If you place a home on the open market, you can expect to receive more than one offer for your home, especially if you own a nice home. This occurs because there are more people looking to buy homes than homes available, which is excellent news for the seller. Having multiple offers pushes the value of your home upward and allow for you to accept only certain prices and certain conditions, which clearly puts you in control of the sale of your home.
How can I make sure my home will attract multiple offers?

Start by offering an excellent price on your home and you will see a number of offers come in immediately. It is important not to set the price too low because then you will not receive fair market value. Offer a fair price and people will want the house and then you can choose the best offer that comes in.
Do I have to accept the offer with the highest price?

There is no rule that says that you have to accept any offer, as sometimes the most qualified buyer is not the person who offered the most. You can also present a counteroffer to any of the bidders, which will also help you in getting the price and the terms that you desire. Be careful when doing this, however, as some agents will charge you commission for turning down an offer that is the full price of the home. You do not want to be greedy because that can cause you to lose a great deal of money. Sometimes greedy can cause people to lose interest and this interest may be hard to get back afterwards.
My agent says I should receive all my offers by fax, rather than having the buyers' agents present the offers. Is that okay?

It is ok to accept these terms, but it is not necessary. It may be a time saver in some situations, but in others it causes problems because of a lack of firsthand communication. There is only so much than can be included in a fax and questions cannot be answered right away, so this could lead to a lack of information getting through and some confusion in some cases. One option is to have all of the offers sent to you via fax and then have the best offers presented by a realtor. As the seller, it is up to you to get what you want from your real estate agent.

One of the buyer's agents is from the same brokerage company as my agent. Should I give extra consideration to this "in-house" offer?
No, each and every offer should be looked at in the same manner, with no special considerations to these types of offers. You are doing yourself a disservice if you accept an offer without looking at what else is out there, so never give any sort of special consideration to anyone. Some brokers may give you a break on the commission for an in-house offer, so factor this is when evaluating the offer.
Can I counter more than one offer?

Yes, but be sure that you do not accept multiple offers because this is illegal and can lead to major problems for you. In order to protect yourself, there are standard sheets that you can use that will state that the counteroffer sheet must be signed by you afterwards in order to be deemed as accepted.
Can I back out of my escrow with buyer A and accept a new higher offer from buyer B that my agent just received?