Edited in 2026.
Anyone who watched a neighbour’s house sell in 2021 or 2022 remembers the scene: cars lining the street all week, and on offer night, an eye-watering 20 to 30 offers landing on a modest, suburban home.
It’s 2026 now, and that kind of frenzy is behind us in most neighbourhoods. But in genuinely high-demand pockets, bidding wars are still very much alive. There are two distinct kinds:
1. Manufactured bidding wars: a seller intentionally prices below market value to generate attention and hold offers for a set date, hoping to sell above asking.
2. Natural bidding wars: a home is priced at fair market value, but a genuine lack of inventory, or something extraordinary about the property, attracts multiple offers even though it was not the seller’s intention to receive more than one offer at a time.
Because offer night can also happen spontaneously, sometimes the same day a home hits the market, think of this as a general reference, not a script. Always lean on your Realtor’s professional advice.
Why Do Agents Price Homes to Attract Multiple Offers?
One of the first things I was taught as a new agent was: a home is only worth what a willing buyer will pay and a willing seller will accept. You can’t force a buyer to pay more than they’re willing to, and a seller can’t be forced to accept an offer they don’t want. The two sides both need to work towards an acceptable offer for both parties, which includes a combination of offer price, deposit, conditions, and offer terms.
There are two ways to get both sides to a number they’re comfortable with:
- The traditional approach. A seller lists at market value and waits for offers as they come in, then negotiates back and forth over a few days until both sides land on common ground.
- The bidding war approach. A seller lists below market value and sets a specific date and time to review offers (say, one week after listing, at 7pm). There might be one offer that night, or ten, either way, the seller has set the terms of the negotiation upfront: bring your best offer, and if it meets expectations, it gets accepted. A buyer in this situation should only offer what they are comfortable paying for the home. In very heated markets, sellers prefer this method because buyers jump to the highest price they would be willing to pay for the home. In slower markets, the opposite happens… buyers hold the upper hand because there’s more inventory for them to choose from, and they can take their time to negotiate with a seller.
Offer Registration: What Happens Before Offer Night
Once a buyer’s agent signs an offer, it’s officially “registered” with the seller’s agent. At that time, the existence of the offer is disclosed, but not its contents. As soon as the first offer is registered, the seller’s agent typically reaches out to every other agent who’s shown the property, letting them know an offer is in and confirming when offers will be presented. Any additional offers get registered the same way as they come in, right up until the scheduled offer time.
Now, it’s quite difficult to gauge how many offers a property will have, because some buyers agents do not register their offer at the designated time. Instead, they wait until offers are being presented to send their offer in, thinking they will have an advantage because their clients made their decision on pricing and terms after knowing exactly how many offers were being reviewed that night.
However, the selling brokerage must disclose the total amount of offers at all times. So last-minute offer submissions will be disclosed to all potential buyers who have sent in an offer.
What a Strong Offer Actually Looks Like
In an ideal bidding war, the offers a seller receives will typically:
- Have no conditions attached
- Come in meaningfully above asking price
- Match the seller’s preferred closing date
- Include a sizeable deposit, commonly at least 5% of the purchase price, via certified cheque or bank draft
Now, an offer doesn’t have to be firm, or meet all the seller’s wants/desires, to win in a bidding war. The sellers are reviewing all offers and making a decision based on merit. The seller might accept the lowest offer they receive if it matches their dates, and has no conditions; or, a seller might accept the highest offer, even though it has conditions, because to them, the additional money is worth the risk the buyer’s pull out on one of their conditions after buying the home.
Your Choices on Offer Night
Once offers are presented, a seller generally has four options:
1. Accept the highest and best offer
2. Ask everyone to improve their offer.
3. Ask only the top few offers to improve.
4. Negotiate directly with one specific buyer.
Blind Bidding vs. Open Bidding: What Changed in 2023
As of December 1, 2023, under Ontario’s Trust in Real Estate Services Act (TRESA), sellers have two options for how a bidding night is run:
- Blind bidding (the traditional approach).Competing offer details stay confidential, other bidders are only told how many offers exist, not their terms.
- Open bidding. The seller agent can disclose some or all offer details, including price, closing date, and conditions, to other bidders, as long as the same information is shared with everyone. Buyer names and other personal details are never disclosed though.
The seller decides which approach to use, must give that direction in writing, and can change their mind at any point in the process.
In practice, open bidding remains rare in our market. The seller can chose to open or close the bidding process at any time, and for most buyers, opening it is not in their best interest, because the seller could use the contents of their offer to push up other bidders.
Selling A Home Via Auction In Ontario
It’s important to note open bidding is not the same as an open auction (where everyone yells out their price in real time). The open bidding process in Ontario is used to the seller’s best interest, since the seller’s agent can disclose one, or multiple, parts of a single, or multiple offers, as long as the same information is shared with all bidders. How that works in reality is this:
Imagine the seller receives 4 offers. One offer is $1.2m, but has 3 conditions and the closing date is in 9 months.
The second offer is $1m, but is firm and the closing is in 2 months.
The third is $1.1m, but it has 1 condition and is closing in 3 months.
The seller’s agent can make a disclosure: “Of the received offers, the best terms are, price at$1.2m, no conditions, and the best closing date is 2 months”. All of this is true, and if you put yourself into the buyer’s shoes, it looks like there *could* be a $1.2m, firm offer closing in 2 months…. so all three buyers are pressured to improve their offer.
Now, you can sell a home via auction. Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, a sister company of the auction house of Sotheby’s, even has a process to do it. But the fees are substantially higher, so we’ve never personally had a client choose that path.
Can Holding A Bidding War Backfire?
Yes. Pricing a home 10–20% below market value isn’t a guaranteed formula for a bidding war… it’s a calculated strategy with real risk. The biggest risk today is a genuine lack of buyer interest, or buyers who are simply tired of “seller games” and skip manufactured bidding wars. A bidding war should only be run on a property where there’s a real, current scarcity of comparable homes.
There’s also a timing risk: a home running a successful bidding war typically stays on the market for only 5–7 days. In that window, the single highest-paying buyer in the entire market might not even be actively shopping yet. By limiting the process to buyers who happen to be looking in that exact week, sellers can miss out on a stronger buyer who would have been ready a week or two later.
The Three Ways Offer Night Can Go
One of three things will happen on offer night:
1. Multiple offers are registered and submitted. The bidding war plays out as intended.
2. One offer is submitted. You can accept, negotiate, or decline.
3. No offers come in. Even in the hottest market, some homes received no offers because another home in the neighbourhood caught all the attention. If this happens, it’s time to revise the bidding war/offer strategy with your agent and see about adjusting in real-time to catch a stray buyer from the other bidding war.
The Best Way to Reach a Strong Sale Price
Across every market condition, a few things consistently make the biggest difference:
- Pricing the home to appeal to genuinely qualified buyers
- Creating a fair, level playing field for every interested party
- Professional photography and multimedia that actually showcases the home’s best features
- Clearly setting expectations in advance for exactly how offers will be handled
Final Thoughts
A well-run offer night comes down to preparation: a clear pricing strategy, a clear sense of what a strong offer looks like, and an honest plan for how you’ll handle each of the three ways the night can go. If you’re preparing to list and want to talk through your pricing and offer-night strategy, contact us today.
