Selling Without a Real Estate Broker in Quebec: 7 Reasons to Question the Idea of “Saving the Commission”

You didn’t pay a commission.

Fair enough.

But are you sure you’re the one who saved it?

Those are two very different statements.

The first is easy to prove.

Look at your bill.

No commission.

Case closed.

The second is far more interesting.

To claim that you actually saved the commission, you would need to know what the exact same property would have produced with the service you chose to remove.

And that...

you don’t know.

Neither do I.

Nobody does.

Yet “saving the commission” is often presented as an almost indisputable equation:

No broker.

No commission.

Therefore, more money in your pocket.

Beautiful.

There’s just one small detail missing.

The entire transaction.

DuProprio currently promotes the idea of saving big by keeping the commission and compares its offering against an average 5% commission.

Ubee offers different paths, including comparing real estate brokers or selling on your own, and also presents estimated savings using a reference commission.

I’m not going to debate 5% here.

That’s not the point.

Brokerage remuneration can be negotiated. Different brokers can offer different agreements.

So let’s simply replace the commission with:

X.

Because the real question isn’t:

“Is it 3%, 4%, 5% or something else?”

The real question is much more uncomfortable:

If you remove a service that has value from the transaction, why do you assume that all of the value you removed automatically belongs to the seller?

Why the seller?

Why not the buyer?

Why not some portion to each?

And most importantly:

Why assume the final outcome stays exactly the same?

That’s where the famous calculation starts looking a lot less obvious.

To understand why, we first need to understand how real estate value is established in the first place.

1. Your Home’s Value Isn’t Created in Your Living Room

A homeowner may believe their house is worth $700,000.

They may be absolutely convinced of it.

They love it.

They’ve maintained it.

They’ve invested in it.

They know every improvement they’ve made.

But wanting $700,000 doesn’t create a $700,000 market value.

Unfortunately, the market never signed a contract agreeing with your opinion.

You have to look at comparable properties.

Transactions.

Differences between properties.

Competition.

Market conditions.

That is part of the logic behind the comparison approach used in real estate appraisal.

The appraisal form published by the Ordre des évaluateurs agréés du Québec includes adjustments for factors such as time, location, land area, building area, age and condition.

Other characteristics can obviously matter depending on the property.

To simplify the logic, let’s group several of these factors into four broad categories.

1. Location

Where is the property?

The city.

The neighbourhood.

The street.

Its immediate surroundings.

The advantages and disadvantages of its location.

Move two nearly identical houses a few kilometres apart and they can find themselves in two completely different markets.

Why?

Because a buyer isn’t simply buying four walls and a roof.

They’re also buying a location.

2. Land and Building Size

How large is the lot?

How large is the building?

How does it compare with the sold properties being used as references?

A significant physical difference can affect the comparison.

Again, the market doesn’t simply look at:

“House versus house.”

It looks at what the buyer gets with each one.

Keep that thought in mind.

It’s going to matter.

3. Effective Age and Condition

Two houses built in 1980 aren’t necessarily equivalent today.

One may have been meticulously maintained and updated.

The other may have accumulated depreciation and years of deferred maintenance.

Same construction year.

Not necessarily the same proposition for the buyer.

That’s why simply looking at the year on a property listing doesn’t tell the whole story.

4. Time of Sale and Market Conditions

A sale completed several months ago didn’t necessarily take place under the same economic conditions as a sale today.

The market may have risen.

It may have fallen.

The relationship between supply and demand may have changed.

Financing conditions may be different.

Time is also explicitly included among the adjustments in the OEAQ comparison method form.

These four categories obviously don’t represent the entire science of real estate appraisal.

But they help us understand something fundamental:

A property’s value is understood by observing the market and comparing actual transactions.

If you want to explore this distinction further, I also explain the difference between market value and municipal assessment in Quebec, as well as the difference between market value, asking price and selling price in my guide on how to price a house for sale in Quebec.

And now our famous “saved commission” starts getting interesting.

2. What Happens to the Commission in a Comparable Sale?

Imagine a house sells for:

$700,000.

That transaction can eventually become relevant market data.

A real estate broker preparing a comparative market analysis may examine it.

A chartered appraiser may analyze the transaction if it is relevant under their professional methodology.

Other sellers may also look at that sale to better understand their market.

