Multiple Offers and How We Handle Them

We listed this property on Thursday, had an offer in on Friday and three in on Saturday. Someone is not going to be happy but this is a good position for my seller. As the listing agent, we approach multiple offer situations with an emphasis on being equitable, ethical and looking after the seller’s best interests. There are generally two options:

Option 1: Respond to the first offer that comes in especially if it is at or near or above full price and a clean (not complicated) offer. The agent who brings the first offer has usually put the hustle on to get to the house quickly and write an offer quickly. That is worth acknowledging. If we tell offer #1 that we are going to wait until (give a deadline) Sunday at noon and will address all offers we have at that time, we risk upsetting offer #1 and they could pull their offer. And other offers may not materialize. If we go this route, we make sure to emphasize to realtor #1 that the seller thought about option 2 but opted to recognize their hustle and strong offer and, thus, respond.

If offer #1 is not all that impressive (not strong, not clean or any red flags such as marginal financing or a rude or unprofessional agent), I would definitely advise my seller to go to option 2.

Option 2: We tell all parties interested in submitting an offer that the seller will respond to all offers in hand at noon on Sunday and we hold firm to that deadline. As soon as offer #2 comes in, all parties (offer #1, offer #2 and any subsequent offer) are told that we are in a multiple offer situation and they should submit their best and final offer by noon on Sunday and include financial pre-approval documentation. Everyone has exactly the same information.

End result should be a fair process for all parties while I look after my sellers best financial interests. End result should also be at or above asking price and a clean offer quickly executed possibly with a backup offer in place.

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