The Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) is recommending the province adopt a new open bidding process that could be a game changer for home buyers, who are currently forced to bid blind against competing offers in Toronto’s hot housing market.Under the current rules, realtors aren’t allowed to share the details of an offer with anyone other than the home seller. That means consumers, facing competition from other buyers, have no idea what money or conditions they are bidding against.The blind process has been blamed for driving up home prices in particularly fierce competition such as that seen in the Toronto-area real estate market in 2016 and early 2017, when it was common for a property to attract a dozen offers, sometimes more.The market has since cooled, but less heated competition for homes continues, particularly in the city of Toronto.“This would allow for all parties to put everything on the table and have a fully transparent offer process if they so chose,” said OREA president Tim Hudak.A more transparent bid process is one of OREA’s 37 recommendations to the Ontario Progressive Conservative government, which is expected to update the 2002 Real Estate and Business Brokers Act (REBBA) that governs how real estate is transacted in the province. It’s not clear when that will happen.“We are still in the process of being fully briefed on this file. We will provide updates once we have further information,” said an email from David Woolley, spokesperson for the Ontario Minister of Government and Consumer Services Todd Smith.The former Liberal government started the process, raising the fines for realtors found violating REBBA. But their proposed changes to rules allowing one realtor to represent both buyer and seller were not enacted before this year’s change of government.Opening up offers to competing buyers doesn’t guarantee the selling price of a home won’t rise just as it does here whe ...
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