DIYoffer is a complete ‘for sale by owner’ kit which makes it easy to sell your home on your own in Ontario. Our kit will guide you through each step of the home selling process – without the need to hire an agent – and puts more money into your pocket.
Learn the best home-selling practices with the step-by-step Seller’s Guide which puts you in the driver’s seat.
Use our custom tools to help price your home and conduct an Open House.
Maximize local visibility with our For Sale By Owner and Open House lawn signs.
Maximize online visibility with listings on REALTOR.ca®*, DIYOFFER.ca, Kijiji & our social media pages.
Negotiate the details of the deal with our signature Offer Agreement^, an online negotiation form to easily accept an offer from a buyer.
* A listing on REALTOR.ca® is available with the MLS® Package – currently available for the regions of: Mississauga, Brampton, Milton, Halton Hills, Erin, Oakville, Burlington, Hamilton, Niagara, Brantford, Haldimand, Norfolk, London, Woodstock, Cambridge, Kitchener-Waterloo, New Hamburg, Elmira, Centre Wellington, Guelph.
^ The Offer Agreement is a 10-day preliminary agreement that allows the parties to then proceed to their lawyer to complete the transaction.
For DIYoffer, you must determine the amount you wish to pay to a Buyer’s agent, either a percentage (%) of the transaction or a dollar ($) amount.
Just the Forms$99 |
DIY Package$299 |
MLS® Package$499 |
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Ideal for lawyers or builders
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Ideal for the seller who wants to test the market
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Ideal for the seller who is committed to selling DIY
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Offer Agreement
An online negotiation form to guide the buyer and the seller through the step-by-step process of submitting an offer on the property and negotiating the details of the offer including the closing date, fixtures, chattel, conditions and deposit. |
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Seller’s Guide
A step-by-step instruction manual that walks you through the complete home selling process including preparing your home, listing your property for sale, receiving offers and closing the transaction. |
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Buyer’s Guide
A step-by-step instruction manual for the buyer to ensure a speedy closing. |
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Multi-Site Property Listing
Your home will be listed on DIYOFFER.ca, Kijiji & our social media pages; to maximize exposure. |
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Signs & Stands
A ‘For Sale by Owner’ lawn sign and an ‘Open House’ sign with two stands means you’re ready to go. |
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SOLD Decals
Once you have sold, use the SOLD decals to indicate your property is off the market. |
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Listing Price & Negotiation Tool
Determining your listing price and ideal sale price, ensuring you are well prepared for negotiations |
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Viewing Registration Sheet
Record the contact information of anyone that views the property, allowing you to follow up with ease. |
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Feature Sheet & School Handout
An editable PDF form to which you can add a property picture and room measurements, and a School Handout for the local catchment area for both the public and separate schools. You are ready for a property showing! |
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Property Listing on REALTOR.ca®
Property Listing on REALTOR.ca® – Your property is listed on the primary real estate website in Ontario, ensuring maximum exposure on 24 real estate boards and third-party real estate websites. |
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This is a condition that your lawyer has to approve the deal before it can be finalized. As a ‘for sale by owner’ (FSBO) this clause allows you to work out a deal with a buyer and then have your lawyer make sure that there are no other legal issues you need to be aware of. As a FSBO seller, this a win-win; not only are you possibly saving tens of thousands of dollars, you are also having your lawyer review the deal before it is finalized. A Realtor® cannot provide legal advice, unless they are a licensed with the Law Society of Upper Canada, and they also take a percentage of the sale and a lawyer charges an hourly rate. This is a ‘no brainer.’
There are no additional fees for DIYoffer; DIYoffer is an a la carte service where you decide what extra services you need. We have made it easy for you to connect to these services through the online Service Directory. Some services that are recommended are:
The total of these services is estimated at $1500 + HST.
In the DIYoffer Kit, we have included a Listing Price & Negotiation Tool. We walk you through the process of:
Once you have these figures in front of you, you can negotiate a deal confidently since you know where you want to end up.
There are two very important advantages:
*Our Service Directory will conveniently connect you to a Property Appraiser.
Buyer incentives are ‘bonus’ items for the buyer. DIYoffer makes it easy to offer Buyer incentives by providing a Buyer Incentive Handout; you take the Handout to your lawyer and have him/her fill out the details and then make copies and distribute at property showings and open houses. There are four different incentives that you can offer to the buyer:
The best time to purchase DIYoffer is when you decide you want to sell. The step-by-step Guide starts with preparing your home and many different tips to help you along the way. There is no set time to list your property so we can assist when you are ready.
Unfortunately, at this time the MLS® package is limited to the areas of: Mississauga, Brampton, Milton, Halton Hills, Erin, Oakville, Burlington, Hamilton, Niagara, Brantford, Haldimand, Norfolk, London, Woodstock, Cambridge, Kitchener-Waterloo, New Hamburg, Elmira, Centre Wellington, and Guelph. Since we cannot cover all of Ontario, at this time you won’t be able to upgrade to the MLS® package.
