Q: Can sellers collect offers, require all to submit “your best offer” in writing and choose the best one?
We were told our realtor is not allowed to even know how many offers came in. Ours was a full price offer within hours of the listing- we requested the lawn tractor as an additional.
A:
This answer is made based on Oregon Law:
Technically a seller is offering to see at a specific price and you are correct that a buyer stating that they agree to buy at that price should technically be an acceptance and that makes a binding contract. But in real estate sales there are many more factors then just and offer and an acceptance concerning the sales price.
So let's say there are 5 offers for the asking price, but as is common each offer has additional contingencies. One buyer may offer to buy for cash. Another buyer may ask for 60 days to secure financing. In this example even though both buyers are offering to buy at the same price, the offers have important differences. The latter offer carries risk that it will fail because financing isn't certain yet.
Now let's go to your situation. You say that the seller listed the property for $x or but said would consider the best offer. Depending how the sales listing was worded, the listing may not have described a listing at a fixed price, but rather was a listing for the best offer at or above a certain price. In this situation the seller hasn't created a firm offer that can be accepted but rather is inviting offers to buy. This makes a situation where the buyers need to make offers and there won'g be a binding contract until the seller accepts an offer. This gives the seller more flexibility.
Also, the seller in this latter situation can consider more than the price of the offers. The seller can consider other factors such as whether the buyer has cash or needs time to secure financing. They buyer may have submitted a personal statement. I just worked on the closing of a house sale here in Portland Oregon and the buyers submitted a statement that had their pictures, a statement of what they liked about the house and how they could see their future with this particular house. I don't do a lot of sales but the realtor I was working with said apparently this type of personalized offer is real common now. So, at least in Oregon, it is allowable for buyers to customize their offer with a lot of personal detail. So apparently, in Oregon, Sellers can consider all sorts of things when deciding which offer to accept.
A: Correction: "Technically a seller is offering to sell at a specific price"
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