NOTE: I originally published this in May 2014. With recent talk of Mandatory Designated Representation being potentially introduced to the Ontario Real Estate industry, below is an example by me on why we need this in the Toronto marketplace.

A few weeks back an extreme example of a multiple bid scenario played out on a detached home in the Avenue Road and Eglinton Road area.

For those that may have heard, the home was listed at “not seen pricing since the year 2000” which was $699,000.  In the agent’s words, “we listed it at this price to get attention”.

10 days later, 72 offers, 71 pissed off Realtors and their clients, the Selling broker double ended the sale which then sold for 195% of the list price.

Okay, so why shouldn’t a seller want their agent to represent both them and a buyer you ask? After all, everyone thinks you will save some money off of the commission right? This often becomes the case, and most likely in the above scenario the seller might have saved 1%(?) in fees which would amount to about $14,000. Buyers also want to benefit in the savings so the sellers piece of the pie can be even smaller. Peanuts compared to the sale price and even what might have been if the agent focused all their efforts on pushing the other 71 agents harder in achieving a top dollar price.

A recent sale on a newer built house sold for about $2,300,000.00 dollars. One with a smaller lot to boot!

What if the focus was on working solely in your Seller clients’ best interest and instead of focus on saving $14,000 you could fetch and additional $50,000 or $100,000 from a motivated buyer? In the end, your client nets more money, and your focus and attention as a Realtor lies where it should be, on your Seller client.

Today I was in a similar situation where the exact same scenario could have played out. Instead, I opted to inform every agent who called on my listing as well as every potential Buyer who called without an agent, that I would only be representing the Seller in the sale. No offers would be presented by me to the Seller. Everyone would have to have their own agent.

It took a lot of effort but in the end, we had a fair and transparent offer presentation where each Buyer had their own representation, and my Seller had me. The results were amazing! The Realtors, whose clients didn’t win out, were appreciative of the fact that they all had an even and fair field to work from. My client was thrilled and was appreciative that all of my attention was focused on her and her alone.

Without a doubt I think the time has come to outlaw double ending or multiple representation in offers. Anything we can do in our industry to enhance the professionalism should be a top priority. Hopefully this way of working will catch on.