Real estate law · Sellers
On a sale, our job is to take you from the accepted offer to the funds in your account — through the title work, the mortgage payouts, and the closing transactions. The mechanics are usually quiet. When they aren't, the work is being ahead of the problem rather than reacting to it.
Specialised situations
Most sellers retain a realtor and the standard process runs cleanly. A few situations have rules of their own.
For sale by owner
When you handle the sale yourself. The contract drafting, the legal disclosures, and how to protect yourself without paying a 5% commission.
Disclosure
The Property Disclosure Statement, latent defects, the limits on caveat emptor in BC, and where sellers most commonly get sued after closing.
The standard process
The buyer removes their subjects (financing, inspection, document review). The deposit is paid into trust at the buyer's brokerage or buyer's lawyer. The contract becomes binding.
Together with the contact details for your lender, your strata (if applicable), and your realtor. We open the file, pull title, and start preparing the closing documents.
We request payout statements from each lender on title. The statement gives us the precise amount required to discharge the mortgage on the closing date, including interest and any prepayment penalty.
We prepare the seller's statement of adjustments — the detailed accounting of: the purchase price, the deposit credit (which goes to you on closing), property tax adjustments (a credit or debit depending on whether you have prepaid), strata fee adjustments, our fee, mortgage payouts, and any other applicable items. You review it; we revise if anything is off.
A few days before closing, you sign the Form A transfer, the discharge instructions for any existing mortgages, and the trust conditions for the closing. We can sign by electronic signing, by video, or in person.
We receive the purchase funds from the buyer's lawyer, pay out your mortgage(s) and any other charges, and remit the net proceeds to you by wire transfer or bank draft.
Usually one business day after closing. Your realtor releases the keys to the buyer at the time set out in the contract.
The fee
Our flat fee for a typical residential sale (cash, no mortgages on title to discharge) is $1,200. With one mortgage to pay out, our fee remains $1,200 with $100 added per additional discharge beyond the first. Above $2 million, on First Nations Lands, or on complex multi-title sales, we quote on the file.
On the seller side, you also pay the realtor's commission (set in the listing agreement, typically 7% on the first $100,000 and 2.5% on the balance, sometimes on a different structure), any mortgage prepayment penalties, and a small set of third-party charges. We send you the seller's statement of adjustments before closing so you know your net to the dollar.
Frequently asked
On a typical residential sale: we receive the contract, prepare the documents that transfer title, calculate the payouts of any existing mortgages or charges, prepare the statement of adjustments, send signing documents to you, receive the funds from the buyer's lawyer on closing, pay out your existing mortgage(s), and remit the net proceeds to you.
We get a payout statement from each lender on title — the precise amount required to discharge the mortgage on the closing date, including interest to that date and any prepayment penalty. The buyer's lawyer sends us the purchase price; we pay out each lender from those funds, send any remaining net proceeds to you, and confirm to you (and the buyer's lawyer) that the discharges have been received and registered.
Most fixed-rate mortgages in BC have prepayment penalties calculated as the greater of three months' interest or the interest rate differential. The penalty is included in the lender's payout statement and comes out of the sale proceeds. If the penalty is materially larger than you expected, talk to your broker before closing — sometimes a port or a refinance can reduce the cost. We can give you the lender's payout figure as soon as it arrives so you can make that call.
No. We act for sellers who are out of province or out of country regularly. Documents can be signed by video, by mail, or before a foreign notary, depending on the document and the lender requirements. The work involves slightly more advance planning — particularly around document delivery — but the closing itself runs on the same timeline.
Usually on closing day, by wire transfer or bank draft, after the buyer's funds clear and after we have paid out any mortgages and charges. Most sellers see funds in their account on the closing day or the next business day, depending on the bank's processing times.
Send us the contract and the closing date. We'll come back with a flat-fee quote and a clear next step.