Real Estate Guides & Reference

Step-by-step guide to buying a house in Ontario: financing, REALTOR® selection, the OREA Form 100 offer process, conditions, closing, and the Ontario Land Transfer Tax (and Toronto MLTT inside the city).

Ontario uses power of sale rather than judicial foreclosure for most defaulted mortgages. Power-of-sale homes are listed on MLS® — buying one means accepting strict “as-is, where-is” terms.

Most distressed-property listings in Ontario are sold under power of sale rather than true foreclosure. Find them through MLS® search filters, REALTOR® alerts, and published legal notices.

Ontario municipalities sell properties for unpaid property taxes through Municipal Tax Sales. Listings are advertised in The Ontario Gazette and on municipal websites — sales are by tender or public auction.

To check if a specific house is currently for sale, search REALTOR.ca, set up MLS® alerts with a REALTOR®, walk the street for signage, and — in some cases — ask the owner directly through your agent.

Yes — you can get a home inspection after buying. It won’t affect the closed transaction, but it’s useful for identifying maintenance priorities and any latent defects worth tracking for warranty or insurance claims.

In Canada, lenders generally consider 680+ a strong credit score for residential mortgages. Below 600 typically pushes you toward alternative or B-lender financing with higher rates.

How fast a house sells in Ontario depends on price, location, condition, and current market temperature. In the GTA, well-priced freehold homes typically sell within 14–30 days; condos vary more.

In a slow market, attracting buyers comes down to honest pricing, sharper marketing, faster response times, and — sometimes — above-average cooperating commission. Here’s the playbook.

Pricing a tenanted rental property for sale combines residential comps with income-based valuation. Existing tenancies, lease terms, and Residential Tenancies Act protections affect what buyers will pay.

Some U.S. states use an attorney review period after offer acceptance. Ontario does not — here, lawyer review happens before signing or as part of conditions like financing and status certificate.

Fair market value is the price a willing, informed buyer would pay a willing, informed seller in an open market. It’s usually established through comparable sales (CMA) or a formal appraisal.

In real estate, fair market value is the price a property would change hands for between a willing buyer and seller, both informed and acting freely. In Ontario it shows up everywhere — CRA, MPAC, family law, and lender appraisals all rely on it.

In the GTA, a built-in single garage typically adds 5–10% to a freehold home’s value, and a double garage 10–15% — but the dollar uplift depends heavily on neighbourhood norms, parking scarcity, and whether the garage is functional or just storage.

In Toronto, the renovations that consistently pay off before selling are kitchens, bathrooms, paint, flooring, and curb appeal — done modestly. Major additions and high-end finishes rarely return their full cost.

REALTOR® fees in Ontario typically run 4–5% of the sale price in the GTA, usually split between the listing and cooperating brokerages. All commissions are negotiable under RECO rules.

Calculate REALTOR® fees by multiplying the sale price by the agreed commission percentage and adding HST. Here’s a worked example using Ontario norms and a quick reference table.

The average REALTOR® commission in Canada falls between 3% and 6% of sale price depending on region and price point. In the GTA, 4–5% on residential resale is typical. All commissions are negotiable.

In Ontario residential rentals, the landlord typically pays the cooperating REALTOR® fee — usually one month’s rent. Tenants pay nothing for representation in most GTA leases.

Closing costs when selling a house in Ontario typically include real estate commission, legal fees, mortgage discharge, and pre-listing prep — plan for 4–6% of sale price all in.

In Ontario, HST does not apply to the sale of a resale (used) home, but does apply to new construction and substantially renovated homes. Buyers also pay Ontario Land Transfer Tax — doubled inside Toronto.

Canadian principal residences are exempt from capital gains tax. Investment, rental, and second properties are taxable: 50% of the gain is included in income (the proposed 2024 increase to a two-thirds inclusion rate above $250,000 was cancelled by Finance Canada in 2025, so the 50% inclusion rate continues to apply in 2026). Rules vary — confirm with a tax pro.

How to pick a real estate agent: prioritize local sales record, written communication style, and a clear marketing plan. Filipe & Isabel Ferreira and Team Filipe serve Toronto and the GTA.

