Highest & Best - The Default Move in a Multiple Offer Market - and why it's not always the Best Move for High-End Properties

Everyone’s heard it. Multiple offers come in, the listing agent calls for highest and best by Tuesday at 5 p.m., and sellers sit back and wait for the envelopes to open. Clean. Simple. Done.

But is it always the right move? In the high-end market — where buyers are sophisticated, emotions run quietly beneath the surface, and deals are won and lost on nuance — the answer is no. Not always.

What “Highest and Best” Actually Does

When you call for highest and best, you’re essentially telling every buyer: this is your one shot, put your best number on the table, and we’ll pick a winner.

The intention is good. You want to shake out the true ceiling of what each buyer will pay. You want to stop the back-and-forth and get to the number.

But you also do something else. You take yourself out of the negotiation entirely.

Once you call for highest and best, you’ve surrendered leverage. You’ve told buyers exactly where you are in the process, that there are competing offers, and that there’s a deadline. You’ve essentially handed them a roadmap and asked them to game it — because every sophisticated buyer in the high-end market absolutely will.

The Issue with Sophisticated Buyers

In the $1.5M+ range, you’re not dealing with buyers who get swept up in the moment. These are people who have financial advisors, real estate attorneys, and often prior experience navigating competitive markets. They don’t panic-bid. They calculate.

When a sophisticated buyer hears “highest and best,” they don’t think: what is this house worth to me? They think: what’s the minimum I need to put in to win?

They’ll calibrate off whatever information they can gather — what the house listed for, how long it’s been on market, what comparable sales look like, what their agent knows about the other offers. They’re trying to beat the room by the narrowest margin possible.

You may still get a great number. But you may also leave money on the table you never knew existed.

The Case for Controlled Counter-Negotiation

There’s another way. Instead of broadcasting a deadline to the entire field, a skilled listing agent can work the room differently.

Go back to the strongest two or three buyers individually. Not with a “highest and best” call — with a targeted conversation. Let each buyer know there is serious competition. Ask them to reconsider their position. Create urgency without giving away the full picture.

This approach keeps buyers in the dark about exactly how many offers exist and what those offers look like. That uncertainty? It’s your friend. It keeps the emotional pressure on without giving anyone a ceiling to game against.

The buyer who was at $1.62M thinking about going to $1.68M? They don’t know the other offer is at $1.71M. That’s exactly where you want them.

When Highest and Best Does Make Sense

To be clear — there are absolutely situations where calling for highest and best is the right call.

When you have many offers (say, six or more), managing individual negotiations becomes unwieldy and creates liability. When buyers are clustered closely in price and you genuinely need to separate them cleanly. When the market is so frenzied that buyers expect it and have already come in at or near their ceiling.

And sometimes — particularly in the mid-market — the psychological effect of a formal deadline actually does push buyers higher than a quiet individual conversation would.

But in the high end? Where deals are fewer, buyers are cooler, and every dollar matters more? The blanket “highest and best” call deserves a second look.

What Great Representation Actually Looks Like

The highest-and-best call is often a shortcut. It’s efficient. It’s defensible. And for an agent managing a high-volume practice, it’s easy to fall back on.

But great listing representation isn’t about finding the easiest path. It’s about reading the room — understanding which buyers are emotionally invested, which ones have more to give, and how to extract maximum value from each of them without tipping your hand.

This is judgment and experience. And frankly, it’s the thing you’re hiring a listing agent for.

So the next time someone tells you “we have multiple offers, we should call for highest and best” — ask them why. Ask what they know about each buyer. Ask whether there’s a better move.

The answer might still be highest and best. But it should be a decision, not a default.