Unfortunately there is no set answer since each property is different; saying that, the answer is a question back to you:
If your employer/boss came to you and indicated there was a big project that needed to be finished, and if you could commit 3 or 4 extra hours a week, for possibly the next 2 or 3 months, if the project was completed you could potentially earn a $20,000 bonus, would you do it?
Food for thought – When you sell with a traditional Realtor®, you are doing 98% of the work to get the house ready, and for the remaining 2%, you are paying 4% to 6% of the sale price. What is wrong with this picture?
DIYoffer has developed an online directory to help you find all the many different professionals to assist in the sale of your home. Wen you are ready, you can find a local photographer in the specialty called Photographers/Marketing Services.
Yes, a lot of the photography companies also provide video or drone photos. In the directory, search for a local Photographers/Marketing Services company.
DIYoffer has developed a very straight-forward method to walk you through this process. The first step is to determine your Market Value; you have two ways to determine this value. 1) Bring in a licensed appraiser, or 2) Research online. The Guide provides you with the websites that you can find out the information, all at your fingertips.
Once you have a Market Value, you use the Listing Price & Negotiation Tool to walk you through setting your 1) Listing Price, and 2) Ideal Sale Price.
We set an Ideal Sale Price and then we develop a chart broken down by a range in pricing. You may be thinking, why would you do that? Well, DIYoffer wants you to be prepared when an offer comes in, and this is done before the property is even listed. So you are confident in negotiations and you have your target price already set for you.
Yes! DIYoffer makes it easy to have a pure private sale. In which case you would use the Offer Agreement to finalize the 10-day preliminary agreement and then proceed to your lawyers to draft the binding Agreement of Purchase and Sale.
If you would like to accept an offer from a Realtor® and pay a commission fee, the Realtor will provide you the offer on an Agreement of Purchase and Sale, which you can take to your lawyer’s office to assist you with any sign-backs to the offer.
But, if you are open to other possibilities:
The NAR (National Association of Realtors®) reports that in 2018, 44% of home buyers looked for properties online first, while 17% contacted a real estate agent first.* If you would like to capture that 44% of the market before they contact an Realtor® and completely save the commission, the only way is with DIYoffer which assists you with a complete private sale.
It comes down to:
If you start with accepting offers from a Realtor®, then you won’t capture this 44% of the market.
*NAR, Real Estate in a Digital Age 2018 Report. https://www.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/documents/2018-real-estate-in-a-digital-world-12-12-2018.pdf
Once you have received an offer from a Realtor® you can take it to your lawyer, and you have two options.
To be listed on Realtor.ca®, the commission fee has to be more than $0. Any amount is to your discretion on how aggressively you want to attract an offer from a Realtor®. The Guide prepares you to set a commission fee that is tailored to your local real estate industry by getting in touch with the local real estate association/board. That way, if you truly want to accept an offer from a Realtor® you won’t be losing out.
Yes! This is when the seller sets a specific date and time and will review all offers together. This is a technique often used to increase the chances of having multiple competitive offers, resulting in higher bids. This is ideal for a brand new listing just on the market. If you want to try this method, keep in mind that you may or may not get multiple offers, in which case you would then accept an individual offer on a first-come-first-served basis. DIYoffer makes it easy for the seller to withhold offers by including a space on the Offer Agreement forms to include your date and time to return the offer back to you.
With the Offer Agreement, it includes a ‘safe-guard’ clause that is conditional on the approval of your lawyer. If there are any further legal issues that your lawyer addresses, additional conditions and terms can be added to the Agreement of Purchase and Sale. This allows both you, the seller, and the buyer to have legal advice during the negotiations so there are no legal complications on closing day.
DIYoffer is a service offered by The REAGENT. MLS® listings will be posted on The Oakville, Milton & District Real Estate Board (OMDREB) which is a part of a larger Ontario-wide system consisting of 20 Boards: Barrie and District Association of REALTORS® (BDAR), Brantford Regional Real Estate Association (BRREA), Cambridge Association of REALTORS® Inc. (CAOR), Guelph and District Association of REALTORS® (GDAR), Huron Perth Association of REALTORS (HPAR), Kawartha Lakes Real Estate Association (KREA), Kitchener-Waterloo Association of REALTORS® (KWAR), The Lakelands Association of REALTORS®, London and St. Thomas Association of REALTORS® (LSTAR), Niagara Association of REALTORS® (NAR), North Bay Real Estate Board (NBREB), Mississauga Real Estate Board (MREB), Peterborough and the Kawarthas Association of REALTORS®, REALTORS® Association of Grey Bruce Owen Sound, Simcoe and District Real Estate Board (SDREB), Southern Georgian Bay Association of REALTORS® (SGBAR), Tillsonburg District Real Estate Board (TSREB), Quinte and District Association of REALTORS® (QDAR), Woodstock-Ingersoll Real Estate Board. (WREB).
With the exceptions of a two-way data share with the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington(RAHB) and a two-way data swap with Toronto Real Estate Board(TREB).
The trademarks MLS®, Realtor® and REALTOR.ca® are owned by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and identify the quality of services provided by real estate professionals who are members of CREA.
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