Mere posting: what it is, from $69.99 a month

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

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What sellers say

Flat fee MLS® prices

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

What a mere posting can save you

Enter your asking price to compare a typical listing agent's commission, with 13% HST, against a mere posting's flat fee. The gap grows with the price of your home. You still choose what to offer a buyer's agent, and that's only paid if their buyer buys.

What is a mere posting?

Only a registered brokerage can put a property on the MLS® System. With a mere posting, you hire the brokerage to post the listing, not to sell your home for you: it enters your home on the MLS® System and realtor.ca, and you deal directly with buyers, tenants and their agents. You pay a flat fee instead of a commission.

You sign a Mere Posting (Limited Service) Representation Agreement with the brokerage (read ours). The brokerage represents you on a limited-service basis: it lists the property, forwards inquiries and showing requests, and makes your changes, but it won't show your home, set your price or negotiate offers for you. That's why the fee is fixed whatever your home sells for.

You'll also see it called a mere listing, an MLS® entry-only listing or a flat fee MLS® listing. They mean the same thing. See how a mere posting reaches realtor.ca for the steps and what buyers see there.

Where mere postings came from, and the rules today

Until 2010, MLS® rules in Canada required a listing agent to sell a full package of services, so a seller couldn't pay just to be listed. The Competition Bureau challenged those rules, and in 2010 the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) agreed to a consent agreement, registered with the Competition Tribunal that October, that opened the MLS® System to mere postings.

In the Competition Bureau's own account, CREA's earlier rules "prohibited agents from offering consumers the option to pay a flat fee for an agent to list a home on the MLS® system (known as a 'mere posting')". The agreement, it says, "helps to ensure that Canadians have the ability to choose which services they want from a real estate agent when selling their home, and to pay only for those selected services." CREA's statement at the time agreed that its rules "should not deny or discriminate against REALTORS® wishing to offer mere posting services."

In Ontario, the Trust in Real Estate Services Act (TRESA) now sets the rules, and RECO's Bulletin 2.6 is plain about mere postings: any agreement for services, "whether it is an agreement for a full range of services or limited to a specific service, such as preparing an offer for a specific property or a mere posting, is a 'representation agreement'". So on a mere posting you're the brokerage's client for the services it agreed to provide.

Mere posting vs full service vs a private sale

The three differ in who does the work and how you pay. A mere posting and a full-service agent both put your home on the MLS® System and realtor.ca, where buyer agents search; a private sale with a sign or a Kijiji ad doesn't. With a mere posting you do the showing and negotiating, and pay a flat fee.

Mere postings themselves are sold by a handful of companies under different names and prices; if you're weighing providers, see how we compare with ListedBySeller, ComFree, PropertyGuys and Easy List Realty, with each company's prices taken from its own site and dated.

Selling on your own in Ontario? FSBO in Ontario: your options and the rules sets out all four routes, from a lawn sign to a full-service agent.

A mere posting is really a private sale with an MLS® listing: the selling, the paperwork and the closing work the same way.

What the brokerage does

On a mere posting the brokerage's job is the listing itself: getting your home onto the MLS® System accurately, keeping it up to date, and passing every inquiry and showing request to you. It does that from the day you're live until the home sells or leases, or the agreement ends.

Robin Hood Realty Limited, Brokerage does:

• Holds your listing agreement and enters your home on the MLS® System, with your photos, description, price and details.
• Sends it on to realtor.ca, where only the brokerage's contact details can appear (an MLS® rule). Inquiries are forwarded to you.
• Tells buyer agents in the listing how to reach you, and sends their showing requests to you to confirm.
• Makes your price, photo and description changes, and marks the listing conditional, sold or leased when you tell us.
• Keeps your signed agreement, documents and ID on file, and answers your questions about the listing while you're live.

What you do as the seller

Everything a listing agent would do face to face is yours: pricing, showings, answering buyers and negotiating. Day to day that mostly means confirming showing requests and replying to agents promptly, since a slow reply can lose a viewing. Your real estate lawyer handles the paperwork at the end, as in any sale.

• Set your asking price and the commission you offer a buyer's agent.
• Confirm showings and show your home, or let buyer agents show it to their clients.
• Answer buyers' and agents' questions.
• Receive offers, which are made out to you and come to you directly, and decide whether to accept, sign back or decline, ideally with your real estate lawyer.
• Close the sale with your lawyer.

How a mere posting works with us

A mere posting with us takes four steps, all online. You pay and fill in a guided form, then sign. Once your ID, proof of ownership and signature are in, we enter your home on the MLS® System and email you the MLS® number when it's live; from then on, buyers and agents contact you directly.

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.
2. Add your home's details, photos and ID, then sign the mere posting agreement online. A guided form asks for what the MLS® System needs.
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.

The buyer agent's commission on a mere posting

Most buyers have an agent, and the MLS® listing states what that agent is paid if their buyer buys. On a mere posting you choose that amount, as a percentage or a flat amount, and it's only paid if that agent's buyer buys your home. A buyer with no agent means no buyer agent commission.

Offer too little and some agents may skip your home, so check what's usual in your area. For a rental, many landlords offer half of the first month's rent to the tenant's agent.

How it's paid: offers on a mere posting are made out to you and come to you directly, so our brokerage never holds the buyer's deposit; it goes to the buyer's brokerage's trust account or a lawyer. The commission you offered is settled on closing through your lawyer. What a mere posting saves you is the listing side of the commission; see real estate commission in Ontario for how the usual percentages add up.

You can calculate the buyer agent's commission on your price before you choose a rate.

What can go wrong with a mere posting

Most problems on a mere posting come from the jobs a full-service agent would have done for you: pricing, deadlines and paperwork. None of them is hard, but each one is yours. These are the ones we see most often, and how sellers avoid them:

• Pricing from a guess. Overpriced homes sit. Price from recent sold prices on your street or building, not from asking prices; you can change the price any time while listed.
• Missing a condition deadline. A conditional offer (financing, inspection) has dates. Put them in your calendar and have your lawyer confirm when the buyer waives or the deal falls away.
• Signing an offer unread. Have your real estate lawyer review every offer before you sign or sign back, including the deposit amount, closing date and what's included.
• Leaving the deposit and closing to chance. The deposit sits with the buyer's brokerage or a lawyer, never with you or us; your lawyer handles the closing and the commission you offered.
• Showings and open houses. Agents usually ask for a lockbox; keep valuables and documents put away, ask for the agent's name and brokerage, and don't host an open house alone.

Is a mere posting right for you?

It suits owners who know roughly what their home is worth, can take calls and confirm showings, and are comfortable reviewing an offer with a lawyer. Landlords like it too: a mere posting for a rental on realtor.ca reaches tenants and their agents without paying a leasing agent. It also works for selling a house with tenants in it.

It's a harder fit if you can't be reached during the day, you'd rather not be at showings or deal with buyers, or you want advice on pricing and negotiating. Sellers in a hurry, or with an unusual property that's hard to compare, often fall in this group too. In that case a full-service agent may be worth the commission.

We list in Ontario only; in another province, look for a brokerage registered there.

For the practical side of listing on MLS® without a realtor in Canada, including what to have ready and which provinces we cover, see our step-by-step guide. Mere postings aren't only for homes: a commercial MLS® listing for a store, office or industrial property, for sale or for lease, works the same way.

Questions