If you are or ever have been in the market to buy a home, you might have seen a property on realtor.ca that is actually not able to accept an offer. Confused? Let me clear this up for you. There are several scenarios that our buyers have come across when they can’t make an offer on a property that looks as if it’s for sale on realtor.ca. There are certain things that only Realtors can see when it comes to listed property. To the public, it appears that something is for sale when it might actually not be.
Firstly, at times Sellers who once wanted to sell their home and signed a contact with a Brokerage to represent them in the sale decide to no longer sell. In this situation, a Brokerage might choose to put the property on what we call a DO NOT SHOW. The property stays advertised on realtor.ca but is not actively “on the market”. The Sellers may have decided not to sell the home or the Sellers may have had a conditional offer pending the sale of their home in on a property and were not able to sell in time to meet their condition and were bumped, thus loosing out and not having anything lined up to purchase. Sometimes a DO NOT SHOW status is removed and a property can then be actively for sale again.
Next, some Sales Representatives will start advertising a property on realtor.ca that is not actually being shown or accepting offers. These properties are ones where the Seller isn’t ready for showings or is holding off for various reasons. Typically there is instructions with these properties that only Realtors can see that provide guidelines and information about when showings start or when offers will be reviewed.
Finally, the Seller has already accepted an offer. Most times when a Seller has accepted a conditional offer the Sellers hands are tied. The ball is in the buyers court and the buyer then has the agreed upon number of days to firm up (meet conditions). More often than not, once a home has an accepted offer on it, the Buyer ends up making it theirs. In a scenario when the home is conditionally sold, many sellers no longer wish to show their home as they can’t accept an offer. In the event that the accepted offer contains a condition of a sales of the buyers property, there is typically an escape clause, allowing another buyer to offer on the property, however, the first Buyer would have a predetermined (typically 24-48 hours) to either firm up or release the contract.
So before you fall in love with something you see on realtor.ca make sure the home is still available or still actively for sale!