The fastest ways to reach a REALTOR®, what to include in your first message, and what to expect for a response time. Filipe & Isabel Ferreira serve Toronto and the GTA.

A 30-minute interview script for choosing a real estate agent or broker: 12 questions to ask, what good answers sound like, and the documents to request before you sign.

Practical tips for finding the right real estate agent: how to source candidates, what to verify, and the warning signs that mean you should keep looking.

AI is changing how real estate agents work — search, valuation, paperwork — but local negotiation, fiduciary duty, and trusted relationships still require a human REALTOR®.

There are roughly 160,000 REALTORS® in Canada, regulated provincially and represented by CREA. Ontario alone, through RECO, registers about 100,000 real estate professionals.

Ontario real estate brokerages must retain transaction records for at least six years under TRESA and FINTRAC rules. Here’s what is kept, who holds it, and how to request a copy.

Ontario REALTORS® can sell mobile homes when the home is sold with the land it sits on; chattel-only mobile-home sales fall outside the Trust in Real Estate Services Act.

You can hold both a real estate licence and an appraiser designation, but you cannot appraise a property where you also represent the buyer or seller — a clear conflict of interest.

In Ontario, working with multiple real estate agents at the same time is allowed only if you have not signed an exclusive Buyer Representation Agreement. Doing so otherwise can trigger commission claims.

Designated representation is an Ontario option under TRESA Phase 2 (in force December 1, 2023) where one brokerage assigns a different individual agent to each side of the same deal, with written consent.

A self-represented party (SRP) under Ontario's TRESA Phase 2 is someone dealing with a brokerage without becoming its client. Here is what the brokerage can and cannot do for you, and the written acknowledgement you'll be asked to sign.

A referral agent is a licensed real estate professional who introduces clients to a transactional agent in exchange for a referral fee, without working the deal directly.

In Canada, a real estate broker is a licensed professional who has completed additional broker-level education beyond a salesperson’s licence. In Ontario, brokers can supervise other agents and own brokerages.

A broker owner is a licensed real estate broker who also owns the brokerage. They combine front-line client work with the legal and operational responsibility of running a registered brokerage.

Real estate agents prepare comparative market analyses (CMAs) but do not produce formal appraisals. A CMA helps with pricing; a designated appraiser’s report is what lenders, courts, and tax authorities accept.

To become a real estate agent in Ontario, complete the Humber College Real Estate Salesperson Program, register with RECO under the Trust in Real Estate Services Act (TRESA), and join a brokerage.

You can sell your home in Ontario without a REALTOR® — here’s the realistic checklist of pricing, marketing, legal, and negotiation tasks you take on, and where most for-sale-by-owner sellers run into trouble.

A good rental agent specializes in leases, knows local landlord-tenant practice, and can move fast in tight rental markets. Here’s how to find and interview one in Ontario.

A typical residential open house runs two to three hours, usually on a weekend afternoon. Hosts arrive 30 minutes early; serious buyers visit during the first or last 30 minutes.

Open house etiquette: respect the home, sign in honestly, ask substantive questions, don’t open closed doors without asking, and don’t criticize the property in front of the seller’s neighbours.

Yes — in Canada, public open houses are open to anyone. Hosting agents may ask you to sign in or show ID for security, and some private or invitation-only open houses do exist.

Complete guide to Toronto open houses: where to find them, when they happen, what to expect by neighbourhood, and how to use them as a buyer or seller.

A broker open house is a weekday preview of a new listing exclusively for REALTORS®. The listing agent uses it to gather competitive feedback and reach buyer-agents before the public open house weekend.

“Pending” means an offer has been accepted but the deal is not yet closed — typically because conditions are still being satisfied. Ontario MLS® typically uses statuses like Sold Conditional, Sold, and Suspended.

MLS® (Multiple Listing Service®) is a cooperative database of property listings shared between REALTORS® through local real estate boards. In Canada, MLS® listings power REALTOR.ca.

An MLS® number is the unique identifier assigned to a listing by a local real estate board. Use it to look up the exact property on REALTOR.ca, brokerage sites, or with your REALTOR®.

FSBO (For Sale By Owner) means a homeowner is selling without a listing REALTOR®. FSBO sellers can still negotiate cooperating commission with buyer-agents and access MLS® through mere-posting services.

