Real estate association seeks input on transparency

— The Ontario Real Estate Association is seeking feedback on whether it should push the provincial government into modernizing the real estate industry to make it more transparent.

In a white paper released Thursday, OREA said the current sales system creates “suspicion and mistrust” by forcing prospective buyers to “blind bid” because realtors cannot disclose the contents of an offer to anyone other than the seller.

“The unsuccessful buyers often feel they didn’t have a fair chance and could have bid higher if they had known what they were up against,” said OREA, in its white paper. “The winning buyer may feel they ‘overpaid’ because they were the successful offer.”

OREA’s president Ettore Cardarelli said whatever feedback OREA collects will inform the final policy proposals its board sends to the provincial government, which agreed to a review of the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act in April 2017.

While Cardarelli stressed OREA is not taking an official position on the issue, he said many buyers in favour of bringing more transparency to the bid system lost out on a home purchase and want access to what others offered, so it can inform their future bids or reveal how much they lost out by.

He said more transparency on the issue “won’t necessarily guarantee you the sale,” but makes people “feel better that they lost out in a more open process.”

Christopher Alexander, the EVP and regional director at RE/MAX, applauded OREA for debating changes to bidding, but said “it will be hard for there to be a win-win situation for buyers and sellers.”

“Someone is going to lose out,” he said. “If everyone knows what each other is bidding then sellers might feel like they lost out on some money. However, if (the system) continues the way it is, buyers often feel like they overpaid, or had they known, they would have paid more.”