List on MLS® without a realtor in Canada, from $69.99

How to list on MLS® without a realtor in 4 steps

Listing on MLS® without a realtor takes four steps, all online: choose a plan, fill in your home's details and photos, sign, and a registered brokerage enters it on the board. Once your ID, proof of ownership and signature are in, it goes on the MLS® System, and we email you your MLS® number when it's live.

1. Choose a plan and pay. It takes a few minutes, and your account is created for you. Plans start at $69.99 a month, or $99.99 for 2 months.
2. Add your home's details, photos and ID, then sign. A guided form asks for everything the MLS® System needs (rooms and measurements, taxes, parking, your price and the buyer agent commission), and an assistant can help with any field you're unsure of. You upload up to 40 photos and sign the listing agreement online.
3. We enter your home on the MLS® System. It's sent on to realtor.ca, and we email you your MLS® number when it's live.
4. Buyers and their agents contact you. You confirm showings, answer questions and receive offers directly, and your lawyer handles the closing.

Can you list on MLS® without a realtor in Canada?

Not by yourself. The MLS® System belongs to the real estate boards, and only their members (registered brokerages and REALTORS®) can enter a listing. realtor.ca, which the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) runs, only shows listings that come from a board. Here's how to list on realtor.ca through a brokerage, and what your listing shows there.

What you can do is skip the full-service listing agent. A brokerage posts your home for a set fee, often called a flat fee MLS® listing or a mere posting. Your listing looks the same as any other on the MLS® System and realtor.ca. The difference is that you do the selling: you answer buyers, confirm showings and negotiate offers yourself, and you keep the commission a listing agent would have charged.

In Ontario every brokerage must be registered with RECO, and you can check any name in RECO's public register. For the house-specific version, with the documents and the room measurements to have ready, see list my house on MLS®.

Brokerages call this service a mere posting. Here's what a mere posting is, where it came from and what the brokerage does for you.

Your options for selling without a listing agent

There are three common ways to sell a home in Canada, and only two of them put you on the MLS® System. A private sale is cheapest but invisible to buyer agents; a full-service agent does everything for a commission; a flat fee listing sits in between: the same MLS® listing, with the selling left to you.

Flat fee services aren't all the same, either. If you're comparing them, we've set out how we compare with ListedBySeller, ComFree, PropertyGuys and Easy List Realty: prices from their own sites, dated, plus who you sign with and what's included.

Whichever you choose, the closing is the same: the buyer's deposit is held in trust (with the buyer's brokerage or a lawyer; on our listings, never by us), and your lawyer handles the transfer and pays out the proceeds on closing day.

For the rest of the job, from pricing to closing, see how to sell a house privately in Ontario, step by step.

What to have ready before you list

The MLS® System asks for more than a price and a few photos, and a listing with blanks gets fewer showings. Before you start, gather the items below. The guided form asks for each one and flags anything missing, so having them on hand gets your home onto the board sooner and avoids a second round of questions.

• Photo ID for every owner on title, and proof of ownership (a property tax bill or the deed)
• Room measurements, approximate square footage, lot size, annual property tax and any condo fees
• Up to 40 photos: bright, wide, level shots of every main room and the outside. A phone works; a photographer is optional
• The description: one paragraph in the MLS® style, with no phone numbers, emails or "call now" lines (the board rejects them, and the form warns you as you type)
• Your price from recent sold prices nearby, and the commission you'll offer a buyer's agent (a percentage or a flat amount)

What you handle yourself

With a flat fee listing, the brokerage handles the posting, the board's rules and your changes while you're listed; the selling is yours. That means five jobs, and none of them needs experience, only time and a lawyer for the last one. Here's what each involves, so you can decide before you pay whether it suits you.

• Setting the price. Look up recent sold prices on your street and for similar homes on HouseSigma or a similar site. A price that's too high is the most common reason a home sits.
• Photos and description. Bright, wide photos of every main room get more clicks. Your phone is enough.
• Showings. Buyer agents book through the showing system and you confirm or move each request. Be reachable during the day.
• Offers. Offers are made out to you and come to you directly. You accept, sign back with changes, or decline.
• The lawyer and the closing. You need a real estate lawyer to close. Have them review an offer before you sign; on closing day they handle the transfer, pay out your mortgage and the buyer agent commission you offered, and send you the rest.

Where your listing appears

Once it's live, your listing is on the MLS® System that agents search, on realtor.ca, and typically on the MLS®-fed sites buyers browse. In Ontario it goes in through PropTx, which feeds 14 boards including Toronto (TRREB), Ottawa, London, Niagara and Oakville-Milton, so agents across the province see it in their own board's search.