An IABS (Information About Brokerage Services) form is a Texas-specific real estate disclosure. The Ontario equivalent is the RECO Information Guide and the TRESA-mandated Working With a REALTOR® disclosure.

PUH commonly refers to a Planned Unit Development or planned-unit housing community — a development with shared common areas governed by a homeowners association.

R1 is a residential zoning designation used by many Ontario municipalities for low-density single-detached housing. Permitted uses, lot sizes, and setbacks vary by municipality — always check the local zoning bylaw.

A housing bubble is a sustained run-up in home prices driven by speculation rather than fundamentals — typically followed by a sharp correction. Bubbles are obvious in hindsight; identifying them in real time is hard.

ARV (After Repair Value) is the estimated market value of a property once renovations are complete. Investors use ARV to evaluate flip and BRRRR deals using the 70% rule and similar heuristics.

Pricing a rental property means setting a monthly rent that maximises long-term yield without driving days-to-lease too high. Use comparable rental data, vacancy trends, and unit-specific factors.

A “clean” offer is one with few or no conditions, a deposit ready to deliver, flexible closing, and no add-ons — maximally easy for the seller to accept. In Ontario’s competitive segments, clean offers regularly beat higher conditional ones.

A firm offer is one with no conditions — once accepted, both parties are legally bound to close. In Ontario, firm offers are common on competitive listings where buyers have done diligence in advance.

APS stands for Agreement of Purchase and Sale — the legal contract between a buyer and seller for a property in Ontario. The standard form is published by OREA and used in virtually every residential resale transaction in the province.

ELFs stand for Electric Light Fixtures — standard shorthand on Ontario MLS® listings and APS chattel lists for the lights attached to ceilings and walls. Whether ELFs are included or excluded from a sale is negotiated in the offer.

A “probate condition” in an Ontario real estate sale makes the deal contingent on the estate obtaining a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee from the Ontario Superior Court. The process can take weeks or months depending on the registry.

TMI stands for Taxes, Maintenance, and Insurance — the three operating-cost components a commercial tenant pays on top of base rent in a triple-net (NNN) lease. It also affects how investors underwrite commercial buildings.

TMI = (annual property taxes + annual operating/maintenance costs + annual insurance) ÷ rentable square footage. Multiply by your tenant’s rentable area to get their annual TMI charge.

In Canadian real estate, BAC stands for Buyer Agency Compensation — the commission the listing brokerage offers to the buyer’s brokerage out of the total commission negotiated with the seller. Disclosed in MLS® listings and offers.

A trust sale is a property sale by a trustee on behalf of a trust — commonly an estate trust, a family trust, or a court-supervised trust. The trustee has fiduciary obligations and may need court approval to sell.

In Ontario, the “closing agent” is the real estate lawyer (or paralegal under a lawyer’s supervision) who handles the legal transfer of title, registration, mortgage funding, and disbursement of funds. Each side has their own.

Commercial real estate broker fees are typically paid by the seller in sale transactions and by the landlord in lease transactions — but the structures vary much more than residential.

Buying commercial real estate in Canada follows a defined process: define investment criteria, build a team, source deals, underwrite, finance, conduct due diligence, and close. Expect 60–120 days from offer to closing.

Due diligence is the period after offer acceptance when a buyer verifies condition, title, financing, and — for condos in Ontario — status certificate review. It’s your last clean exit if the deal is wrong.

Vacancy rate is the percentage of available rental units that are unoccupied at a point in time. CMHC publishes purpose-built vacancy rates for Canadian markets in its annual Rental Market Report.

“Bonds” in real estate can mean municipal infrastructure bonds, mortgage-backed bonds, or developer performance bonds. Each plays a different role in financing and project delivery.

Negative leverage is when the cost of debt exceeds the unlevered cap rate, so borrowing money lowers your return. Common in low-cap markets like Toronto when mortgage rates are high.

Real estate arbitrage is profiting from price or yield differences between markets, segments, or use cases. Common forms include rental arbitrage, geographic arbitrage, and zoning arbitrage.

Real estate entitlements are the legal rights to develop a property in a particular way — zoning approvals, building permits, site plan approval, and minor variances. Securing entitlements creates value before construction.