Photo Flooding in Merritt, B.C., is seen in this still taken from video (Big Power Films/CTV News)
First off, with the crazy storms over the last few days, I hope everyone and their families are safe, healthy, and warm! I know for me not having power for 38 hours wasn't ideal but seeing what's happening in Merritt and Abbottsford, puts everything in perspective and how we take simple things in life for granted. Real estate wise this week we are looking at the new legislation the BC Government is looking to implement, regarding the "Cooling-off Period". There are 3 aspects to their approach that they are reviewing. They are currently consulting stakeholders in the industry(which includes you the consumer) to get an idea of what this looks like and more details will follow. The three aspects of the process are: 1. Removal of Blind Bidding- this strategy is to designed to make things more transparent with the offers. 2. Condition Waiving- this strategy is believed to in some way not allow waiver of conditions and essentially is to put all purchasers in the same boat with regard to the strength of offer and give buyers a certain period of time to complete their due diligence. 3. Cooling-off Period- where a buyer who makes an offer on a home could have a certain amount of time (length of time has not been decided) to decide if they wanted to purchase the home. View the Government of BC's Press Release Here There are a number of different facts we don't know yet about what everything will look like. As there are a number of issues that haven't been answered in the press release, BCREA has created a blog post giving some additional insight on what this may look like. View BCREA Blog Post Here However, as a consumer, I would seriously look into these issues and how they may impact you. As well let the powers at be knowing your position. Everyone will have their own opinion on the matters, some of my concerns with the Cooling-off Period is that it allows buyers to make purchases on several homes (tying them up for up to a week) and potentially have no legal consequences to collapsing the sale. This also could put sellers at a disadvantage, which is half of the consumers in each sale, if the seller needs to buy as well, they will need to wait until the cooling-off period and factor this into their buying and selling process.
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