‘It’s crickets’: How sellers are getting creative in a slow housing market

A glut of listings has some sellers, particularly in Toronto's overstocked condo market, getting creative to win over the few buyers out there in the market.

A flood of listings in many Canadian housing markets is giving buyers who can qualify their pick of the litter and is forcing some sellers to get creative to land a deal.

A glut of condos in Toronto, for example, means some sellers have to pull out unorthodox strategies to land one of the few prospective buyers in the market.

Davelle Morrison, a real estate agent in Toronto, says that one of her clients recently deployed a “reverse offer” to land the sale on a condo.

As Morrison tells Global News, the unit had a few interested buyers, but the parties couldn’t settle on a price. After another three weeks went by, she suggested her client go back to a buyer whose offer they had initially rejected and suggest that they’d now be willing to entertain a lower price.

“We put an offer in place for them and there was a little bit more negotiation,” Morrison recalls.

“And I think this time, because the property had sat on the market for a little bit longer, there was a little bit more willingness to work with either party, and we were able to strike a deal and have both parties be happy.”

While the competition for houses in the market can still be fierce, prompting bidding wars for some sought-after properties, Morrison says it’s “a lot more difficult” in the condo market. In some cases, she says, it’s hard to get even showings on condo properties in Toronto right now.

While Morrison doesn’t think reverse offers are common by any means, she argues that many sellers will have to think outside the box to land an offer.