Now suppose the house was sold in a transaction involving brokerage services.

What is the observed selling price?

$700,000.

Not:

$700,000 minus the commission.

Let’s be extremely precise.

I’m not claiming:

commission = property value.

That would be false.

The commission isn’t a physical characteristic of the property.

It isn’t a fifth major appraisal category alongside location, size, condition and time.

But there is a much more interesting question:

In what transactional environment was that $700,000 selling price achieved?

Because the observed price is the result of a complete transaction.

That transaction may have included:

pricing strategy;

presentation;

exposure;

inquiry management;

showings;

negotiation;

advice;

professional obligations;

management of conditions;

and several other elements.

Can we say every one of those elements increased the selling price?

No.

Can we say none of them had any influence whatsoever?

No.

And that’s precisely the problem with the shortcut.

The prices that become our market references come from complete transactions. The professional service surrounding some of those transactions isn’t subtracted from the selling price before that price becomes market data.

So before taking that same market price, removing a service and declaring that its entire value now belongs to you...

maybe we should finish the calculation.

3. Two Identical Condos at $500,000. Really the Same Proposition?

Imagine two condos.

Same city.

Same neighbourhood.

Same building.

Same floor.

Same square footage.

Same number of bedrooms.

Same quality of finishes.

Same parking.

Same age.

Same condition.

Same condo fees.

Same price:

$500,000.

Almost identical.

Except for one thing.

Condo A

Pool and gym.

Condo B

No pool and no gym.

You’re the buyer.

Do you automatically consider the two propositions equivalent?

Probably not.

Yet no extra square footage was added to Condo A.

Its kitchen isn’t larger.

It doesn’t have an extra bedroom.

The countertop didn’t magically turn into marble.

The difference is somewhere else.

You get something with A that you don’t get with B.

Maybe you hate gyms.

Maybe you never swim.

Fine.

Then that benefit may have very little value to you.

But your personal preference doesn’t automatically determine its value for every other buyer.

Now imagine the owner of Condo B telling you:

“My condo is physically identical. I therefore want exactly the same price.”

You might answer:

“Your condo may be physically similar. But what I’m getting for my money isn’t.”

And it would be difficult to fault you for asking the question.

Keep that sentence in mind.

Because we’re about to apply it to the real estate transaction itself.

4. Now Let’s Take Two Houses Near Lake Lovering

Same exercise.

Two comparable properties.

Same general location.

Same lot size.

Same building.

Same effective age.

Same condition.

Same sale period.

For the sake of our example, let’s make them almost identical.

But there’s one difference.

The first property benefits from a lake access right applicable to that property.

The second doesn’t.

For illustration only, let’s imagine that obtaining comparable access another way would cost $2,500 per year.

I’m not claiming that $2,500 is the actual cost of access to Lake Lovering.

The amount is hypothetical.

It’s the principle that matters.

Are the two properties necessarily worth exactly the same amount?

The lake access right didn’t make the house larger.

It didn’t add land.

It didn’t make the building younger.

It doesn’t arrive in a box containing 200 extra square feet.

But it gives one property something the other doesn’t have.

And some buyers may assign value to it.

The analogy with real estate brokerage obviously isn’t a legal one.

A lake access right and a brokerage service are completely different things.

The analogy is only meant to illustrate one principle:

A difference in value doesn’t have to be physically attached to the bricks of a house in order to exist.

In other words:

“It isn’t part of the house”

doesn’t automatically mean:

“It has no value.”

5. What Are You Actually Removing When You Remove the Broker?

This is probably where the discussion becomes most interesting.

Sometimes a broker gets reduced to a short list of tasks.

Put the property on Centris.

Take pictures.

Answer the phone.

Handle showings.

Fill out forms.

Negotiate.

Presented that way, I completely understand why someone might think:

“All that for X dollars? I’ll do it myself.”

But that description is a little like saying an accountant:

“enters numbers into a computer.”

Or a lawyer:

“writes letters and talks in front of a judge.”

You can describe almost any profession simplistically enough to make it sound ridiculous.

The real question is:

What does the person bring beyond the visible tasks?

Here’s an essential point:

The value of a broker’s service doesn’t come only from the tasks they perform. Part of its value also comes from the responsibilities, obligations and duties imposed on them by the legal framework when they participate in a transaction.

