When do You Tell the Other Agent You're Submitting an Offer?

Agents get so enthused if they think their buyer's are ready and then they deflate. I will only let my sellers know we have an offer after I have received it, reviewed, checked the financials and then we talk.

I once had an agent tell me she HAD an offer and wanted to meet. Turned out she neither had the written offer or a buyer who was ready to meet. Will I remember this agent? You bet!

If you're gonna talk the talk, you need to walk the walk.  If plans change, the courteous and professional thing to do is let the other party know.

Cathy, after the offer is written and I'm getting ready to email over, I send a text saying "Offer just emailed." That's it. Not a minute before.

A current annoyance is getting an offer emailed with no phone call or heads up that it is coming. What if I am away from the office and out of cell range. Need to let the other agent know it is on the way.

Cathy, my policy has always been to tell the agent when I have the signed offer in hand. I recently violated that policy. I had created the offer, and I was just waiting for the husband to get home from work to sign the docs. Of course, I told the agent it was coming. When the husband and I met up, the wife was late, so we waited for about a hour. She finally shows up shaking. She had just totalled her car. The husband wouldn't follow through. Back to my old policy.

Dear Cathy,

As soon as necessary.

Cathy, immediately prior to sending an offer, I call the listing agent and share the highlights of the offer.  I send the offer and request acknowledgment of the receipt of the offer.  Depending on the situation, I may advise a listing agent that my client has a level of interest, so the agent will advise me, if other offers are forthcoming.

When I call to give the listing agent a head's up we do have intentions of writing up an offer.  Unfortunately, there have a few times -- rare -- that it didn't get written.

Cathy, once my buyers inform me that they want to write an offer, I do prepare the offer as well as call the listing agent that offer is coming soon.

Once I have the offer signed by my clients, and I'm all ready to hit the send button, then I call the listing agent, let them know it's on the way, and I hit send.  I do the same for rental appilcations.

I've had too many clients change their mind after they get back home.

Cathy, I'm in total agreement. I get feedback all the time that we'll be receiving an offer and then nothing! I don't tell my clients that we have an offer until I actually have on in hand. And I never tell another agent I'm sending an offer until I know I'm sitting down with my clients to write it.

Congratulations on your blog being featured. I had to come back to add a second comment. I think you hit a topic that we all face. Have a great day

I will text or call an agent as soon as I email it to them.  No reason to get their hopes up and then have a buyer back out of writing one.   

I always call the listing agent as we sit down to write the offer- first to find out if they have any other offers and second- so we don't waste our time if it is already under contract and they just didn't change the status in the computer.

This season, with so many multi-offer situations, I call the agent as soon as my client shows significant interest. At that point I'm only finding out if there are other offers working. In one case, we found out a contract had been signed three days before. (Uhhh, really? You couldn't update the MLS???) Another time, we found multiple offers were to be presented to the owner in four more hours. We quickly prepared the paperwork and won the bid. My clients are happily settled in that home today.

So the short answer is I call the other agent with questions first but only when my client shows signficant interest.

I tell the realtor that I am meeting my clients to discuss writing an offer, and that it is possible that I will have one.  At that time I check to see if there are any other offers or anything else I should know about the property.  I never say I actually HAVE an offer until I have one, but I need to give them the heads up that one could be coming in case the seller cannot be reached, or to find out if there is another offer already. 

HI Cathy!  Best advice ever!  Great post, too, and I agree 100%. Congrats on the feature!

I will notify a listing agent that an offer is coming once I start actually wriing the offer.  That way, as you said, if it takes a day to submit, the listing agent and seller do not accept another offer.  With the way the market is today, we are seeing multiple offers on a lot of listings, and if I have an interested buyer, I want the listing agent to know before a different purchase contract is signed by the sellers.

I only tell a Sellers agent that an offer is coming when I am sure there will be one. Buyers sometimes let their enthusiasm get out of check.