Members have been asking about how to deal with pre-emptive, or bully, offers. You asked, we answer.
Q. When a Seller says “No offers until …”, can I present an offer that comes in before the date specified?
A. The short answer is No. When a seller provides written instructions, via OREA Form 244 “Seller’s Direction re Property/Offers”, that offers will be held until a particular date, those instructions must be followed to the letter.
Q. What if the buyer insists on having the offer presented?
A. The buyer will have to wait with everyone else or walk away … the instructions from the Seller are that no offers will be presented until a specified date in the future.
Q. What if the Seller changes his or her mind and wants to see an offer?
A. In this case, and you are the listing salesperson, you must do two things:
- Change the remarks section of your listing to remove the “no offers until” notation
- Contact all the Co-operating Salespeople who showed an interest in presenting offers or who registered offers and arrange for a time for offer presentation of all offers
These two steps should be performed with all reasonable speed. Now that offers are being presented to your Seller, you want to make sure the Seller has the opportunity to review all offers to they can get the best outcome on the sale of their home.
(Note: as good practice, you should also contact all Co-operating Salespeople who showed the property and let them know offers are being presented – they may have clients or customers who were holding off making a decision about making an offer until closer to the date specified for offer presentations.)
Q. What about “No offers until (specified date), but the Seller will review offers prior to this date”?
A. This is a bit of an odd instruction, because it’s really saying the Seller will look at offers whenever they come in. However, if you have a Seller who mostly wants to wait for offers but will look at something that comes in before the specified date, here’s what you do:
- Have your Seller complete Form 244 “Seller’s Direction re: Property/Offers” and make a note of the full instructions in the Remarks section of the listing.
- If you get an offer before the specified date and the Seller wants to review the offer, contact all Co-Operating Salespeople who registered offers to let them know they can present their offers as well.
Again, to be sure you are being fair to everyone and you are working in the best interests of your Seller, you should also contact the Co-operating Salespeople who showed the property to let them know that offers are being presented, just in case their buyers are interested in putting in an offer.
You should be contacting the Co-operating Salespeople with reasonable speed so your Seller has the chance to review all offers and get the best outcome on the sale of their home.
Q. What do you do if someone isn’t following the rules?
A. If you find yourself in a situation where the listing brokerage didn’t let you know that offers were being presented before the time noted on the listing, you should file a formal complaint with either RAHB’s Professional Standards Committee or RECO. For more information about how to file a complaint, contact Angela at angelam@rahb.ca or 905.529.8101.