How to handle multiple offers as a new agent

What your broker needs to know

Call your broker before you reply to a single buyer’s agent. Not because you’ve done something wrong, but because a multiple-offer situation is where a new agent’s small mistakes turn into complaints, and your broker is responsible for your conduct. Most brokers would much rather spend ten minutes on the phone now than an afternoon on a complaint later.

Have these ready when you call:

• How many offers you have, or expect, and the deadline you’re thinking of.
• Whether the seller has signed anything about disclosing offers.
• Whether any offer is from a buyer you or your brokerage represents. That changes the rules (see dual agency and multiple offers).
• Any escalation clauses, unusual terms or pressure you’re already getting.
• Your brokerage’s written multiple-offer policy, if there is one. Ask for it by name.

The seller conversation, word for word

The seller decides what gets said about other offers. Your job is to explain the choices simply and get the answer in writing. A script you can adapt:

“We’re going to get more than one offer, so I need two decisions from you before I answer any buyer’s agent.

First, what can I tell them? I can say nothing about other offers, or that there are other offers and how many, or, in most states, what the highest price is. Sharing more tends to push prices up, but some buyers walk away instead of competing.

Second, how do we decide? My suggestion is one deadline for everyone, then you see every offer side by side and choose. You don’t have to take the highest price, or any offer at all.

Whatever you choose, I’ll tell every buyer the same thing at the same time. Can I send you a short form to confirm it?”

Then send the form. Our seller consent form generator writes it for your state, and our guide Is it legal to tell buyers about other offers? covers the states with special rules.

Your first notification email

Once the seller has decided, send one message to every buyer’s agent who has shown or asked about the home. Same words, same time, all of them. Here’s a version for a seller who has approved disclosing that multiple offers exist:

Subject: Multiple offers on 123 Maple Street: highest and best due 5 PM Tuesday

Hi,

The seller has received multiple offers on 123 Maple Street. The seller has authorized this disclosure, and every buyer’s agent is receiving the same information at the same time.

The seller is asking every buyer for their highest and best offer by 5:00 PM on Tuesday. Please send any changes in writing by then. If we don’t hear from you, your current offer will stand as submitted.

I’ll let every buyer’s agent know the outcome.

Fill it in, with a text-message version, in our highest-and-best template library.

The comparison table

Before you talk to the seller, put every offer in one table. It forces you to read every offer the same way, and it keeps the seller’s attention on terms instead of on whichever agent called most. The columns that matter:

Our multiple-offer summary sheet builds this table, sorted by net, with a risk rating, and makes a PDF for the seller.

What buyer’s agents will try

Experienced buyer’s agents know you’re new, and some will test you. None of it is personal, and every one has a calm answer:

If an agent keeps pushing after you’ve given the same answer twice, say you’ll put their question to your broker, and do. Note the call in your log. Pressure that never gets written down tends to get retold later as something you promised.

Don’t take verbal raises. An offer, or a change to one, is what’s in writing and signed. A phone call promising more is not an offer, and relaying it as if it were puts you in the middle of a dispute if the buyer doesn’t follow through.

Presenting to the seller

Present every offer, including any you think is weak and any from your own brokerage. Under the REALTOR® Code of Ethics you must present offers objectively and as quickly as possible (Standard of Practice 1-6) and keep presenting them until closing unless the seller waives that in writing (SOP 1-7).

Walk through the table in the same order for every offer: net, then risk, then timing. Say what you’d weigh and why, then stop talking. It’s the seller’s decision, and a seller who feels steered is the next complaint. If the seller wants to counter or ask for final offers, that request goes to every buyer the same way.

After the decision

1. Get the decision in writing from the seller.
2. Tell the chosen buyer’s agent first, with the next deadlines.
3. Ask the runners-up about backups before telling anyone no. See our guide to backup offers.
4. Tell everyone else the same day, courteously, with one message.
5. Save everything: offers, messages, your notes, the seller’s consent and decision. Your broker will want it in the file.

Then debrief with your broker: what went well, what you’d do differently. Your second multiple-offer situation will be much easier than your first.

Common first-time mistakes

• Answering the first caller differently from the last. The agent who calls five times will get more of your attention if you let them. Write your answer down once and give it to everyone.
• Promising the seller a number. “We’ll get $30,000 over” sets up a disappointed seller when the offers come in at $15,000 over. Promise a process, not a price.
• Letting the seller talk to buyers directly at an open house or by text. Anything the seller says about other offers is disclosure too; ask them to route everything through you.
• Forgetting the buyers who haven’t written yet. The deadline notice goes to everyone who showed real interest, not only those who already sent an offer.
• Accepting before the deadline because one offer looks great. If the seller wants to, that’s their call, but every interested agent hears about the change first.
• Going quiet after the decision. The agents you don’t call back remember, and they’ll be on the other side of your next listing.

A one-page checklist to print

Questions