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Multiple Offers

Every offer goes to the seller

The seller, not the licensee, decides which offer to take. That idea resolves most multiple-offer questions.

NAR SOP 1-6 requires offers/counteroffers to be submitted objectively and as quickly as possible. Georgia rule: O.C.G.A. 10-6A-5 requires a seller's broker to timely present all offers even when the property is already under a contract of sale, and NAR SOP 1-7 keeps the listing broker submitting offers until closing unless the seller waives in writing. GREC Rule 520-1-.10(1) requires a licensee to promptly tender any signed offer.

So if three offers arrive, all three go to the seller. Presenting only the highest screens offers, a decision reserved to the seller, as does applying your own list-price test. Holding an offer until negotiations end, or until the first contract's contingencies expire, invites the charge of failing to deliver an offer within a reasonable time under O.C.G.A. 43-40-25(b)(19). Refusing an offer because the property is "already under contract" is the error the statute forbids, and urging the seller to break that contract violates O.C.G.A. 43-40-25(b)(13), barring inducement to break a contract to substitute another. The Commission does not review individual offers.

What you may not say

SOP 1-15 permits disclosing the existence of other offers only with the seller's approval, and never the detailed terms without authorization. Telling buyers' agents the exact terms of competing offers, or telling the first buyer what the second offered and demanding a match, crosses that line. A seller's bottom line is confidential under SOP 1-9.

One counteroffer at a time

Only one offer or counteroffer should be outstanding at a time, and a counteroffer may be withdrawn any time before acceptance. A second offer may be accepted only if it is contingent on termination of the first.

Signing a second offer too, so whichever buyer responds first gets the house, risks two binding contracts on one property. Accepting the second buyer while a counteroffer to the first is outstanding ignores that the first buyer may still accept it. Withdraw the first counteroffer, or use highest-and-best or a contingent backup.

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