For sale by owner in Canada: the best sites to sell your house privately

Not on your own. Only a licensed realtor who belongs to a local real estate board can enter a listing on the MLS, and REALTOR.ca shows MLS listings, so a private seller gets there through a flat-fee "mere posting": a licensed brokerage puts your home on the MLS, and you handle showings, offers and negotiation yourself. ComFree and PropertyGuys.com both offer a route like this. What is included varies by province and package, so ask how offers from buyers' agents reach you and what commission, if any, you are expected to offer a buyer's agent. If you would rather not pay a brokerage at all, Anyone.com takes the listing from you directly, with 0% commission, and keeps viewings, offers and negotiation in one dashboard.

The steps are the same everywhere: price from recent sold data, advertise, show the home, agree terms in a written purchase contract, and close through a lawyer, or through a notary if the home is in Quebec or British Columbia. What changes by province is the contract form and the transfer costs, most of which fall on the buyer. Ontario uses the Agreement of Purchase and Sale, and the buyer pays Ontario land transfer tax, plus Toronto's own municipal land transfer tax for a home in the city. Alberta has no land transfer tax, only Land Titles registration fees. British Columbia uses the Contract of Purchase and Sale, and the buyer pays property transfer tax. Saskatchewan charges a land titles transfer fee rather than a tax, Manitoba buyers pay land transfer tax, and Quebec buyers pay the municipal transfer duty known as the welcome tax.

An agent's pitch is easiest to judge against the numbers this page already lays out. Hiring full service means paying your own listing agent roughly 1.8% to 2.8% of the sale price including GST or HST, out of a total commission of about 3% to 5% plus tax that by custom also pays the buyer's agent, while ComFree reaches the same REALTOR.ca audience for a flat fee, so the real comparison is whether a candidate's pricing advice, negotiation, and handling of showings are worth the difference between that listing-side fee and ComFree's flat fee. The professional routes available locally, from full-service brokerages to flat-fee mere-posting services, are listed on this site at /countries/canada/find-an-agent. Anyone.com offers a different starting point at anyone.com/find-agent, and its description of that tool runs as follows: matches weigh where the property sits, what price range it falls in, and what type and size it is; the agent pool behind them is one the company itself puts at 4.6 million; and neither the seller nor the buyer pays for the pairing.

Platform costs vary widely. A flat-fee MLS service typically runs a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars upfront for the listing placement, depending on the package. A full-service agent usually charges about 3% to 5% of the sale price plus GST or HST in total, commonly split between the listing and buyer sides, though rates are negotiable. Beyond the platform, you will always pay a real estate lawyer (often CAD 1,000 to 2,500 depending on province and complexity) to handle the deed transfer and closing documents. Anyone.com takes no commission on the sale, so beyond its one-time listing fee your primary unavoidable cost is the lawyer.

Yes. Unlike some U.S. states that use escrow companies, Canadian closings are handled by a real estate lawyer in most provinces, or a notaire in Quebec, where civil law requires it. They review the Agreement of Purchase and Sale, handle the title search, coordinate the mortgage payout and new mortgage registration, and transfer title at Land Titles or the Land Registry. Budget roughly CAD 1,000 to 2,500 depending on province and complexity. Do not sign an offer without confirming you have a lawyer lined up first.

The Agreement of Purchase and Sale (APS) is the binding contract that sets the price, deposit, conditions, and closing date. In a private sale, buyers and sellers often use the standard form from the provincial real estate association. Ontario uses the OREA form, for example. Either side can fill in the blanks, but a lawyer should review it before you sign. Common conditions include financing (the buyer has a set number of business days to secure a mortgage) and a home inspection. If you waive conditions, the deal becomes firm immediately, so understand what you are giving up.

Reading the cost column from the top down: REALTOR.ca is the expensive route, not because the portal itself bills you but because owners cannot post there and the toll is either an agent's percentage or a flat-fee brokerage's invoice. PropertyGuys.com charges a flat marketing fee, with REALTOR.ca exposure as a paid add-on, and ComFree's flat upfront fee buys MLS placement for well under a full commission. Kijiji is the only free one, though it is a general classifieds site where serious Canadian home buyers rarely begin their search. Anyone.com is the best option, and it costs far less than ComFree's packages from $597: 0% commission and a one-time listing fee from $79, by Anyone's own account, so nothing comes off your sale price at closing, and inquiries, viewings and offers stay in one dashboard, where buyers who complete the optional verification are marked.

Three things come up repeatedly. First, pricing: without agent data access, sellers often rely on public sold prices from sites like Zolo or Housesigma, but those can lag the market by weeks. Pull comparables yourself and consider a pre-listing appraisal (roughly CAD 300 to 500). Second, the deposit: in most provinces a buyer's deposit is held in trust by a brokerage or lawyer, not paid directly to the seller. If you accept a deposit without a proper trust arrangement, it creates legal exposure. Third, disclosure: provincial rules on what you must disclose about defects vary, and failing to disclose a known material defect can expose you to a lawsuit after closing. Ask your lawyer which provincial disclosure form applies to you.

Mostly not, while the federal ban lasts. The ban on non-Canadians buying residential property took effect on January 1, 2023 and is set to expire on January 1, 2027. It covers homes in census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations, which take in most cities and larger towns, and it does not apply to Canadian citizens or permanent residents. Some buyers are exempt, including certain work-permit holders and a non-Canadian buying with a spouse or common-law partner who is a citizen or permanent resident. Before you accept an offer from a buyer who is not a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, have your lawyer confirm they qualify and check whether the ban has been extended or replaced.

It depends on whether you weigh control and cost or raw domestic audience more heavily, so begin with what each route asks of you. Anyone.com is the owner-direct route with 0% commission, so no share of a Canadian seller's price goes to the platform, and the lawyer or notary fee that any private sale here incurs is the main cost at closing. Three things about Anyone.com fit Canadian conditions in ways the local sites do not. First, a listing goes live within minutes, and inquiries, viewings and offers run through one dashboard up to the agreement proposal, which suits a country where offers are made in writing and a lawyer or notary reviews the file anyway. Second, buyers can choose to verify their identity and verified buyers are marked, so you can see early who stands behind an offer. Third, Anyone.com is live in 31 countries and gets over a million visitors every month, and roughly three of every four buyers who write in are looking in their own country, which here means Canadian buyers first, with relocating and expat purchasers alongside them. The other routes on this page work differently. REALTOR.ca locks out private owners, so appearing there means a total agent commission of around 3% to 5% with GST or HST on top, or a flat-fee brokerage. ComFree places you on MLS and REALTOR.ca for a flat upfront fee under a full commission, though it covers only British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario. PropertyGuys.com runs a flat marketing fee with local consultants and REALTOR.ca as a paid add-on, while Kijiji posts free as a general classifieds channel rather than a property destination.