I haven’t posted about real estate for a while because a) I’ve been trying to figure out where this market is headed and b) I created a publishing imprint in the late summer called ReBound Press! I’ll tell you about that first, and then I’ll discuss one of the changes to the Ontario legislation that governs realtors that kicked in on December 1st. Most of the changes are backroom stuff that won’t change the way you buy or sell your home, but there is a major change with respect to offer presentation that I’ll get to shortly.
But first, ReBound Press! Many of you know I’m a mystery author — my debut novel, THE BEGGAR’S OPERA was shortlisted for a UK Debut Dagger Award which led to it being published around the world (Netherlands, Norway, Germany, the UK, Israel and the Czech Republic) as well as in the US and Canada, thanks to a two book deal with Penguin Canada. It won the Giller Prize Reader’s Choice Award and was nominated for a bunch of others. The next three books in the Inspector Ramirez series (set in Cuba) were also shortlisted for a number of awards and readers loved them — the series received critical acclaim.
The last two books, HUNGRY GHOSTS and UMBRELLA MAN, were published by Simon and Schuster Canada, and both hit #7 on the national bestseller list within a week of their release. The problem was not enough readers bought them for Simon and Schuster Canada to keep them in print and I was getting busier with real estate, where it was actually possible to earn a living, unlike from writing, so I stopped writing for seven years.
Last fall, though, I got an idea for a book based on the LRT scandal in Ottawa and wrote a fifth novel called SHADOW PLAY. Simon and Schuster read it and gave me a lengthy response about all the things they loved about it (they thought it was a really good book) but they declined to publish it because they didn’t think it would be a bestseller, based on my past track record of sales.
And because I couldn’t change that record, I decided to create ReBound Press and publish it myself. (Ironically, SHADOW PLAY sold enough copies that if Simon and Schuster had picked it up, it would have hit the national bestseller list. But that’s based on volume and velocity within any given week, so don’t get too excited!)
I only sell online through reboundpress.com because bookstores generally want a 45-50% discount from the list price and I can’t afford that. As a very small publisher, I’m dealing with much smaller economies of scale than a big publisher, and given the cost of distribution and the right of booksellers to return unsold books at publisher’s cost, I thought I would try a new model.
So far, it’s doing well and readers love the new book — it has a 4.93/5 rating on Goodreads, which is incredible! I also reprinted HUNGRY GHOSTS (they gave me my reversionary rights back to it and UMBRELLA MAN.) I hope to have UMBRELLA MAN back in print early next year.
Here are the covers for HUNGRY GHOSTS and UMBRELLA MAN: I’ve been working with a wonderful graphic designer in Alberta named Terry Smith. You can check out reboundpress.com for more details about the books, reviews etc. and how to order them if you are interested!
Now that I have things on that front under control, I can take some time to tell you about the legislative change in the new TRESA legislation that could have the most potential impact on the real estate market.
In a multiple offer situation, the seller now has the right to decide (without buyer’s consent) to disclose any or all parts of an offer or even something from one offer and something else from another offer, to other interested buyers at seller’s sole discretion. So they can release information, for example, about the highest price in an offer they’ve received, but not necessarily that it’s a conditional offer. Or they can release a closing date, or the amount of a deposit from one, and something entirely different about another. It’s entirely up to them and they can decide at any point in the process to either do this or to change their mind and not continue it, even if they’ve already started disclosing.
We had some discussion today at the office about whether a buyer who puts in a high offer might want to include a clause saying that if the seller discloses any information about their offer, their offer will be null and void.
The problem is, of course, that the seller has not accepted the buyer’s offer, so there is no privity of contract binding the seller to that term. On the other hand, if the seller wants to disclose that information anyway, and are prepared to take the chance on losing that offer if it turns out that clause is considered valid, then they have to disclose to other buyers that they now have one fewer offer than they had to disclose. Do they have to disclose it’s that highest offer that dropped out? No one really knows.
My concern about this change is that it puts control in the hands of the seller, who will act in their own interest, and gives no control at all to the buyer. And yet in multiple offer situations, it’s the buyer who wants (and arguably needs) more information about what they’re competing against in order to feel treated fairly by the process.
A lot of agents think we should all include the “disclose it and lose it” clause in all our offers as a way of hampering the seller’s ability to disclose details of an offer to other buyers. Others think that it’s going to be quite a balancing act, particularly if there are two or more close offers and one has that clause and the other doesn’t–consensus seemed to be that you could release the price in the one that didn’t have the clause but the other buyer with the same price won’t know you didn’t disclose theirs after they had expressly said not to, so it could get messy.
I would say that all of this has to roll out on the ground before we will know how to advise our sellers and our buyers, and luckily the market is slow right now, so we’re not seeing a lot of multiple offers, but but I think it has the potential when the market picks up to create some real problems.
A final point? The same duty of confidentiality about personal information remains — a seller can’t disclose to another buyer your name or any identifying details.
Now go buy some books, LOL!
Kiss and Sell 