How Many Offers Do You Have?: Disclosure In Massachusetts Real Estate

You found a house you like. Your agent calls the listing agent to ask whether there are offers and roughly where they sit, because you would rather know now than spend two weeks and a inspection deposit finding out you were never in range.

The answer comes back: we cannot disclose that.

It feels like a door closing. It usually is not one. Here is what is actually happening on the other end of that call, and what to do next.

The seller decides, not the agent

A listing agent works for the seller. Every REALTOR® operates under a Code of Ethics whose first article puts the client’s interest first while requiring honest treatment of everyone else.

On the specific question of other offers, the rule says an agent shall disclose their existence when asked, with the seller’s approval. Those last three words carry the whole thing. If the seller has not authorized it, the agent has no room to decide otherwise, no matter how reasonable your question is.

So the refusal is not personal, and it is not stonewalling. It usually means one of two things. Either the seller said no, or the seller was never asked and the agent will not improvise on their client’s behalf.

The agent is not withholding information from you. They are protecting a decision that was never theirs to make.

Five better questions

Asking what the offers are is the least productive version of what you actually want to know. These get further.

None of those ask anyone to cross a line. All of them tell you something real.

The part that catches buyers off guard

Confidentiality does not run both directions the way most people assume.

The Code requires buyer representatives to warn their clients about this, and it is worth reading twice: sellers and their agents may not treat the existence, terms, or conditions of your offer as confidential, unless confidentiality is required by law or by an agreement between the parties.

Sellers are also not bound by the REALTOR® Code at all. It governs agents. A seller is free to shop your offer, and their agent may be instructed to do exactly that.

This is not a reason for alarm. It is a reason to write an offer you are comfortable having seen, and to decide your number based on what the house is worth to you rather than on what you imagine someone else is doing.

One right you do have

Once you have submitted an offer, your agent can make a written request to the listing broker for written confirmation that it was presented to the seller, or written notice that the seller waived having offers presented.

That is spelled out in the Code and it does not depend on anyone’s goodwill. If you ever find yourself wondering whether your offer actually reached the person it was written for, this is how you find out.

If you are the one selling

This is your call, and it should be made deliberately rather than in the middle of a busy Saturday.

You can authorize your agent to confirm offers exist. You can authorize sharing where they sit. You can authorize neither. Each choice produces a different result, and there is no universally correct answer. Confirming competition can push buyers to their best number, or it can send them looking at other houses. Saying nothing keeps your position protected, and it can also leave a buyer guessing themselves out of the running.

Our team walks through the options with every seller before the listing goes live, and we do it over email so the decision exists in writing with a date on it. Not because anyone expects a dispute. Because an instruction that consequential should never come down to what two people remember about a phone call.

One rule we hold to regardless of what a seller decides. Whatever gets shared, gets shared with everyone. Telling one buyer’s agent something we would not tell the next is how a defensible process becomes an indefensible one.