Buyer's Guide

Open House: The Broker and the Seller

By Georges Matar · June 30, 2026 · 7 min read

An open house looks like neutral ground. The door is open, the feature sheets are on the counter, someone greets you and lets you wander. It is not neutral. The person greeting you is there because a seller hired them, and anything you say that day is information handed to the other side of the table. This is not a trap. It is how real estate brokerage works in Quebec, and it takes ten minutes to understand.

Who is the person at the door

The OACIQ reminds brokers that a broker or an agency may advertise an open house only if the seller’s broker is present during that open house, or is able to have another broker stand in. The reason is simple: it is the broker’s duty to protect and promote the interests of the seller, who is the client, and to be there to give relevant and accurate information about the property.

The regulator adds that, for the security and protection of the property, the broker should verify the identity of visitors and record their names in a visitors’ register. Identifying yourself on the way in is therefore expected practice.

And at the earliest opportunity, that broker owes you two things: to ask whether you are already represented by a broker, and to tell you at the same moment that they represent the seller’s interests and not yours.

Represented, or treated fairly

The OACIQ sets out a buyer’s options in three lines, and the distinction deserves a slow read.

Buyer’s broker: represents the buyer, a brokerage contract to purchase is signed, defends the buyer’s interests and advises the buyer.
Seller’s broker: represents the seller, and treats the buyer fairly.
Collaborating broker without a brokerage contract to purchase: does not represent the buyer, and treats the buyer fairly.

Or, in the regulator’s own shorthand: fair treatment equals no written brokerage contract, which equals no representation, which equals no advice based on your needs and criteria. For a broker to represent you, a written brokerage contract has to exist. A broker who shows you the house, answers your questions and seems genuinely likeable is still not representing you.

The OACIQ brochure puts it in two phrases. Fair treatment: objective information relevant to completing a transaction, respecting the rights and obligations of every party involved. Representation: strategic information, an advisory role, and the ability to negotiate in your interest.

What fair treatment still gets you

This is not nothing, and it should not be caricatured. A seller’s broker who treats you fairly must, among other things, inform and advise you objectively, demonstrate the accuracy of the information provided to you, inform you of any adverse factors affecting the property, and complete forms for you according to your wishes and present them to the seller immediately.

And they cannot require any remuneration or fees from you: their remuneration is set by the brokerage contract the seller signed.

What they will not do, and that is not a flaw

The same regulator is equally clear about the limits. Without a brokerage contract to purchase, the broker cannot advise you on the price, on comparable homes sold, on the conditions, or on the drafting of clauses in the promise to purchase, except for the usual inspection and financing clauses. They cannot negotiate on your behalf to obtain a lower price or better terms based on your criteria. They may, however, show you the property.

If you decide to make an offer through them anyway, the OACIQ describes the role precisely: complete the promise to purchase with you without giving you their opinion or advising you on the various elements, while informing you objectively about the usual clauses to use, then present it to the seller while remaining neutral and objective.

They also remain bound to their client by an obligation of loyalty. Unless the seller instructs otherwise, the broker will keep certain information confidential: the desired price, the negotiation margin, the reasons for the sale. And they may in no case disclose the content of other promises to purchase, or promote yours.

What you should keep to yourself

Here is the heart of it. The confidentiality that shields the desired price and the negotiation margin belongs to the seller, because the seller is the client. Fair treatment does commit the broker to respect the confidentiality of information entrusted to them, and to use the personal information they obtain only for the purposes for which you gave it. That is a real protection, but a narrow one: it does not turn that broker into your advisor.

So on the floor of an open house, avoid saying out loud how high you can go, the date you absolutely have to move, or that this is exactly the house you have been dreaming about. That is strategic information, and it travels in the wrong direction.

What you can do instead is ask factual questions and listen closely to the answers: age of the roof, heating source, work done with permits, known adverse factors, documents available. The broker has to be able to demonstrate the accuracy of what they tell you. Our first visit checklist covers what to look at, room by room.

The form that puts all of this in writing

There is a recommended OACIQ form for exactly this situation: the Notice from the seller’s broker to the unrepresented buyer. It invents nothing. It states in plain language that the agency or broker bound by a brokerage contract with the seller does not represent and does not defend your interests, that you will be treated fairly, and that you have been advised you could be represented by the licence holder of your choice. You acknowledge receipt by signing it.

Its counterpart on the collaborating broker’s side is the Notice from the broker without a brokerage contract to purchase. The OACIQ attaches one sentence to it that is worth memorizing: a collaborating broker without a brokerage contract to purchase is de facto working for the seller.

Double representation: banned since 2022

The amendments to the Real Estate Brokerage Act have been in force since June 10, 2022. They prohibit double representation and verbal brokerage contracts in residential real estate transactions in Quebec. One broker cannot be bound by a brokerage contract to both the seller and you, save in exceptional situations.

If it does happen, the OACIQ spells out the broker’s path: inform the parties, recommend that the buyer work with another broker, and terminate one of the two contracts under the parameters of the regulations, with no remuneration claimable after that termination.

The remuneration trap

There is one more very practical reason to announce at the door that you have a broker. Determining which broker first drew your interest to a specific property is central to a broker’s right to remuneration. It is called the efficient cause of the sale. The rules are developed by the APCIQ, and the OACIQ does not intervene in remuneration disputes between brokers or agencies.

Visiting alone with the seller’s broker and then coming back with your own can therefore create a dispute that is not yours but that lands on your transaction. If you are already represented, the OACIQ advises telling your broker before the open house. If they cannot come with you, they can notify the seller’s broker that you are coming. And if you could not reach them, say so on arrival and hand over their business card.

The short version

An open house is still an excellent way to see a lot of properties quickly. Go, look at everything, ask precise questions. But walk in knowing who works for whom, say immediately whether you are represented, and save your numbers and your deadlines for the person who signed on to defend your interests. If something worries you during the visit, reread the red flags that justify walking away.

Planning a round of open houses this weekend? Write to me before you go: we will decide together which ones are worth the drive, and I will come with you.