Multiple Offers:  A Tale in One Part
Sonja Salesperson listed a property at a price she was sure was going to be attractive enough to generate multiple offers for her seller.  The market was hot and she wanted to take full advantage of it on behalf of her seller.  Sonja was right – the offers came in quickly and the offer presentations were scheduled for the next night.

There were five offers on the property. The first came from Alan.  The second came in from Barry. When Sonja received Barry’s offer, she told him about Alan’s offer.  Then offers came in from Cecilia and Denise.  Sonja was very busy and didn’t have time to contact Alan and Barry and even forgot to tell Cecilia and Denise about the first two offers.  Then the fifth offer arrived from Edith and Sonja told her about the other four offers and then called Alan to let him know that there were now four other offers.

The evening of the offer presentations arrived and Sonja received mixed reactions from the other salespeople.  Alan was happy because Sonja told him about the competing offers and he had gone back to his buyers and they came up with a better offer.  Edith was happy because she, too, knew about the four offers and had gotten a really good offer from her buyer.  Barry was annoyed because had had been told about only one other offer.  Cecilia and Denise were very unhappy, as they hadn’t heard anything at all about any other offers and they knew their buyers would have come up with better offers if they’d known they were competing for the property.

Sonja apologized and blamed the busy market for her oversight in making sure everyone knew about the other offers.  She owned up to being discourteous and hoped everyone would understand.  The good news, she pointed out, was that her seller accepted a really good offer from Alan – and wasn’t that what they were all working for?

Unfortunately, Sonja was more than just discourteous – she neglected her duty to her seller and her fellow members and was in contravention of RAHB’s MLS® Rules and Regulations:

 Section 13 – Conveying Offers
13.02 A Member shall establish a method ensuring that:

(c)  in the case of multiple Offers, all Co-operating Brokerages or Members of such Co-operating Brokerages with Offers registered with such Member are informed of the existence of all other signed Offers.  Communication of this information shall be made by the Listing Brokerage to all Co-operating Brokerages without delay, after being notified of other signed Offers and prior to presentation.

If each of the salespeople in our tale – Alan, Barry, Cecilia, Denise and Edith – had all been aware there were other offers and how many there were, each would have had the chance to go back to their buyers and perhaps bring even better offers back for Sonja’s seller.  Sonja did a great disservice to her seller by not communicating as she should have, didn’t allow buyers to bring in their best offers and left fellow members in the dark about the situation.

The moral of the story:  communicate the existence of competing offers to all parties concerned.