How Much Could You Save Selling Without a Realtor?

“How much will I save?” is the first question most private sellers ask, and the honest answer is: it depends on your sale price and on the commission you would otherwise have agreed to. There is no single national number. What there is, is a simple model you can run with your own figures in a minute. This guide explains that model, walks you through the HouseUp savings calculator, and shows how to turn the headline saving into the real one after your private-sale costs.

Where the saving actually comes from

When you list with a brokerage, you sign a listing agreement that sets a commission payable when the home sells. That total is usually split between the brokerage that listed your home and the brokerage that brought the buyer. When you sell privately there is no listing brokerage, so the listing side of that commission is not owed to anyone. That is the saving.

The buyer's side is a separate question. If a buyer comes to you without an agent, there is no buyer-side commission either. If a buyer comes with an agent, that agent will expect to be paid, and whether that comes from you, from the buyer, or from the price is something you negotiate. We come back to this below, because it is the biggest thing that changes the answer.

How commission works in Canada

A few facts that matter for the calculation:

• Commission is negotiable. There is no fixed or legally required rate in any province. Brokerages set their own, and sellers can and do negotiate them. Any rate you see quoted online is one brokerage's choice, not a rule.
• It is usually a percentage of the sale price. Some brokerages charge a flat fee, and some blend a percentage with a flat amount or use a tiered rate. A percentage is the most common structure, which is why the calculator uses one.
• Sales tax applies on top. GST or HST, depending on your province, is charged on commission. That makes the true cost of commission higher than the quoted percentage.
• It varies by province and city. Typical structures in one market can look quite different in another. The right rate to put into the calculator is the one you were quoted, or would expect to be quoted, where you live.

The model behind the savings calculator

The calculator is deliberately transparent. It does three things:

1. Takes your expected sale price. Use the price you realistically expect to get, not your asking price and not your hope. Our guide on pricing a private sale explains how to arrive at that number from comparable sales.
2. Takes a commission rate you can edit. It starts with a placeholder so the field is not empty, but you should replace it with the rate a local brokerage quoted you, or the rate you negotiated on a past sale. If you want the full picture, use the total commission including the buyer side; if you only want the listing side, enter just that portion.
3. Multiplies them and shows the result as your estimated saving. You can add sales tax at your province's rate to see the all-in figure, since that tax would have been charged on the commission.

That is the whole model. It does not assume anything about your home, your market or how quickly it will sell. The result is an estimate from your own inputs, and it is only as good as the rate you enter.

Using the calculator with your own numbers

To get a figure you can trust, do a few minutes of homework first.

• Get a real commission quote. Call one or two local brokerages and ask what they would charge to list your home and what portion is offered to the buyer's agent. Most will tell you. Use those numbers, not an internet average.
• Settle on a realistic sale price. Look at what similar homes near you sold for in the last few months. If you are torn between two figures, run the calculator with both.
• Run two scenarios. One where the buyer has no agent and you save the whole commission, and one where the buyer has an agent and you agree to pay that side. The truth for most private sellers lands somewhere between the two, depending on who walks through the door.
• Write the result down. That gross figure is your reason for selling privately. The next step is to see how much of it you keep.

From gross saving to net saving

The calculator shows the commission you avoid. To see the saving that reaches your bank account, subtract the costs that only exist because you are selling privately. Our guide on the real costs of selling yourself lists them all; the short version is:

• Your listing, free for the first homes on HouseUp and a flat fee after that, shown on the pricing page.
• Photography, if you hire someone rather than doing it yourself.
• A lawn sign and any promotion you choose to buy.
• Your time, which has a value even if it never shows on a statement.

Legal fees, mortgage discharge and moving are not in this list, because you pay those whether or not you use an agent. The net saving is the gross saving minus the private-sale costs, and for most homes it remains a large number, because commission scales with price and the costs above mostly do not.

What changes the answer

A few things can move the result up or down more than any line in the calculator.

• The buyer's agent. Decide in advance whether you will pay a buyer-agent commission, offer a fixed amount, or hold firm. Agreeing to pay it reduces your saving but can widen your pool of buyers. Declining keeps the full saving but some agents will steer their clients elsewhere. Neither answer is wrong; what matters is that you decide before an offer arrives rather than during a negotiation.
• Sale price. If selling privately gets you the same price an agent would have, the saving is as calculated. If your home sells for less because fewer buyers saw it or you negotiated under pressure, the gap comes straight out of your saving. Pricing well and presenting well is how you protect the number.
• Time on market. Each extra month costs a mortgage payment, taxes, insurance and utilities. A private seller who overprices and waits can give back a meaningful share of the commission they avoided.
• Concessions. A buyer who knows you are not paying commission may ask for some of that saving in the form of a lower price or repairs. Expect the request, and know your floor.

A quick sanity check

Before you rely on the figure, test it against the real world in three ways. First, compare it with the dollar amount a brokerage actually quoted you, including tax, because a quote in dollars is harder to get wrong than a percentage typed from memory. Second, ask a neighbour or friend who sold recently what commission they paid; people are usually happy to say. Third, divide the saving by your expected sale price and ask whether that share sounds like the market you live in. If any of the three disagrees with the calculator, the rate you entered is the most likely culprit, and it is worth a second call to a brokerage to confirm it.

One more check: make sure you have not double-counted. If the rate you entered already includes the buyer's side, do not add it again when you consider paying a buyer's agent. The calculator is simple on purpose so this kind of mistake is easy to spot.

Is the saving worth the work?

Only you can answer that, but the calculator gives you the number to weigh it against. Divide your net saving by the hours you expect to spend on photos, messages, showings and negotiation, and you have an honest hourly figure for the job of selling your own home. For most owners it compares very well with anything else they could do with those hours.

If the number is compelling, create your listing. If you are still weighing it, our FSBO versus realtor comparison lays out the trade-offs, and the resource centre covers every step from here to closing.