110
|
SUMMER
2015
First and foremost, what constitutes anoffer? Thiswas not necessarily
clearbefore. Isaverbalofferanoffer? IfaREALTOR
®
says theyhave
anoffercoming,does that constituteanonoffer? After July1
st
, theshort
answer is “No”. Bill 55 states that anoffer is onlyanoffer if it ismade
inwritingand signedby theBuyer.What if youasaconsumerhadpre-
sentedaproperlywrittenand signedofferwithacertifiedchequeasa
depositonapropertyyouwere interested inbuyingonly to findout that
the offer you thought youwere competingagainst was only a verbal
offer or thenotion that another offerMAYbe in theoffing?Would that
havehadaneffect on thewayyouwroteyouroffer? Of course.What
ifyouhadbeen told thatyouwerecompetingagainst7otheroffers,but
it turnsout therewasonlyone,orevennone?Would thathave flavoured
what youput inyouroffer? Again… theanswermust beyes.
This takesus to the secondcomponentofBill55. Reporting. In thepast,
therewas nomechanism for a consumer to checkonhowmanyoffers
wereactuallypresentedonaproperty. Bill 55obligates abrokerage
tokeepa full recordor summarydocument of everyoffer registeredon
aproperty inamultipleoffer format.Notonlyeveryoffer,buteveryper-
mutationof everyoffer. This is to say that thebrokeragemust alsokeep
every signbackor signback to the signback in its full formordoa sepa-
ratesummarydocument forevery instance. Thesemustbekept forape-
riod of one year following the offer acceptance date. As you can
imagine, dependingon the number of offers, this can be hundreds of
pages.
Now, howdoes thepublicaccess this information? Ifaconsumer thinks
that therewereonly twooffers insteadof the10 that the listingagent in-
dicated,howcan theyverify?Fromabrokeragestandpoint,onecannot
simply forwardother offers toa consumer or their agent. Thereare le-
gitimateprivacyconcernshere. Othermembersof thepublicshouldnot
have theirprivatebusinessairedpublicly simply to fleshout thecircum-
stances surrounding theofferprocess.
Enter RECO.
Ifaconsumer suspects that therewerenot10offersonaproperty, they
cancomplain toRECO. If RECO receivesacomplaint like this, theywill
investigate. Theywill compel the brokerage to supply an investigator
withallof theoffersandsignbacks. Theywill then report to theconsumer
that made the complaint. Theywill not report on the specifics of offers
reviewed, theywill not tell them the content of theoffers or theparties
whobrought them, but theywill say that therewere tenoffers or there
werenot. If RECO findsany irregularities, theywill act on them.
Timing isalsocritical here. Anyone that hasbeenparty toaRECOcom-
plaintknows that these thingscan takemonths towork theirway through.
RECOhowever iscommitted todealingwith this typeof complaintnot in
months, but indays. That shouldbe timelyenough, and shouldgive the
publica strongmechanism toensure that theyhavebeen treated fairly.
All enforcementandpolicyquestionsaside, it seems tome that theonus
forprovidinga levelplaying field restswith theREALTOR
®
.Clarity, trans-
parency and honesty have always been the foundation onwhichwe
need tobuildour relationshipwith theconsumer.
Whenyou lookatwhat ishappening inourmarket,youcanappreciate
whymultipleoffersand theproblemsassociatedwith themhavebecome
moreandmorecommonplace.
Area real estate sales inMaycontinued tooutpace theprior yearbya
widemarginand reflectedan increaseof10%over theprioryear. Fur-
ther,MLS
®
sales of $78.8million inMayas reportedby theSouthern
GeorgianBayAssociationofREALTORS
®
setanew record formonthly
MLS
®
sales in thearea, eclipsing theprior record set last Juneof$78.1
million.
UnitMLS
®
sales inMayof240propertiesmarkeda7% increaseover
May2014when225 saleswere reported. Demand clearly appears
tobeout-stripping the supplyas isevidencedbymanyareaproperties
sellingbothquicklyand insomecaseswithmultipleoffers.Single family
home saleswhich total 485properties year-to-dateareup21%, Con-
dominium sales appear tohave slowedwithyear-to-date sales of 171
properties reflectingamoremodest gain of 6%over the sameperiod
last year.
Wecontinue toseeaconsiderableamountof strength in theupperprice
rangesofourmarket.Year-to-date therehavebeen121MLS
®
sales re-
portedover$500,000an increaseof31%during thesameperiod last
year.Year-to-dateMLS
®
salesof$295.4million reflectsa28% increase
isdollar salesover the first fivemonthsof2014whileyear-to-dateMLS
®
unit saleswhich total 870properties reflectsa20% increase fromone
yearago.
NewMLS
®
listingactivity thisyear is thepolaroppositeofwhatweare
seeing from thesalesperspective. ThenumberofnewMLS
®
listings that
came tomarket inMay, which totalled553properties, representeda
16%decrease in the number of properties that were listed for sale in
May2014. NewMLS
®
listingsyear-to-datewhich total2,082proper-
ties reflectsa14%decrease fromoneyearago.
The lackof available inventoryoverall coupledwitha strongdemand
has hadaprofound impact on shifting conditions tomore of a seller's
market,asituation thatwehavenot seensinceprior to the last recession.
At the endofMay last year, less than30%of the properties listed for
saleonMLS
®
were selling. At theendofMay thisyear, almost42%of
MLS
®
listedpropertieshavechangedhands.
Perhaps thegreatest threat to theongoingstrengthof thecurrentmarket
maywellbenot theeconomy,an increase inmortgage ratesorerosion
in consumer confidencebut an insufficient supply tomeet the vastly in-
creasingdemand forGeorgianTriangleproperties.
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ESCARPMENT
®
real estate
