Delayed Offers Addendum

The addendum indicates that all offers will be held until a specific date/time, and that the seller and listing agent/broker agree that offers will not be discussed or reviewed prior to that date/time. The date that appears on the addendum is the date/time that is posted on the MLS and serves as the deadline for cooperating brokers to submit their offers. It doesn’t mean that offers must be formally presented at that time though.

If, for example, the agreed upon date/time was May 26, 2021 at 4:00 p.m., the agent could call the seller at that time (4:00 p.m.) to share that a total of 9 offers were received.

If time is needed to organize those offers, then the seller and the agent could agree to meet at a later time for the formal presentation of those offers (6:30 p.m., for instance).

Occasionally the MLS will receive a listing that displays two dates (deadline and presentation time), but since that can be problematic, MLS Staff is compelled to amend the listing to reflect only the date that appears on the Addendum.

The risk in displaying two dates on the MLS is that it leads to confusion and some agents might try to push the envelope. For example, if a listing said that offers were due by May 26 at 4:00 p.m. and that the seller would review them on May 26 at 6:30 p.m., there would surely be agents who would try to still submit offers after the 4:00 p.m. deadline but before the 6:30 p.m. presentation to the seller. Those offers might be missed altogether if the listing agent was busy organizing the offers received before the deadline or was in route to the presentation appointment.

It is much cleaner to publish only the date that has been identified by the seller on the addendum as the deadline for holding offers.

Whether the agent chooses to meet with the seller at that time or a bit later is up to the agent and the seller, but the cooperating brokers and their buyers will all be working in good faith based upon the same date/time.