One Sentence you Need to Tell Your Buyers & Sellers

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,