Hyyve listing-bid platform puts home sellers in control

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Most Canadians still not feeling confident about the largest financial transaction they will ever make,  says Hyyve co-founder

Technology advances are changing the way people sell and buy homes drastically so much so that real estate agents have every right to feel a little frightened about what might lie ahead for them.

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An example of what is now possible as a result of artificial intelligence (AI) and other breakthroughs, occurred in early July when a tech organization called Hyyve Inc. went live in the Toronto market with what it described as “Canada’s first real estate agent listing-bid and performance-driven platform.”

According to a release from the firm, it is “free for sellers to use, enabling them to receive upfront cash and compare side-by-side proposals from top agents competing to earn their listing – a bold, new model putting transparency and performance at the centre of the home-selling process.”

The platform launch included 500 “invite only” realtors and home sellers with the latter able to create pre-listings that contain images, videos and details about the property.

Sellers, the release states, “then receive bids that highlight agent credentials, regulator board compliance, ratings, and value propositions, then sign a standard listing agreement with their chosen agent. The agent’s bid is held in trust until the home sells, or the listing expires, with full refunds if the seller breaches the listing agreement.”

On the day it went live, Hyyve also released its 2025 Home Seller Insights Survey. Conducted in partnership with pollster Angus Reid, results indicated that 48 per cent of sellers chose an agent based on referrals from friends or family. However, upwards of 41 per cent indicated they would not use the same agent again.

Based on a survey of 508 individuals from across Canada with 208 of those residing in Ontario, other key findings revealed that 31 per cent spend only one-to-three hours researching their new real estate agent, 34 per cent spend 15 hours or longer researching a new car or post-secondary education, while 26 per cent spend anywhere between four and seven hours when it comes to researching travel destinations.

Selling a home, says Patrick Armstrong, the CEO and co-founder of Hyyve, “is the largest financial transaction most Canadians will ever make, yet many are doing so without the tools or trust they need to feel confident.

“This survey reveals that finding a real estate agent is still largely based on referrals, yet nearly half of those surveyed would not use the same agent again.”

Asked if he was surprised by the fact 41 per cent figure regarding agents, he said he was not because “referrals do not mean that is the best in anything. It’s just sort of a warm introduction, but it doesn’t signal any kind of merit or anything beyond that to me.”

Armstrong added that anyone selling their home should “benchmark any referral against others, just like you would do for somebody renovating your house. You get three quotes and pick the one that works the best. In this case, you probably need more than three quotes. You need a bunch of people competing for your business, because competition will drive up quality of the service.”

Of those people surveyed, upwards of 55 per cent indicated that “they plan to sell their homes sometime within the next two years,” while “70 per cent say the ongoing Canada-U.S. trade war has not influenced that decision.”