Should I ignore lowball offers completely, or should I always counter?

There's no fixed rule, and either approach can be reasonable depending on the offer and the buyer. Countering, even a low offer, keeps a conversation open and gives you information about how serious or flexible the buyer actually is, since their response to your counter often reveals more than their opening number did. Ignoring an offer can make sense when it's so far off, or so poorly supported, that engaging with it risks anchoring the negotiation lower than you're willing to go, or when the buyer hasn't shown genuine seriousness or financial capacity to close a deal at all.

The nuance is that a lowball offer isn't automatically bad faith — some buyers open low deliberately, expecting to negotiate upward, while a genuinely uninformed or unqualified buyer might simply not understand your business well enough to have offered more. How you respond can depend on which situation you think you're actually in, and asking a few clarifying questions before deciding whether to counter or walk away often tells you more than the offer itself.

A business lawyer can help you develop a general strategy in advance, so you're not deciding how to respond to each offer in the moment, under pressure, without a plan.