From the MLS® System it's sent to realtor.ca automatically, and it's typically picked up by sites such as HouseSigma, Zolo, Wahi, Property.ca and Condos.ca. Each site decides whether and when to show a listing, so strong photos and a full description help. Buyer agents book showings through the showing system the boards use, and each request comes to you to confirm or move.

CREA itself describes realtor.ca as "an all-inclusive real estate portal that enables a full-service marketplace for REALTORS® and consumers to connect", and counts "more than 155,000 real estate brokers, agents and salespeople" among its members (CREA, checked October 2026). That's the reach a private sale can't buy: one entry, every agent's search and every portal that pulls the feed, for the same flat fee whatever your home sells for.

What happens if the buyer has an agent, or doesn't

Most buyers have an agent. When you list, you choose what to offer a buyer's agent, as a percentage or a flat amount. It's shown to agents on the MLS® System and is only paid if their buyer buys your home. Agents show flat fee listings like any other, because the listing and the commission offer look the same.

If a buyer comes without an agent, you deal with them directly and there's no buyer's agent commission to pay. Both of you should have your own lawyer for the agreement and the closing, and the offer is made out to you, not to the brokerage.

Either way, you negotiate the price and the conditions yourself. On a mere posting the brokerage's part is the listing, so it doesn't negotiate, relay or comment on the terms of an offer; your lawyer is the person to ask before you sign.

How much does it cost?

A flat fee doesn't depend on your price: $69.99 a month, $99.99 for 2 months, $119.99 for 3 months, $149.99 for 6 months, or $239.99 for MAX, which renews free until your home is sold. Ontario listings have 13% HST added. With the code FREEUPGRADE, each fixed-term plan comes with the next plan up free.

Your other costs are the buyer's agent commission you choose to offer (only paid if their buyer buys), your lawyer, and anything you decide to spend on staging or a photographer.

Compare that with a listing commission: on a $750,000 home, 2.5% for the listing side is $18,750 plus HST. The flat fee is the same whether your home sells for $400,000 or $2 million, so the more it's worth, the more you keep. The only percentage left in the deal is the buyer agent commission you choose to offer.

For how the plans compare with other services, see list on MLS® for a flat fee.

Which provinces?

Real estate is regulated by each province, and every MLS® listing goes through a brokerage registered in that province; in Ontario, that's RECO. We list homes in Ontario: houses, condos, townhouses and rentals. If your home is somewhere else, look for a flat fee brokerage registered in your province.

A brokerage registered in one province can't list your home in another.

In Ontario, our guide to selling for sale by owner in Ontario covers the province's rules, the offer and the closing.

Myths about listing without a realtor

Most myths about flat fee listings date from before they were common. Today a flat fee listing sits in the same MLS® System, with the same fields and the same commission offer as any other, so the questions below come down to what you do yourself, not how the listing is treated by agents or by realtor.ca.

• "Only agents can get you on realtor.ca." A brokerage has to post it, but it doesn't have to be a full-service agent. A flat fee listing shows on realtor.ca like any other.
• "Buyer agents skip flat fee listings." They see the same listing and the same commission offer as on any other home, and they're paid the same way.
• "You'll be on your own with the paperwork." The offer forms are standard, and your lawyer handles the closing. You make the decisions; nobody signs for you.
• "It's only for cheap homes." The fee is the same at any price, so the more your home is worth, the more a flat fee saves.

Is selling without a listing agent right for you?

It suits sellers who know roughly what their home is worth from recent sales nearby, can be reached for showings, including evenings and weekends, and are comfortable reading an offer with a lawyer's help. You don't need experience: the guided form and the assistant inside it are built for first-time sellers.

It's a harder fit if you can't be around for showings, you'd rather someone else negotiated, or you want advice on pricing and staging. In that case a full-service agent may be worth the commission, and the calculator below shows what that choice costs at your price.

You are still a client of the brokerage: a flat fee listing is a limited-service representation, with the posting, the MLS® rules and the changes handled for you, and the showings, negotiation and paperwork handled by you with your lawyer.

Questions

What's included

• Your home on the MLS® System through PropTx, which feeds 14 Ontario boards, including Toronto (TRREB), Ottawa, London, Niagara and Oakville-Milton
• Your home on realtor.ca, typically followed by MLS®-fed sites such as HouseSigma, Zolo and Condos.ca
• Up to 40 photos, your description, your price and the full property details
• Showing requests from buyer agents sent straight to you to confirm, and realtor.ca inquiries forwarded to you
• Price, photo and detail changes while you're listed, plus the conditional and sold updates

Flat fee MLS® prices

Plus 13% HST. The monthly plan can be cancelled any time.

What you keep without a listing agent

Enter your asking price to compare a typical listing agent's commission with a flat fee. On most homes the difference is tens of thousands of dollars. The buyer's agent commission is separate: you choose it when you list, and it's only paid if their buyer buys your home.

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