In Quebec, a broker representing a party is subject to professional obligations.

The OACIQ explains the duties and ethical obligations of Quebec real estate brokers. A broker representing a client must promote that client’s interests, protect their rights and act with loyalty.

That changes the picture slightly from:

“They put my house online.”

The value of the service therefore doesn’t come only from what the broker does.

It can also come from what they are required to do, what they must explain, the interests they must protect and the professional responsibilities they assume when they participate in the transaction.

Important.

That absolutely does not mean a particular broker automatically creates enough value to justify their remuneration.

Myself included.

A broker has to demonstrate their value.

But it does mean we can’t seriously compare the models by reducing one of them to:

“A sign, a few pictures and a commission.”

Remove the broker and the house remains the same.

The transaction itself is no longer exactly the same.

And now we can return to our favourite slogan.

6. “Saving the Commission”

DuProprio currently promotes the idea of saving big by keeping the commission.

And I’ll give them something.

It’s excellent marketing.

Short.

Simple.

Visual.

Easy to understand.

You immediately see the big number you won’t have to pay.

The problem begins when we treat the slogan as economic proof.

Let’s go back to our property.

Assumed value:

$700,000.

Hypothetical remuneration:

X.

The seller reasons:

“If I sell it myself for $700,000, X stays in my pocket.”

Wait.

Why did we automatically keep the $700,000?

Because it makes the calculation convenient?

If the outcome of the transaction is necessarily identical with or without the service, then yes.

The subtraction works beautifully.

But that’s exactly what would need to be demonstrated.

And there’s someone rather important missing from this neat equation.

The buyer.

Who brings the $700,000?

Not the slogan.

The buyer.

Their down payment.

Their financing.

Their resources.

The seller brings the asset.

The buyer brings the consideration needed to acquire it.

So why should the reasoning automatically be:

“Because the seller removed a service, the entire economic value of that service now belongs to the seller.”

Why?

Did the buyer sign anything agreeing to politely leave the entire savings to you?

No.

And here’s the inconvenient part.

Buyers know how to use calculators too.

The Buyer Can Make Exactly the Same Calculation

Let’s return to our $700,000 house.

The seller says:

“The comparables support $700,000. I’m not using a broker. Therefore, I keep the value of the commission.”

The buyer could answer:

“Hold on.”

You’re using market prices to establish your value.

Some comparable transactions took place in an environment that included professional services that aren’t present here.

You decided to remove that service.

Why should I automatically hand you the entire value of something you chose not to purchase?

And now we’re back to our two condos.

Same condo.

No gym.

No pool.

Same price.

Why?

Our house near the lake.

Same property.

Different benefit.

Same price.

Why?

And now our transaction.

Same house.

Different transaction service.

Same assumed outcome.

Why?

Again, be careful.

I’m not saying the buyer will necessarily get a discount.

I’m not saying the property will necessarily sell for less.

It might sell at asking price.

It might sell above asking.

It might receive multiple offers.

The market may give the seller tremendous leverage.

That isn’t the point.

The point is much more precise:

The seller cannot simply assume that the entire value of the removed service belongs to them.

Because the buyer also participates in creating the final price.

And the buyer is generally trying to make a good deal too.

What a surprise.

7. Not Paying the Commission and Saving the Commission Are Two Different Claims

Now we’ve reached the heart of the argument.

A seller who sold without a broker can easily demonstrate this:

“I didn’t pay a seller-side brokerage commission.”

Fine.

That’s factual.

Now let’s demonstrate:

“I saved that entire commission.”

How?

To truly know, we would need to sell the same house twice.

Same day.

Same time.

Same market.

Same buyers.

Same competition.

Same conditions.

Same financing.

Same strategy.

Same negotiation.

Same everything.

Scenario A

Private sale.

Scenario B

Sale with the chosen broker.

Then we compare:

price;

conditions;

concessions;

expenses;

time;

risk;

and net result.

Perfect.

We’re only missing one small thing.

A machine that lets us travel into a parallel universe.

Because that experiment is impossible.

We only have one transaction.

The seller therefore knows their actual selling price.

They know their actual expenses.

They know they didn’t pay a seller-side brokerage commission if they didn’t retain that service.

