How to handle a bully offer when you’re holding offers

You list on a Thursday with offers held for the following Wednesday. By Saturday afternoon a buyer agent emails a strong offer with an irrevocable that runs out at nine that night. Eleven other agents have booked showings and three have told you they’re writing. A pre-emptive offer goes smoothly when the hard decisions were made before it arrived.

Settle it with the seller before you list

RECO’s guidance comes down to this: the seller decides, in writing, and the direction has to cover pre-emptive offers specifically. A short direction saying the seller won’t look at offers until a date isn’t enough. Neither is a listing note saying the seller reserves the right to look at pre-emptive offers without notice; RECO says that note could be considered misleading.

Explain how pre-emptive offers tend to arrive (early, strong, with a short irrevocable meant to close before offer night), then walk through the choices with the benefits and risks of each:

• •Does the seller want to be told about a pre-emptive offer at all?
• •Only above a certain price, or only without certain conditions?
• •If one meets the bar, will they look at it right away, or only on the offer date?
• •Do they want any offer content shared with other buyers, and if so, which parts?

Write the answers into a clear, detailed direction the seller confirms; RECO’s FAQ says a text or email is enough. RECO also encourages you to document the risks you explained.

Say the same thing everywhere agents read

Your offer remarks, showing instructions and any registration page should say what the seller decided, in the same words. On a complaint, RECO checks that the latest direction appears in all the listing notes, print and online. If your board’s form asks whether pre-emptive offers will be considered, its answer and your remarks need to agree.

A seller with a price bar is harder to describe, because you can’t publish the number. Something like “Seller may consider pre-emptive offers. All parties who have shown interest will be notified in writing of any change to the offer date” tells agents what to expect without giving away the bar. Check the wording with your brokerage.

When the bully offer arrives

You convey an offer to the seller as soon as possible, unless their written direction says otherwise. If the seller said they don’t want to hear about any pre-emptive offer, or only about ones above a price this one doesn’t reach, you don’t take it to them. If it meets the bar, or the seller asked to hear about every one, you tell them.

If the seller then wants to review it before the offer date, that’s a change to the process, and RECO expects three things:

• •A new written direction from the seller, which replaces the earlier one.
• •Updated listing notes on your board and every online platform, straight away.
• •Written notice to every interested party anyone who booked a showing, viewed the property, said they’d submit an offer or already submitted one. It gives the new date and time and says a pre-emptive offer was received. Texts and emails are acceptable. If you use an automated system to send it, check that it was delivered.

Timing the new deadline

The bully buyer’s irrevocable is built to rush you. Notice only works if other agents have time to act on it: book a last showing, talk to their buyer, write and register. The bulletins we read set no minimum notice period, so agree the new time with your seller, check what your brokerage expects, and ask the buyer agent whether the irrevocable can move to fit it.

The count, registrations and disclosure

Once there are written offers in hand, the number of competing offers goes to every buyer making one. Under RECO’s guidance a competing offer is a written offer received by the seller’s brokerage. A verbal offer isn’t one, and neither is an offer a buyer agent says is coming. If your office asks agents to register offers, a registration with no written offer behind it shouldn’t be counted.

Offer content is shared only on the seller’s written direction, and then with everyone making an offer. Nothing that identifies a buyer can be shared, whatever the seller wants. A bully buyer who doesn’t want their price passed around can talk to their agent about a confidential offer.

If your brokerage also represents the bully buyer, RECO expects you to deal in good faith, tell the other interested parties about the pre-emptive offer as soon as possible, and disclose the multiple representation to all prospective buyers.

What happens to the offer date

If the seller accepts the pre-emptive offer, the offer date is gone. Take it down on your board, change the remarks, and let every agent you notified know the property is no longer available. If the seller turns it down, or it lapses, decide with the seller whether the original date stands. If it does and the direction changes back, that’s another written direction and another round of notice. Either way, keep every offer, direction and notice with the file: on a complaint, RECO asks for the written directions and copies or summaries of every offer.

Frequently asked questions

How Listing Launchpad handles a pre-emptive offer

Listing Launchpad’s offer night was built for listings that hold offers, where a bully offer moves the deadline and the count at once. Here’s what it does for each part above.

• •Saying the same thing everywhere: the listing carries Holding Offers, Pre-Emptive Offers and the Offer Presentation Date beside its remarks, and each listing gets an offer page where you write the instructions buyer agents follow and set when submissions close.
• •The count: every registration alerts you in the app and by email with the running total, and each offer is kept on the listing’s Offers tab with its documents. You choose what the public counter and the registered agents’ emails say: the count, “Multiple offers”, or nothing.
• •The short irrevocable: the Offers tab sorts offers by the soonest irrevocable with a countdown, and the AI reads each offer uploaded through the link for its price, deposit, irrevocable, closing and conditions for you to confirm against the document.
• •The record: Export all downloads a CSV of every registration with every offer’s documents, the record of the night for your file and your brokerage.
• •The offer date afterwards: the morning after the offer date, the listing asks how it went. If the night moved, you set the new date and it asks again after that one; if nothing was accepted, it reminds you to take the offer date down on your board.

It doesn’t write the seller’s direction or send the notice to agents who only viewed the property. Those stay with you and your brokerage. Offer night is on every plan, Free included; your own logo on the public offer page needs Pro or Studio.