Canada’s housing market keeps changing. How to navigate the bidding process
This article is part of Global News’ Home School series, which gives Canadians the basics they need to know about the housing market that they never learned in school.
It’s nearing the end of a long house hunt — you’ve found your dream home and you’re wracking your brain trying to figure out what combination of digits and conditions to put down on a legally binding document to convince someone to sell their home to you.
The bidding price is just one element of what real estate agents who spoke to Global News say can be an exciting, but at times overwhelming, process.
“This is one of the biggest investments of people’s lives on the emotional and the financial side,” says Realtor Trish MacKenzie with Royal LePage Estate Realty in Toronto. “And it takes both of those lenses to put the right number in.”
Here’s what you need to know about how to craft a bid sellers won’t ignore, from bid price and conditions down to the non-financial aspects that could sway an offer in your favour.
The bidding process varies from province to province, with some jurisdictions such as Ontario having templates that act as the basis for filling out the offer document.
This becomes a legally binding agreement once you’ve signed and submitted it to the seller, notes Elliott Chun of Partners Real Estate in Vancouver.
In addition to writing down your bid price and amount for a deposit, you’ll be specifying the schedule for when you want the deal to complete — the point at which Chun says the lenders and lawyers will typically act in tandem to transfer money and set up the exchange of keys for you to take possession.
Your bid document will also include any conditions you’re attaching to a sale — clauses that need to be fulfilled before your offer is
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