Is it legal to tell buyers about other offers?

The short answer

Yes, in most of the country. A listing agent works for the seller, and the seller decides what gets said about the offers on the table. With the seller’s permission, the agent can tell a buyer that other offers exist, how many there are, and in most states what the highest one is. Without that permission, the agent should say nothing about them.

Five states add their own rules, and one of them, Wisconsin, bars sharing another buyer’s terms at all. And nowhere in the country may an agent invent an offer that doesn’t exist or misstate one that does.

This guide covers what the national ethics code actually says, what the seller controls, the states with special rules, what agents may never do, and what buyers can do to protect themselves. It’s written for both sides: listing agents who want to handle it right, and buyers who want to know whether they’re being told the truth.

What the NAR Code of Ethics says

Most agents are members of the National Association of REALTORS® and bound by its Code of Ethics. Four provisions of the 2026 Code matter here.

Standard of Practice 1-15 is the one everyone quotes. When a buyer or a buyer’s agent asks, a REALTOR® must, with the seller’s approval, disclose that offers exist. If disclosure is authorized, the agent must also say, if asked, whether each offer came through the listing agent, another agent at the same firm, or an outside agent. Notice what it doesn’t cover: price. SOP 1-15 is about existence and source, not terms.

Price and terms are addressed in NAR’s own guidance on multiple offers (Appendix IX of the Code of Ethics and Arbitration Manual). It says plainly that sellers aren’t bound by the Code and may share offers with other buyers, and that brokers may do the same unless a law or regulation prohibits it. That’s why the answer depends on your state.

Standard of Practice 1-6 requires agents to present offers objectively and as quickly as possible. Standard of Practice 1-7 requires the listing agent to keep presenting every offer until closing unless the seller waives that in writing, and, when a buyer’s agent asks in writing, to confirm in writing that the offer was presented (or that the seller waived presentation).

On the buyer’s side, Standard of Practice 1-13 was amended effective June 5, 2025: buyer’s agents must now tell their clients that sellers and their agents may not treat the existence, terms or conditions of an offer as confidential unless a law, regulation or confidentiality agreement requires it.

Two limits on all of this. First, the Code binds REALTORS® only; a licensee who isn’t a member is bound by state law but not the Code. Second, the Code sets a floor, not a ceiling: where state law is stricter, state law wins.

Sources: NAR 2026 Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice; Code of Ethics and Arbitration Manual, Appendix IX (January 1, 2026).

The seller’s role

The seller, not the agent, decides how offers are handled: whether to disclose that others exist, whether to share the highest price, whether to ask everyone for their best terms, whether to counter one offer, and which to accept. The agent advises; the seller directs, and the agent follows lawful instructions.

That makes the listing conversation the most important moment. Before the first showing, a good listing agent explains the options, explains the trade-offs (sharing the top price can pull the others up, or scare some buyers off), and gets the seller’s choice in writing. Our seller consent form generator builds that authorization for your state.

Consent also brings a fairness obligation. NAR’s guidance is that if the seller tells the agent to let buyers know about other offers, every buyer should be told, not just the favorite. The same goes for deadlines and requests for final terms: one message, to everyone, at the same time. The whole process, step by step, is in our multiple-offer playbook.

What sellers may authorize at a glance:

States with special rules

Forty-six states have no rule beyond the general duties of honesty and fair dealing, so the NAR framework above is the practical standard. Five don’t fit that pattern:

North Carolina’s rule deserves a closer look because it catches people out: the listing agent needs the offering buyer’s express permission before sharing that buyer’s price or terms with anyone else, even when the seller wants it shared. Wisconsin goes furthest: an agent may say that offers exist but may not reveal another buyer’s terms.

Check any state on our offer disclosure map, which shows the rule, the citation and the date we last reviewed it.

What agents may not do

Whatever the seller authorizes, some things are off limits everywhere. Every state’s license law prohibits licensees from misrepresenting facts, and the Code of Ethics requires REALTORS® to be honest with all parties, including buyers they don’t represent.

• Phantom offers. Claiming offers that don’t exist, or inflating how many there are or how high they go, to push a buyer up. This is the clearest line in the whole subject. Beyond discipline, a buyer who overpaid because of an invented offer may have a fraud or misrepresentation claim.
• Selective disclosure. Telling one buyer where the offers stand and leaving the rest in the dark, or giving one buyer a deadline that others don’t get. It breaks the fairness standard in NAR’s guidance and invites complaints.
• Sharing without authority. Revealing an offer’s existence or terms when the seller hasn’t approved it, or, in North Carolina, without the offering buyer’s permission.
• Sitting on offers. Holding an offer back from the seller because it would compete with the agent’s own buyer, or delaying it until after a deadline. SOP 1-6 and 1-7 require prompt, objective presentation of every offer.
• Misstating the source. Hiding that an offer came from the listing agent’s own buyer or firm when a buyer asks, where disclosure is authorized.
• Shopping an offer to get a side deal. Using one buyer’s terms to steer a different buyer toward the agent’s own brokerage or a double-sided commission.

Do agents lie about multiple offers? Some do, though there’s no reliable count of how often. What is reliable is that it’s a license violation in every state, and that buyers have practical ways to test what they’re told.

How buyers can protect themselves

You can’t see the other offers, but you can make it hard for anyone to mislead you. A checklist to work through with your agent:

1. Ask directly, through your agent: are there other offers, how many, and did any come from the listing agent’s own firm? With the seller’s approval, a REALTOR® has to answer the first and last questions.
2. Get the process in writing. The deadline, the exact time, and how final offers will be handled, sent to every buyer the same way.
3. Ask for written confirmation that your offer was presented. Under SOP 1-7, the listing agent must provide it when your agent asks in writing.
4. Know your state’s rule. In North Carolina your terms can’t be shared without your permission; in Wisconsin they can’t be shared at all. Elsewhere, assume they may be. Check your state.
5. Use an escalation clause carefully. If you use one, cap it, require a copy of the competing offer that triggers it, and understand that it tells the seller your ceiling. Rules and customs vary by state.
6. Decide your walk-away number before the deadline, based on comparable sales and what the house is worth to you, not on what you’re told about other buyers.
7. If something doesn’t add up, ask your agent to raise it with the listing broker. If you believe you were misled, you can file a complaint with your state real estate commission.

Why transparency helps everyone

Most of the distrust around multiple offers comes from one thing: buyers can’t see what’s happening. They raise their price against numbers they can’t verify, and they lose without knowing why. Listing agents, meanwhile, spend deadline day on phone calls, repeating the same update and hoping it was repeated the same way.

Where the seller consents and the state allows it, open information fixes most of that. Buyers who can see where they stand can decide for themselves whether to raise. Sellers get real competition instead of guesses. And agents get a record showing every buyer got the same information at the same time.

That’s the idea behind an offer round: the seller authorizes disclosure up front, every buyer agrees to the disclosure terms before submitting, each offer is timestamped, and everyone sees the same leading price at the same moment. In states that limit disclosure, the rules change to match: in Wisconsin, for example, buyers see their rank but not the other prices.

Questions