How to Use This Guide

This is the overview. Eight companion articles go deeper on the parts that matter most, and each one is linked in the relevant section below. For the service side of selling, see selling your house in Markham.

Michael John Lau, a REALTOR® with the Kaizen Real Estate Team in Markham, Ontario and a two-time eXp ICON Agent, wrote this series because most of what Markham homeowners find when they search "sell my house" is either generic national advice or American content that does not apply in Ontario. Everything here is Ontario law, Ontario rules and Markham numbers.

Step 1: Understand the Market You Are Actually Selling Into

By property type

One note on that table, because it explains a discrepancy readers will find elsewhere. Some sources publish a Markham townhouse average near $930,000 and others near $1,031,000. Both are right. The higher figure is freehold townhouses only. The lower one blends freehold with condominium townhouses. Always check which is being quoted before comparing your home to it.

Across the wider Greater Toronto Area, August 2026 saw 5,057 sales at an average of $993,410, both down modestly year over year. Markham is running above the regional average on price and roughly in line on pace.

Step 2: Choose When to List

This decision is worth more than most sellers think, and the data does not say what people assume.

• The most sales happen in June. June 2026 recorded 6,770 GTA sales, the highest of the last 24 months.
• Homes sell fastest from March to May. Days on market bottomed at 27 in May 2026 and 24 in March 2025.
• Sellers face the least competition in December. December 2025 saw 3,697 sales against just 5,299 new listings. May 2025 saw 6,244 sales against 21,819 new listings.
• September is the worst month to add a listing. Listings flood back after Labour Day faster than buyers do, giving September the lowest ratio of sales to new listings of any month.

"Most sales" and "best conditions for a seller" are different months. The full month-by-month breakdown, with the numbers behind each one, is in Best Time to Sell My House in Markham.

Step 3: Know What It Will Cost

Selling costs in Ontario commonly total 3% to 6% of the sale price. The main components:

• Commission, which is fully negotiable in Ontario with no standard or legislated rate
• HST at 13% on the commission, paid by the seller
• Legal fees, commonly quoted between $800 and $2,000 plus disbursements
• Mortgage discharge fee, roughly $260 to $340 at the major lenders, plus an $80.50 Ontario discharge registration fee
• Prepayment penalty, if breaking a mortgage early. This is the single largest avoidable surprise.
• Status certificate for a condominium, capped by regulation at $100 including tax
• Preparation costs: staging, photography, repairs, cleaning

The seller does not pay land transfer tax in Ontario. The buyer does. And Markham buyers pay only the provincial tax, because Markham has no municipal land transfer tax.

Every line item, with sourced ranges and the mortgage penalty mechanics, is in What It Costs to Sell a House in Markham.

Step 4: Decide How You Will Be Represented

Two things changed on 1 December 2023 that most sellers still do not know about.

Designated representation

Under the older model, the brokerage represented you, and your confidential information was available brokerage-wide. Under designated representation, a named individual represents you, and only that person may access your confidential information. Every other agent at the firm stays neutral.

This matters practically. Under designated representation, if a colleague at the same brokerage brings a buyer, that is not multiple representation. Under the older brokerage model, it is. Ask which model a brokerage uses. It is a fair listing-interview question.

The open offer process

A seller may now direct their brokerage in writing to disclose the substance of competing offers, in whole or in part: price, deposit, closing date, conditions. Separately, and regardless of the seller's choice, the brokerage must tell every person submitting a written offer how many competing written offers exist.

Two limits are firm. The disclosure must never include information identifying who made an offer. And a seller can change the direction at any point, including mid-process.

Ontario did not ban blind bidding. Blind bidding remains the default. TRESA made openness an option a seller elects.

Buyers have started responding by inserting confidentiality clauses in their offers that revoke the seller's ability to disclose that offer's contents. That is worth knowing before you plan a strategy around openness.

Step 5: Consider Whether You Need a REALTOR® at All

It is a legitimate question and it deserves a straight answer rather than a defensive one.

A private seller in Ontario cannot list directly on REALTOR.ca. Access runs through a member brokerage, which is what a mere posting is, and those start around $350 plus HST for a six-month MLS posting. On top of the flat fee, a listing on the MLS System must still offer cooperating compensation greater than zero under CREA's rule, so the flat fee is not the whole cost.

The honest data position: there is no robust current Canadian study comparing private-sale proceeds to agent-assisted proceeds. The only Canadian analysis found covers 2021, is GTA-only, uses a roughly 1% sample, and its authors expressly describe it as not a scientific comparison. Anyone quoting a confident percentage is almost certainly quoting American data from a different regulatory system.

The full picture, including what a private seller must handle personally, is in Selling Without a REALTOR® in Markham.

Step 6: Prepare the Home, or Decide Not To

Not every home should be prepared. Some should be sold exactly as they stand, and there are good reasons for that: an estate that cannot fund repairs, a separation where neither party will invest, a property whose value is in the land.

What "as-is" does not do is remove a seller's disclosure obligations. Under Ontario law a seller must disclose known latent defects that render a property unsafe or uninhabitable. An "as-is" clause does not cure a known hidden defect.

The three real options, and how to choose between them, are in Selling a Markham House As-Is. If speed is the driver, How to Sell Fast Without Leaving Money on the Table covers which levers actually move timelines.

If the goal is the highest achievable price rather than the fastest close, Ten Ways to Sell for Top Dollar in Markham works through the preparation, pricing and negotiation decisions in order.

Step 7: Price It Against Evidence

Markham has been selling at 98% of list price with homes averaging 33 days on market. That is a market that rewards accurate pricing and punishes optimism, because a home that sits collects a history that buyers can see.

Pricing should come from sold comparables for your specific community and property type, not from the city-wide average in this article. A free Markham home evaluation is the starting point. Berczy Village and Milliken Mills West are both in the $1,208,692 figure, and neither is described by it.

Step 8: Handle Offers and Close

Your listing brokerage must keep written offers that were not accepted for at least a year, and records generally for six years. That is the backstop against the phantom-offer concern sellers sometimes raise.

One rule that surprises sellers: advertising a sold price requires written consent from both the buyer and the seller. Your agent needs your permission to post "sold for over asking," and the buyer can decline as well.

Another: if an unrepresented buyer wants your home, your listing agent cannot advise them. Under TRESA, a registrant is prohibited from providing services, opinions or advice to a self-represented party. They owe that person honesty and fair dealing, and nothing more. Plan for that friction rather than discovering it during a negotiation.

Special Situations

Two circumstances change the process enough to need their own treatment.

Separation or divorce. Ontario's Family Law Act requires a non-titled spouse to consent to the sale of a matrimonial home. Critically, those protections apply to married spouses only. Common-law partners have no matrimonial home rights in Ontario, regardless of how long they have lived together. Full detail in Selling a Markham Home During a Divorce.

Downsizing. The gap between a Markham detached home and a condominium apartment was roughly $973,000 in August 2026, which is the number that funds a retirement. It comes with tax reporting obligations, deferred property taxes that become due on sale, and a sell-first-or-buy-first decision. Covered in Downsizing in Markham: A Retiree's Guide.

Next Steps

• Get a free Markham home evaluation — The starting point for every seller conversation.
• See how the selling process works — What representation actually includes, start to finish.
• Book a seller consultation — A conversation about your property and your timeline.