Q&A: Do Listing Agents Really Lie About Having Multiple Offers?

This question comes up on almost every buyer file at some point, usually right after a listing agent says the words "highest and best." The buyer's first instinct is suspicion. Is there really another offer, or is this a bluff to push the price up? Here is the plain version.

Most of the time, the other offer is real. Inventing an offer that does not exist is a violation of the REALTOR Code of Ethics and can turn into a licensing complaint. An agent who has built a career does not put it at risk over one transaction. The Code also addresses the other side of the question: when a cooperating agent asks, a listing agent may disclose whether other offers exist, but only with the seller's permission. That means "I am not authorized to say" can be the honest answer rather than a dodge, and some sellers instruct their agent to say nothing at all.

So the real question is not whether agents lie. It is how you make a good decision when you cannot see the other side of the table. Here is the short list I walk buyers through.

First, ask in writing. Have your agent ask whether other offers have been received and whether the seller has authorized disclosure. A written question gets a written answer, and written answers tend to be careful ones.

Second, confirm the deadline. If the listing agent calls for highest and best, ask for the date and time in writing and whether the seller will review offers as they arrive or all at once.

Third, set your ceiling before you respond. Decide what the home is worth to you based on comparable sales, condition, and what your lender has approved. The number of other offers does not change what the house is worth. It only changes how you feel about it.

Fourth, be careful with escalation clauses and appraisal gap language. Both can be useful, and both can commit you to more than you intended. Ask an attorney before you sign anything you do not fully understand.

What trips people up is letting someone else's urgency set their price. The buyers who regret a purchase are rarely the ones who were misled. They are the ones who wrote a number in the heat of the moment that they would not have written on a quiet afternoon.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice.

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Jon Hegreness, REALTOR / Associate Broker, Howe Realty
(623) 826-0888 / JonHegreness@gmail.com / License BR540940000
9059 W Lake Pleasant Pkwy, B-200, Peoria, AZ 85382
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