C/S = CONSEALED SALE OR CONDITIONALLY SOLD?

Home sellers can now keep conditional sales under wraps
By Mario Toneguzzi
Calgary Herald January 11, 2012

There could be fewer conditionally sold stickers on for sale signs in Calgary's real estate market this year.

Not because of declining sales, though.

A new rule change implemented by the Calgary Real Estate Board gives the seller of a property the option of keeping the conditionally sold sticker off the sign when there is a conditional offer. As well, the seller has the option to not report the conditional sale through the MLS system.

"Before it was the real estate board's rule that once a property was conditionally sold you had to report it to the board and on the MLS system," said realtor Cody Battershill with Re/Max House of Real Estate in Calgary. "What the board has done now is give sellers the option because the real estate board wants to let sellers make the best decisions for them.

"There are positives and negatives to changing it or not changing it and that's where the discussion with your realtor and your circumstances comes into play. Sellers do now have the opportunity to decide if they want to report it as conditionally sold or not."

For sellers, not reporting a conditional sale allows them to continue to market their property and have a "backup" offer in case the conditional sale falls through. But for potential buyers, without knowing that a property is conditionally sold, it could cause them grief and time lost looking at a property that really isn't available.

Todd Strong, who conditionally sold his condo through realtor Claudia Walz of Re/Max Real Estate (Central), is waiting for all conditions to be met on the sale. There is no conditionally sold sticker on his property because it's not allowed through the condo's regulations.

But if he had the choice, he said he would not have advertised the conditional sale.

He said it would be nice to have a backup offer in the event that something goes astray in the conditional sale.

"It's nice to have it out there with people looking at it," he said.

David Finch, an assistant professor of marketing at the Bissett School of Business at Mount Royal University, said there is some merit in the change for sellers wanting to have a backup in case a conditional sale falls apart.

"However, I'm not a real estate agent, but as a marketer, transparency is absolute paramount as you build that relationship in any sales cycle. People want full disclosure," he said.

"If I spend the time and the energy researching, potentially going through a property, and if it's not disclosed to me that this is conditionally sold, that's only going to have a negative impact on possibly my interest in the property but also my perception of the parties selling the property, both the agent as well as individuals.

"I suspect the first question going in when your realtor is going to look at a house will now be 'is there any conditions or has been conditionally sold?' before you even go any further down that sales cycle."

Sano Stante, CREB's president, said the board has simply brought its rules up to date.

"The custom still is that when you have a good sound offer on your house you likely will not continue to show it and market it," he said.