Recently in Ontario a complaint was logged with OREA by a home buyer who saw the house they just purchased being advertised as “Just Sold” on a Realtors website. This according to them an invasion of their personal privacy, even though no one could possibly know who the purchaser was by simply seeing a photo of the house with “Just Sold” marked on it. Never the less, this slight ruffling of feathers for one consumer, has caused a major change for Realtors in Ontario, questioning whether or not they can still display their “Just Sold” listings without legal ramifications from paranoid home buyers and OREA.

As the saying goes “There is more than one way to skin a cat” and surely there is a work around solution to inform both buyers and sellers that their property will be displayed at the Realtors discretion as a marketing tool once the home has been sold. One such workaround is to add a clause to the       “Agreement of Purchase and Sale” that both parties must sign.

By incorporating this simple clause:

“Seller & Buyer hereby allow the Listing Brokerage to market the subject property as a sold property after the transaction is closed, and include the information in the company’s sale brochure and/or websites.”

You will eliminate any future ramifications because you were given consent, by both parties.

At RealtySites PLUS , we have had many calls with concerns from our clients who thought they could no longer display their “just sold” listings on their websites, but the simple solution for them, and for you is to get that clause signed and you will have no problems.

For Realtors outside Ontario where this may not apply yet, I recommend that you also have a clause like the one above in your “Agreement of Purchase and Sale” as goodpractice that will keep your clients well informed of your intentions,

Terry LeClair

Broker

Ok I think its time to rant again. I have to tell you as the years pass in this business I get more and more disappointed with our industry. I realize now more then ever that I truly respect my fellow colleagues who have been in this business and persevered through all of the hurdles and changes that have been thrown at them over the last 20-30-40 years. One thing that really makes me shake my head is our industries work ethic.

Some of you “old timers” (I say this very respectfully) will remember the days when you hand wrote offers!! Hand written offers, you’re kidding me! Then along came something called the “SelectType” typewriter now that was technology…every offer and listing hand typed! No word processing, no cut and paste, no data base storage…just elbow grease and good old hard work…Now this is not what has me so ticked off. I am ok with technology helping make things easier and more efficient but where I have a problem is Agents who have a total disregard for Irrevocable dates and times.

For those clients out there who do not know what an “Irrevocable” date and time is, it is the time that the Seller or Buyer has to respond to an offer that has been presented or signed back to them.  So if I present an offer to an agent there is a time that the offer will expire. That offer HAS to be dealt with (either accepted or signed back) by that date and time or the offer becomes null and void. It frustrates me to no end how often recently agents have just ignored Irrevocable dates and  times and have worried more about their personal schedules then their clients best interest.

For you newer agents in the business (less then 7-10 years) we use to always go and present offers to the Sellers and Sellers Agents but due to technology and laziness we fax the offer and let the agent deal with it. Its bad enough we don’t present but when we ignore irrevocable dates and times we are literally putting our clients in legal jeopardy.

Bottom line is this…Clients hold your Agents accountable to meet the Irrevocable dates and times and Agents stop being lazy and/or inconsiderate and make sure you do your best to deal with your offers in the time allotted. The consumer expects us to represent and protect their interests in a professional manner and this is one of the most abused areas of real estate I have seen in the past 16 years.

TLC