Selling a House That Needs Repairs in Ontario or Alberta: Fix It or Sell As Is?

If you are selling a house that needs repairs in Ontario or Alberta, the first question is almost always whether to fix it before it goes on the market. Most sellers assume they have to. They do not. There is no law in either province that forces you to repair a house before you sell it, and houses change hands every month with bad roofs, wet basements and kitchens from 1978. What you do have to do is tell the truth about what you know, and that is a completely different obligation from fixing anything.

Here is how the decision actually works, what you are legally on the hook for, and how to tell which side of the line your house falls on.

You do not have to repair the house, but you do have to disclose

Ontario and Alberta both run on caveat emptor, which is buyer beware. The buyer is expected to look at the house and get an inspection. A patent defect, meaning something visible or findable on a reasonable inspection, generally does not have to be volunteered. A cracked driveway, a stained ceiling, a sagging deck: a buyer walking through with their eyes open is expected to see those.

Latent defects are the exception, and this is where sellers get themselves into real trouble. A latent defect is a problem you know about that a buyer would not find by looking. If it makes the house dangerous or unfit to live in, you have to disclose it. That duty comes from common law, not from the contract, which means an “as is” clause does not erase it and neither does the buyer failing to ask the right question.

In practice that means things like knob and tube wiring behind finished walls that you know is there, a foundation you had patched after it leaked, a furnace a technician told you was cracked, or a history you would rather not mention. Those get disclosed.

In Ontario, the Seller Property Information Statement is voluntary. No law requires you to fill one out. But once you do fill one out and hand it to a buyer, every answer on it becomes a statement you are responsible for. A half remembered answer about when the roof was done can turn into a claim two years later. In Alberta the same common law duty applies, and most Alberta residential deals also call for a Real Property Report with evidence of municipal compliance, which tends to surface things like a deck or a shed sitting over a setback. That is worth knowing before you list, because it is a document you pay for and then wait on.

When repairs on a house that needs work are worth doing

There is one clean rule here. Repairs are worth doing when they move the house from unfinanceable back to normal. Everything else is a judgment call.

A buyer who needs a mortgage needs insurance, and an insurer will refuse some things no matter how good the kitchen looks. Knob and tube wiring. A 60 amp panel. An active roof leak. An oil tank past its service life. Those are not cosmetic problems, they are gatekeeping problems. Each one shrinks your buyer pool down to cash buyers and investors, which means you end up negotiating on their terms anyway, just slower and after paying commission.

If a few thousand dollars of electrical work puts your house back in front of every mortgage approved buyer in the city, that is usually money well spent. Fixing it also means you are not explaining it at every showing.

Cosmetic work is where sellers lose money. New counters, refinished floors, a bathroom gut job. These feel productive and they photograph well, but it is common to spend more on a cosmetic upgrade than it adds to the final price, and you find out eleven weeks later. If the house needs structural, electrical, plumbing or water work on top of that, cosmetic spending is money poured into a house you are leaving.

Our how we buy houses page walks through how we look at a property that has known problems, which is a reasonable benchmark even if you decide to list.

What selling the traditional way costs on top of the repairs

Repairs are one line on the page. If you list, commission is the big one.

Ontario has no regulated commission rate. Most brokerages charge between 4% and 6% of the sale price, with 5% the most common arrangement in 2026, and HST at 13% applies on top. On a $600,000 Ontario sale at 5%, commission is $30,000, which is $33,900 once HST is added.

Alberta usually works on a tiered structure instead, commonly 7% on the first $100,000 and 3% on the balance, with 5% GST on top. On a $500,000 Alberta sale that is $7,000 plus $12,000, so $19,000 in commission and $19,950 with GST. Rates in both provinces are negotiable and vary between brokerages, so the number on your listing agreement is the one that counts.

Then add the lines people forget. Legal fees. Mortgage discharge. Property tax and utility adjustments to the closing date. And every month the house sits, you are still paying the mortgage, the insurance, the heat and the taxes on a house you have already mentally moved out of. On a house that needs work, that stretch is usually longer, because the buyers who want a project are a much smaller crowd than the buyers who want to unpack and order pizza.

What a buyer is actually pricing when the house needs work

A retail buyer with a mortgage does not price repairs the way you do. You see a roof quote. They see the roof quote, plus a contractor they have to find, plus weeks of scheduling, plus the risk that the roofer opens it up and finds rotten sheathing underneath. So they discount for the work, then the hassle, then the unknown. That stack usually lands well past the number on your quote.

It is also why inspection conditions kill so many deals on houses that need work. The buyer gets a report listing fourteen items, and they either walk or come back asking for a credit that erases whatever you saved by not fixing anything. Sellers call us from that exact spot most weeks, often after a second deal has fallen apart. Some of them end up on our reviews page.

Selling a house as is in Ontario or Alberta

Selling as is means the buyer takes the house in its current condition and prices that in up front. You do not fix the roof, you do not paint, you do not stage, and you do not have to empty the basement if you do not want to. The trade is straightforward. The price is lower than a renovated house on the same street would get, and in exchange you keep the repair money, the commission, the carrying costs and the months.

Two things worth being blunt about. Selling as is does not cancel your duty to disclose a known latent defect, so say what you know. And a real as is offer should not move after someone has walked the property. If an offer drops once a buyer has seen the basement, that was never a firm offer, it was a placeholder. Our FAQ covers how we price and what happens after you accept.

How to make the call

Run it as a comparison, not a feeling. Take a realistic listed price for the house repaired. Subtract the repair quotes, the commission plus tax, the legal fees, and the carrying costs for however long you honestly think it sits. Then compare that number against a cash offer on the house exactly as it stands today.

Sometimes listing wins by a wide margin, and when it does, you should list. We tell people that. But on houses with structural, water or electrical problems, the two numbers land closer together than almost anyone expects, and the as is number arrives with no conditions, no showings and a closing date you choose.

If you are not sure which side your house falls on, tell us what is wrong with it and we will give you a straight answer, including when you are better off listing. You can contact us or call (226) 988-9380.

This is general information, not legal advice. Talk to a real estate lawyer about your own disclosure obligations before you sign anything.

Get a cash offer on a house that needs repairs

Tell us what the house needs. No repairs, no cleaning, no showings, and you pick the closing date.

We Buy Houses! Get Your Cash Offer Now!

Areas We Serve Across Ontario & Alberta

We buy houses in cities and towns right across both provinces. You can get a cash offer today on a property in any of these areas.