Every agent in the GTA says they "do pre-construction." Ask the next one how an occupancy period works, what an assignment clause actually permits, or when HST rebates go sideways — and watch the confidence drain. Pre-construction is the most lucrative lane most agents never properly enter. Not because the deals aren't there — the GTA launches thousands of units a year — but because the lane has gatekeepers, its own paperwork, and enough legal trapdoors that dabbling is dange

Your registration expires on a date you have not looked at in two years. RECO does not chase you. Miss it and you are not an agent that morning. Renewal is not hard. It is just unforgiving about timing. What the two-year cycle actually requires Continuing education, completed before you can renew. Which courses depends on where you are in your career - the first renewal after registering is not the same as the ones that follow. The renewal application and fee, filed through y

Your licence took a few months. Your first deal will take longer — unless someone shows you the work the course never covered. Registration education teaches you the rules. It does not teach you to win a listing, paper a bully offer at 9 p.m., or survive month four when the pipeline is empty. That gap is where most new agents quietly exit the business. It is also where a brokerage earns its split. What real training looks like Ask any brokerage "do you have training?" and the

The purchase price gets negotiated once. The chattels list gets fought over twice - at the offer, and on walkthrough day. I review agreements for a living. Price is almost never the problem. Clause 4 is. The rule nobody writes down Attached to the building, it's a fixture - it stays. Freestanding, it's a chattel - it goes with the seller. That's the common-law default, and it works right up until someone bolts a $3,000 TV to the wall. The APS exists to override the default. C

REBBA is gone. TRESA runs the show now — and if your understanding of the rules stopped in 2022, you're working off an old map. The name change nobody explained to you The Trust in Real Estate Services Act replaced REBBA in stages, fully in force since December 2023. New Code of Ethics, new disclosure rules, new ways you're allowed to represent people. Same licence — different rulebook. Designated representation is your new option Under REBBA, if two agents in the same broker

RECO publishes every enforcement action it takes. Read them like a map of where careers go to die. The same handful of mistakes show up again and again — and every one of them is avoidable. Trust money is the fastest way to lose your licence The single most common reason RECO revokes a registration is deposits: money into the trust account late, disbursed without authority, or reconciliations that don't add up. It isn't glamorous and it ends careers. Deposits hit the brokerag

Most agents pick a brokerage on one number - the split. Then they pay for that decision all year in things nobody showed them at the interview. Here are the fifteen questions that actually separate Toronto brokerages. Ask every one. And because a comparison you can't check is just marketing, our own answers are on the record below each. 1. Who answers at 9 p.m.? Deals don't die at 9 a.m. Ask if a broker - not a voicemail - is reachable after hours. Where we stand: brokerage s

Your seller signs a firm deal on Monday and passes away on Thursday. The buyer still wants the house. Does the deal survive? It does — and the agents who don't know what happens next are the ones who lose the closing. The deal doesn't die with the seller A firm Agreement of Purchase and Sale binds the seller's estate. Death doesn't cancel it. The obligations pass to whoever has authority to act for the estate, and the buyer can hold them to it. Who can actually sign now This

Your seller lights up at the number. Your job is to read what's under it - because the highest offer is sometimes the easiest one to walk away from. Price is one term. Certainty is the deal. Price, deposit, closing date - that's where every listing presentation stops. But an offer's real strength is how hard it is to escape. A firm $1.38M beats a conditional $1.4M that evaporates in nine days, and it isn't close. The escape hatch, in its natural habitat Read this condition th

Every split sounds generous in the recruiting pitch. Then you do the math. The four numbers that actually matter A split is one number out of four. Any brokerage quoting you just the split is hoping you stop counting. The split - your percentage of each commission cheque. The cap - the point where the brokerage stops taking its share for the year. No cap means no ceiling on what you pay. Fixed fees - monthly desk, admin, or technology fees. You pay these whether you close or

Your first brokerage decides whether you survive year one. Most new agents pick on split percentage. That's how you end up with 95% of nothing. The split math nobody shows you A 95/5 split with no leads, no training and no answers is a desk fee with extra steps. A lower split with real support pays for itself on your first saved deal. Run the numbers on what you keep after two closed deals - not the percentage on a deal you haven't closed. Five questions that expose any broke

Most agents get the order of operations wrong. I'm a lawyer and a Broker of Record - I've signed both sides of these transfers. Here's the sequence, start to finish. Step 1: read your contract before you decide anything Penalties. Auto-renew provisions. Minimum notice. Your independent contractor agreement decides how expensive the door is - read it before you touch the handle. Sometimes leaving has a price, and paying it is a straight business decision. It can also be a game