Blind Bidding

Are you a fan of the blind bidding in Ontario? The feelings are mixed across the industry, but I will tell you that I am not. 

Whether your buying or selling, I believe having an open bidding system would help protect everyone. 

The main argument for blind bidding is that it would infringe on sellers rights. And let me just say, I bet a few those are the shady agents that lie about offers they have to get more money. Here's the thing, as long as they have an offer, they can say what they want. If a complaint is lodged against them to RECO, RECO can't even verify what the offer was, just of the existence of the offer. I'm not saying all the agent's for blind bidding are shady, but there's an issue in the industry which I will get to in my next post. 

I believe that open bidding would actually help protect sellers too. I spoke with countless lawyers and many are telling me more and more buyers aren't able to close because of financing. People are over extending their budgets. Now say for example you're trying to buy a house and get caught up in a bidding war, are you ok with spending $50,000 more that the next offer. How about $100,000 more than the next highest offer? It happens and one of the worst situations to be in as a seller is the buyer over extending themselves and not being able to close; most of these sellers are in the process of buying their new house which then effects their financing.

I don't think open bidding would slow down the soaring house prices that much. It's all on supply and demand. Most people in the GTA are completely fine offering $20,000 over similar house that just sold just to start and in many cases if there's multiple bids, they're still fine going way over the next closest comp. I believe open bidding would just be an extra layer of protect, and piece of mind, for both buyers and sellers. 

Brian Guy

REALTOR®

Right at Home Realty Inc., Brokerage 

242 King St E, Ste 1 

Oshawa, Ont. 

L1H 1C7