Multiple offers in Ontario: how open bidding works under TRESA

Ontario's Trust in Real Estate Services Act changed how competing offers can be handled. Sellers may now choose to disclose the substance of competing offers, which is often called open bidding, provided the process follows the rules and personal information is protected. Sellers can also still run a traditional blind process.

If you are bidding, ask your representative directly which process the seller has chosen, because it changes strategy. In a blind process you are pricing against uncertainty; in an open one you are pricing against known terms.

Either way, decide your maximum and your minimum acceptable conditions before offers are presented, and write them down. Competitive rooms are designed to move you past both.