But they don’t know the outcome of the other scenario.

And nobody can tell them with certainty.

That’s why this distinction matters:

You didn’t pay the commission. That’s a fact. Whether you actually saved it is a conclusion.

There it is.

Suddenly the slogan isn’t quite as mathematically impressive.

The Commission Is Visible. The Price You Didn’t Get Isn’t.

That’s why the message works so well.

The commission is visible.

It can be calculated.

It can appear on a screen.

Take a price.

Multiply it by a percentage.

BOOM.

A big number.

“Look how much you could save.”

Very effective.

But do you know what doesn’t appear on that calculator?

The price you didn’t get.

The offer that never arrived.

The concession you made during negotiations.

The condition you accepted.

The buyer you never reached.

The time you invested.

The risk you assumed.

Or, to be fair, the value you successfully created yourself because you handled your sale extremely well.

All of that is invisible.

An avoided expense is easy to show.

A gained or lost opportunity is much harder to calculate.

That’s precisely why we need to be careful with the word:

“savings.”

And DuProprio Itself Recognizes That Services Have Value

This is where its own business model becomes interesting.

DuProprio doesn’t simply hand you a sign and say:

“Good luck with your savings.”

Depending on the package selected, the company provides different tools and services, including professional photography, visibility and support.

Why?

Because services have value.

Photography.

Visibility.

Tools.

Documents.

Support.

Professional services depending on the applicable offering.

And homeowners are willing to pay for some of those things.

Interesting.

I thought the secret was simply eliminating costs.

Obviously not.

The real objective is to eliminate costs you believe don’t provide enough value to justify their price.

And that’s completely different.

So the intelligent comparison isn’t:

broker = commission

versus

no broker = zero.

It becomes:

What am I getting under each model?

What does it cost?

What am I taking on myself?

What disappears?

Which responsibilities remain?

And what overall outcome am I actually trying to achieve?

Now we finally have a real comparison.

That’s the broader question I explore in Selling Your House With or Without a Real Estate Broker in Quebec: 8 Questions to Ask Before Deciding.

What About Ubee? Its Model Is Different

Ubee deserves a separate analysis.

The platform allows homeowners to compare brokers and also offers an avenue for selling on their own. Its current commission-free package includes professional photos, an appraisal report, legal support and other services for a fixed price rather than a percentage of the sale price.

But the comparison model raises another interesting question.

If One Broker Costs $5,000 Less Than Another, Did You Automatically Save $5,000?

Again:

Not demonstrated.

You know one thing.

You paid $5,000 less.

That’s a fact.

Did you save $5,000?

That depends on what you received in return.

Imagine two brokers.

Broker A:

X.

Broker B:

X minus $5,000.

Which one represents better value?

You can’t determine that from those two numbers alone.

The second one may be better.

Same service.

Better strategy.

Better execution.

Lower price.

Excellent.

Or the two propositions may be very different.

Expertise.

Knowledge of the area.

Availability.

Marketing.

Negotiation.

Guidance.

Execution.

Again:

Paying less is a fact. Saving money is a conclusion.

Price is a data point.

Value requires analysis.

This Isn’t an Article Against DuProprio or Ubee

I’m challenging a premise.

And I’m doing it deliberately.

Because “saving the commission” sounds far more certain than the reasoning actually allows us to prove.

But I’m not going to fall into the opposite trap.

I’m not going to claim:

“With a broker, you’ll automatically get more.”

I can’t prove that either.

You can sell on your own.

You can use DuProprio.

You can use a platform like Ubee.

You can compare several brokers.

You can directly choose the professional you want to work with.

All of those options exist.

But compare real things.

Not simply:

X% versus zero.

Because zero looks very impressive until someone asks:

“Zero for what, exactly?”

The real question is:

What value am I receiving, what responsibilities am I taking on and what overall result am I actually trying to achieve?

A Broker Also Has to Justify Their Value

Now let’s turn the same reasoning back on my own profession.

Because if I expect private sale platforms to demonstrate their premise, I have to accept exactly the same standard.

A broker shouldn’t be able to tell you:

“My service is worth X because my commission is X.”

No.

An invoice doesn’t prove its own value.

If I’m asking you to pay professional remuneration, I need to be able to explain what I provide in return.

How I analyze your market.

