Guides
How a Real Estate Transaction Works
A plain-language, step-by-step walkthrough for buyers, sellers, and renters in Ontario — what happens, in what order, and what to have ready.
How your agent screens tenants, negotiates the lease, and manages move-in day for you.
Your agent confirms ownership
Before listing your property for rent, your agent verifies that you're the legal owner — or otherwise have the legal authority to lease it. This protects you and everyone else in the transaction.
List and market
You sign an agreement with your agent covering how the rental will be marketed and shown to prospective tenants.
Pricing strategy
The same market-cycle thinking applies as it does to a sale. Your agent helps set a rent price that reflects current demand, balancing how quickly you want the unit filled against getting full market rent.
Screening tenants
Your agent reviews each applicant's qualification — income relative to rent, credit score, legal status, and supporting documents — before you ever have to meet them, so you only spend time on serious, qualified candidates.
Reviewing offers
Rental applications come in with a proposed rent, deposit, and lease terms. Your agent presents each one and negotiates on your behalf.
Signing and deposit
Once you accept an offer, both sides sign and a confirmation is issued. The tenant then has 24 hours to submit their deposit into the brokerage's trust account, where it's held safely until the tenancy begins.
Move-in day
Your agent meets the tenant to hand over the keys, and confirms — before the keys change hands — that the tenant has transferred utility accounts into their name, paid the refundable key deposit, provided post-dated rent cheques, and shown proof of tenant liability insurance.