Realtors and prospective buyers alike will soon be able to glean a little more insight into competing offers on a property as the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) announced Wednesday morning the official Canada-wide rollout of the REALTOR.ca open offer system.
The new program will see real-time offer tracking show up on a property’s REALTOR.ca listing page, but exactly how much information is displayed about the offers will vary depending on both seller preferences and location. See the Canadian Real Estate article here
This type of buying is prevalent in Australia and the company that manages the Australian system, Openn, has put together a pilot project for Canada. Here is a link to OPENN
With real estate being regulated at the provincial level, the availability of offer information will vary from province to province. “It will only be available on listings where Realtors, by way of their seller’s consent, opt to display offer details on REALTOR.ca, as permitted by provincial regulations,” a CREA spokesperson tells STOREYS. In Ontario, for example, the Real Estate Brokers Act prohibits realtors from revealing the dollar amount of competing offers, but in British Columbia, this information can be made available.
There will also be voluntary opt-in levels of transparency within the open offer tracking, brought about via a partnership with Australian property technology company Openn. In an interview with STOREYS in June, Openn’s Director of Operations for North America, Eric Bryant, explained that sellers will not be required to reveal the offer price amounts on their property, but they will have the option to do so. Credit: Storeys