Why I selected certain comparables.

How I position your property.

How I present it.

How I manage buyers.

How I interpret the market’s reaction.

How I negotiate.

How I advise you.

Which professional responsibilities I assume.

How I protect and promote your interests when I represent you.

And most importantly:

why any of that should have value to YOU.

Not to my ego.

Not because I hold a licence.

Not because I own a sign.

For your transaction.

The broker has to demonstrate value too.

And if I can’t explain why my involvement is worth what it costs...

you should seriously ask yourself why you would pay me.

If you’re at that stage, here are 9 Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Real Estate Broker in Quebec.

Let’s Go Back to Our Two Condos One Last Time

Condo A.

$500,000.

Gym.

Pool.

Condo B.

$500,000.

No gym.

No pool.

The owner of Condo B tells you:

“I’m saving the cost of the gym and pool.”

Maybe.

But you’re the buyer.

So you ask one extraordinarily simple question:

“Why should your savings become my cost?”

There it is.

Almost the entire commission question in one sentence.

Now Ask the Same Question of the Seller Without a Broker

You removed the broker.

Maybe you made an excellent decision.

Maybe you’re perfectly capable of handling the necessary functions yourself.

Maybe you’re an exceptional negotiator.

Maybe you’ll achieve a remarkable result.

I have no problem with that.

But if you tell me:

“I saved the commission.”

I’m simply going to ask:

How Do You Know You’re the One Who Saved It?

Because the buyer participated in creating the final price.

The buyer compared your property with others.

The buyer negotiated.

The buyer decided what they were willing to pay.

And the buyer had no obligation to politely hand you the entire economic value of the service you chose to remove.

The market doesn’t owe you your saved commission.

That’s the part a simple percentage calculation doesn’t show.

The Real Question to Ask Before Selling

Don’t only ask:

“How much does the broker cost?”

Don’t only ask:

“How much will I save by selling on my own?”

Don’t only ask:

“Who offers the lowest percentage?”

Instead, ask:

What am I receiving?

What am I removing?

Which responsibilities am I taking on?

Who is protecting my interests?

What strategy will be used?

What value could this service create or protect?

What can I reasonably handle myself?

And what overall outcome am I actually comparing?

Because a big number on a calculator gets attention.

But a big number isn’t proof.

Whether you sell with or without a broker, the property’s documentation and history don’t disappear. My guide to the documents needed to sell a house in Quebec explains what sellers should prepare before listing.

You Didn’t Pay the Commission. But Did You Actually Save It?

That’s ultimately all I’m asking you to question.

Not whether a broker is always the best solution.

Not whether selling on your own is a bad idea.

Not whether a higher commission automatically means better service.

And certainly not whether you should believe a broker simply because they claim they’re “worth the commission.”

I’m only asking you not to confuse two statements:

“I didn’t pay for this service.”

and

“By not paying for this service, I captured all of its economic value.”

The first can be demonstrated with an invoice.

The second would require knowing the outcome of a transaction that never existed.

And once you understand that difference, the famous:

“Save the commission!”

starts looking a lot less like a mathematical conclusion...

and a lot more like what it really is:

a marketing proposition.

Maybe you really did save the commission.

Excellent.

But before celebrating...

finish the calculation.

Because ultimately, one question remains:

If You Remove Something That Has Value, Why Do You Assume That Value Belongs to You?

The buyer may have a very different answer.

And if you want to compare selling on your own with working with me, I don’t want you to take my word for it.

I’d rather do something much simpler.

See your property.

Understand what you’re actually trying to accomplish.

Look at the market.

Then explain what I would do, why I would do it and what my involvement would bring to your transaction.

Then look at my remuneration.

And ask me exactly the same question we’ve been asking throughout this article:

“Does the value Jonathan brings justify what it costs me?”

If yes, we have a reason to work together.

If not, you should probably choose another option.

I have no problem with that comparison.

Quite the opposite.

I want you to make it.

Because the right decision doesn’t begin by arbitrarily eliminating the biggest visible number.

It begins by understanding what you’re getting in return.

Understand First. Advise Second.

The right decision. At the right time... For the right reasons.

Jonathan Cabana
Residential and Commercial Real Estate Broker
eXp Québec
Greater Montreal | South Shore
(514) 476-0730