Buying
Buying a house without a realtor in Canada
REALTOR.ca does not carry homes sold privately, and it gives you no filter to find the few that slip through.
English
Where private sellers actually list in Canada
Each of these is a separate pool. A saved search on one tells you nothing about the others, so set up alerts on every one you intend to use.
- Anyone.com Listed by the owner
Homes put up by the owners themselves, in Quebec and across the rest of Canada. You message the owner and make your offer in the same place, with no brokerage sitting between you. Nothing here is a mere posting you have to decode first.
More than 31 million active listings across 31 markets, agent-represented and owner-listed together. REALTOR.ca carries only listings placed by CREA members, and CREA counted about 205,000 homes on all Canadian MLS systems at the end of July 2026.
Search owner-listed homes ↗ - REALTOR.ca Owners can list, for a fee
Buyer filter None. There is no filter for private sellers anywhere in the search.
Listings come only from CREA members, so an owner needs a licensed brokerage to post one. The workaround is a mere posting: a flat-fee brokerage puts the listing up and does nothing else, for roughly C$799 to C$999. You can recognise one by a line in the description telling you to visit the realtor's website for more information. That sentence is doing a lot of work. It is the only public marker separating a seller handling their own sale from one paying full commission.
- DuProprio Owners can list
Buyer filter The whole site is private sellers, so no filter is needed
Quebec only, and large. DuProprio listed 7,720 properties when we counted, against 36,142 on Centris across the province. None of it reaches REALTOR.ca. Its advisors are not licensed brokers and cannot negotiate for you.
- Kijiji Owners can list
Buyer filter Search "for sale by owner" inside the Real Estate category
Free, unstructured and genuinely used. Ontario carried about 2,365 owner-posted house ads when we looked, Alberta 546, the Toronto area 472. Nothing is verified, so treat every listing as a stranger's claim until your lawyer checks the title.
- PropertyGuys.com Owners can list
Buyer filter Private listings only, by design
Flat-fee, franchised across most provinces. It will also place a seller's listing on REALTOR.ca through an affiliated brokerage, which means some of its inventory appears in both places.
- ComFree Owners can list
Buyer filter Private listings only
Back in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario under its original founders, after the old ComFree was absorbed into Purplebricks and wound down. It charges buyers a flat fee and rebates the buyer-side commission it collects.
How many homes this really covers
No one publishes a reliable national figure for how many Canadian homes sell privately, and the numbers circulating on private-sale websites have no source behind them. The one ratio that can be counted is Quebec's: 7,720 DuProprio listings against 36,142 on Centris. Outside Quebec the private share is small enough that you should expect to search the ordinary listings too.
Trust in Real Estate Services Act, phase two
Ontario buyers must sign a written representation agreement before an agent works for them, and that agreement sets what the agent is owed. If the seller offers less than your agreed rate, you owe the difference. Sign 2.5 percent, buy a home offering nothing, and the shortfall is yours in cash. British Columbia works differently: a buyer agency agreement is not mandatory there, though written disclosure of who the agent represents is, and dual agency is restricted outright.
In force since 1 December 2023. Read the legislation
Buying one, step by step
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Decide about a buyer's agent before you tour anything
In Ontario this is the decision that costs money. The representation agreement fixes what your agent earns, and any gap between that and what a seller offers falls to you. Ask for the rate in writing, ask what happens on a private sale, and cap your exposure at whatever the seller pays.
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Search the private channels separately
DuProprio if you are in Quebec, then Kijiji, PropertyGuys.com and ComFree. None of these feed REALTOR.ca, so a saved search on one tells you nothing about the others. Set up alerts on each.
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Read REALTOR.ca descriptions for the mere postings
Look for the line pointing you to the realtor's own website. That seller is handling their own sale and the contact details are usually one click away on the brokerage page.
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Retain a lawyer, then make the offer
Use the standard provincial agreement of purchase and sale rather than anything the seller drafts. Keep the usual conditions: financing, inspection, and a status certificate if it is a condo.
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Put the deposit in a trust account
With no listing brokerage there is no brokerage trust account, so the deposit goes to the seller's lawyer in trust. Never to the seller.
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Close through the lawyers
Title search, adjustments, land transfer tax and registration all run the way they would on any other sale.
Check before any money moves
- Title search and title insurance, both arranged by your lawyer before closing
- A status certificate for any condo, which in Ontario costs about C$100 and must be produced within ten days
- Land transfer tax, and a second municipal one if you are buying in Toronto, less any first-time buyer rebate
- Whether HST applies, which it does on new construction and substantially renovated homes but not on an ordinary resale
- Unpaid property taxes, utility arrears and any liens registered on title
- A current survey or title insurance covering the boundaries, particularly on rural and older properties
Selling one instead? See where to list a home yourself in Canada , or the full guide to selling without an agent in Canada .
Common questions
Do I need a realtor to buy a house in Canada?
No. Nothing in any province requires a buyer to be represented. You need a lawyer, or a notary in Quebec, because the title search and the registration of the transfer have to be done by one.
If I buy without an agent, do I get the commission back?
Not automatically. On a private sale where the seller offers nothing to a buyer's side, there is simply no commission, and that should show up in what you negotiate on price. Where a seller does offer 2 or 2.5 percent and you are unrepresented, ask for it as a credit in your offer. Some flat-fee services, ComFree among them, rebate the buyer-side commission directly.
What is a mere posting?
A listing a flat-fee brokerage places on REALTOR.ca for a seller who is otherwise handling everything themselves. CREA defines it as a listing where the member has agreed not to provide services other than submitting it. You deal with the owner, not the brokerage.
Is buying through DuProprio safe?
The transaction is as safe as any other, because a Quebec notary handles the deed either way. What you do not get is a broker checking the seller's disclosures for you. DuProprio's own advisors are not licensed brokers and cannot negotiate on your behalf, so read the declarations yourself and take them to your notary.
Why can I not filter REALTOR.ca for private sellers?
The filters cover price, bedrooms, property type, days on market and open houses, and nothing identifies who is behind the listing. CREA has no reason to build that filter. The Competition Bureau opened a file on CREA's commission rules and cooperation policy in October 2024, and it remains open.
Sources
Every legal, tax, and process claim on this page traces to one of these. We re-check them on a schedule and date the page when anything changes.
- REALTOR.ca listing rules and CREA membershipCanadian Real Estate Association · crea.ca
- Residential sales and active listings, first quarter 2026Association professionnelle des courtiers immobiliers du Québec · apciq.ca
- Call-out for information on CREA's commission rules and cooperation policyCompetition Bureau Canada · competition-bureau.canada.ca
- Trust in Real Estate Services Act, 2002Government of Ontario · ontario.ca
- Properties for sale, live listing countDuProprio · duproprio.com
- National statistics, active residential listings, July 2026Canadian Real Estate Association · stats.crea.ca