Taking a listing that has multiple buyers interested can be overwhelming for real estate agents, especially those who haven’t dealt with many listings in the past.
That’s why our team has developed a five-step process to help you understand the best practices around offer presentation. Rather than playing secretary, this helps you present the offers in a streamlined manner and get your time back.
I’m going to break down all five of those steps so you can better understand how to manage this process and ensure you’re doing the right things to represent your sellers effectively.
Step #1: Remember the Code of Ethics
According to NAR’s 2024 Code of Ethics, Standard of Practice 1-6 states, “REALTORS® shall submit offers and counteroffers objectively and as quickly as possible. “
So what does this mean? Offers should be presented as they are received—unless the seller has told you otherwise.
You need to default to what your listing contract says here. In Pennsylvania, the contract clearly states that the seller dictates how these things happen.
Remember, the seller is the decision maker, not the agent. The agent is here to guide them. So, you want to understand that principle as you get into presenting offers.
Step #2: Get the offer in writing
Verbal offers don’t have enough information. When agents call you and say, “Hey, would your seller take X or Y with a 30-day settlement?” that’s not enough information.
When an agent suggests or attempts to present a verbal offer, no matter what you think regarding its quality, instruct the agent to put it in writing.
Get all the terms, conditions, and price clearly spelled out so you can effectively communicate with your client.
This way, you’re getting all the information; you’re not piecemealing it together because we know there’s price and terms, and everything’s got to work out for the seller.
And again, every state is different. Defer to your state laws. But I would not be in the mindset of presenting verbal offers—get the whole thing in writing so you know exactly what you’re talking about.
Step #3: Don’t set an offer deadline unless…
Don’t set an offer deadline unless you have more than one offer in hand and your seller instructs you to. It’s a bad business practice to tell people, “We’re not looking at offers until this time,” when you don’t have anything in.
I’m not talking about offering instructions that include how much time you need to respond and those sort of details.
I’m talking about situations where you see a lot of showings get scheduled and you assume you’re going to get multiple offers. Sometimes, it doesn’t happen, and when that gets mishandled, it could scare people off. That’s the reality of this, so it’s bad business practice.
Instead, present the first offer when it comes in. And only set a deadline once you have more than one written offer and the seller instructs you to do so. Remember, the seller is the decision-maker here.
It’s a bad business practice to start setting offer deadlines, unless you know you have competing offers. You might lose that one offer, and that could hurt your seller, which I’m sure they wouldn’t be happy about.
Step #4: Once you get more than one offer, defer to your seller
It’s the seller’s decision how to proceed. The agent’s role is to present any and all offers and to give the seller options.
The three main options are—
- Accept one of the offers.
- Negotiate with one or both of the offers.
- Reject one or all of the offers
If your seller chooses to negotiate, you can set a deadline (of their choosing) for everyone to submit their best price and best terms, and then have the seller make a decision.
When you use the phrase, “make a decision,” it doesn’t lock your seller into picking one of the offers. They may need to tweak some things here or there, get the right settlement date, adjust the terms, or whatever allows your seller to make it work for them.
That’s a really key point because when you start telling people you have to do this, you should do that, you’re more likely to get them on the defensive.
A better way to approach this:
“Hey, we’ve got three options. Here they are. I’m recommending we do this and giving you guidance. What do you think?”
That’s how to guide people. That’s what people want from a professional real estate agent.
Step #5: Always complete an agreement of sale summary
Always complete an agreement of sale summary or valuation form. You don’t need to send a 15-page contract for your clients to read through.
They want to know the price and the terms.
We have a standard agreement of sale in Pennsylvania. Now, other states are different, so make sure you’re in compliance with your state’s rules.
Send the price and terms in writing so your client knows exactly what they’re looking at.
Don’t just explain it verbally because people forget things that way. It’s not enough. Send it in writing—ideally, a one-page summary sheet along with a seller net sheet based on the price, terms, and offer. That’s what a professional does.
That way, your client knows how much money they’re walking away with and the rest of the price and terms in the agreement of sale. It’s all very clear, and you’re not haggling over anything that you could get ahead of upfront. When people start to try to renegotiate things here or there, it can cause problems to arise and get in the way of executing an agreement of sale.
In addition, send it in a professional way. Make sure it looks nice, send it in a PDF, and be as detailed as possible in that summary.
Those are your five best practices. Now, here are a couple of bonus hacks.
Bonus Hack #1
If you’re using ShowingTime, you can communicate with agents through there in mass by sending out a multiple offer notification. If there’s an offer deadline that has to come up, that’s a great tool to use.
Create a templated email so you can copy and paste it and put in specifics like the settlement date the seller wants.
The point is, use technology here to communicate in bulk. If you’re returning calls one at a time or calling every single person who showed the home and there were 35-40 showings, that’s a lot of work in a short period of time.
Get ahead of this and have this pre-templated based on whatever language you feel is best, and use ShowingTime as a resource.
Bonus Hack #2
Buy yourself some time if you’re in a multiple-bid situation. I’m not a big fan of the 8:00 PM Sunday night deadline. You’re forcing everyone to work late at the end of a weekend when agents are already working most of the weekend anyway.
Set it for Monday, and ask for a response date by Tuesday. Again, the seller needs to decide all this. You can give them guidance. Because the more time you buy yourself, the better off you’re going to be.
Great decisions don’t happen late at night in real estate, so I wouldn’t recommend that.
If you follow these best practices, you’ll have more time, your listings will be handled more efficiently, and you’ll get better results for your sellers.
Follow these steps. It all works—I’ve tested every single thing here. And we run plays that work.
