of it, a promotion sounds great, but is it to a position of actual growth or artificial growth?

When it comes to promotions to newly created roles, these more often than not see the incumbent carry on many of the existing parts of their role in the short to medium term, while the business resources for someone to take on the other tasks. The employee will also take on the added responsibility of a new space that they’ve ‘earned’ through this promotion at the same time, which can be hard to manage. Lots of these solutions never work as they have been planned to because of all the moving parts, and that’s why those who accept counter offers are looking again for a new role within 6 months.

Then, there’s the promotion to the next job title up – the next banding in salary and title. Titles can change overnight — Analyst to Senior Analyst, or Manager to VP — but without new exposure to underwriting, capital markets, or investor reporting, that ‘promotion’ can feel more like a rebrand than real progress.

Some companies may even promote you to the new title desired, but have a ‘sink or swim’ attitude to it and be looking at replacing you with someone at the more junior level you’ve left if it doesn't work out. Think about it, if they didn’t think you could do the job to promote you before, what makes you think they’ll feel confident in your ability to do that role now?

You and your current firm have drifted apart

What you’re looking for in a company and what they’re looking for in an employee may have drifted apart – at the organization-level, within your department, or within your job responsibilities themselves.

How do I know if it’s time to leave my job?

If you’ve been thinking of looking for a new role, or even have an offer to leave, it’s probably because something isn’t quite right with your current role, team, or organization.

Organization-wise, they might have pivoted their focus into new markets – or just not quite be the company you thought they were when you joined (not quite the ‘family’ culture it was advised to be, perhaps). Department-wise, you may be faced with different challenges or resources being pulled into other areas – either outside of your team or within it, or continued differences of opinion with your manager. Or, finally, you may have lost interest in the role you’re doing and be interested in pursuing other tasks your experience can lend itself to instead.

Accepting a counter offer to stay in a role when these issues are prevalent and unresolved can lead to continued disharmony down the track.

What direction do you want to take your career in?

A real estate finance career can take many different directions – it’s up to you, your interests, and skillset to see where your career goes in the space.

What career path is right for me in real estate finance?

When weighing up whether to accept a new role or stay in your previous real estate finance job, you need to consider what your current role is like and what you want to do.

Maybe you’re looking for more deal exposure, direct interaction with lenders, or a path toward capital raising. If you’ve made it through interviews and have an offer that ticks those boxes, that’s usually a signal you’re ready for the next stage of your finance career.

The new role you’ve been offered elsewhere might bring fresh skills, networks, and prestige that your current employer simply can’t match. By accepting a counter offer, you might shortchange your own career progression by staying ‘safe’ in what you already know.

Counter offers: Our final thoughts

Accepting a counter offer may feel like the comfortable or expedient choice - but in many cases, it’s a trap in disguise. You risk returning to the same frustrations, damaging trust, and losing control over your own next steps.

When an employer makes a counter, it’s almost always a reactive move - a last-ditch attempt to retain talent. It rarely addresses the original underlying issue: maybe you feel underpaid, undervalued, constrained, lacking growth, or frustrated with culture. The additional salary or perks won’t fix broken leadership, toxic team dynamics, poor role definition, or lack of future opportunity, but moving firms strategically often means greater upside through performance bonuses, carry, or fund-level participation — rewards that come with building something new, not staying comfortable.

Want to speak about your finance career? Get in touch with the team and I below.

 

FAQs

How long do counter offers tend to last? In our experience, from recruiting into the real estate and finance sectors for 24 years, it’s on average about 6 months after accepting a counter offer that a candidate is looking again – either disgruntled at continuing issues, or, because their employer has now moved on from them and they’re out of work.

Should I accept a counter offer that’s offering a higher salary? When deciding whether to take a counter offer offering a higher salary, consider the short-term vs medium and long-term benefits. Salary matches or increases with current employers often only happen once – the short-term, but starting with a new organization, you can begin your pathway to proper, planned salary increases in the medium to long term.

Should I take a new position when offered it in a counter offer? When deciding whether to take a new position as part of a counter offer, consider what the responsibilities are in the new role, how the organization will complete the fundamentals in your current position as you move on (as many will ask you to continue these with the added responsibilities of a new role for an indefinite period), and the potential job security of the new role you’ve been promoted to. If there are potential issues with any of these, you’re best sticking with the job you’re moving to.

How should I decide whether to take a counter offer or not? When deciding to take a counter offer, remember why you wanted to leave in the first place. If core issues like growth or culture clashes remain, accepting only delays change, meaning that moving on is usually the better choice.

How do counter offers affect my reputation in the real estate finance market? Real estate finance is a close-knit world — deal teams, lenders, and fund managers cross paths often. Accepting a counter offer can sometimes raise questions about commitment or reliability. Maintaining your market reputation is one of the most valuable assets you have.