It’s not enough that Toronto area home-buyers are facing competition so fierce that list prices have become virtually meaningless and bully or pre-emptive offers are increasingly the norm.Now there’s an added twist.Some sellers’ agents say they will no longer notify other interested consumers when their client decides to entertain a pre-emptive bid, and not wait for the date they set to consider all offers.Ontario’s real estate rules require the property seller’s brokerage to notify all other interested buyers that a “bully” offer, usually well over the asking price for the property, is being considered.That notice allows other consumers to compete for the same property if they want to.But, in the super-heated Toronto-area market, some brokers are including a line in their listings saying they reserve the right to accept pre-emptive offers without notice.It is particularly advantageous to agents who are representing both the seller and the buyer.This is because they don’t have to split their commission.Agents “double-ending” a sale need written permission from both the seller and buyer to do so. “But that doesn’t account for people who are bidding on the house who end up losing on it because their agent isn’t the one who’s double-ending the deal,” said Kelvin Kucey, deputy registrar, regulatory compliance of the Real Estate Council of Ontario.Rules around notifying consumers about bully offers form one of the areas covered in a RECO bulletin this week which reminds agents of their obligations around competitive bids.The bulletin puts agents on notice that they, “have really got to level the playing field for consumers because this market is showing no signs of slowing down,” said Kucey.“Offer handling,” a broad category that covers bully offers, competing bids, commissions and whether realtors are properly disclosing their own inte ...
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