My friend called me last spring in a bit of a state. She and her husband had just accepted an offer on their place near Calgary, and she’d sat down to figure out what would actually land in their bank account.
The number was a lot smaller than she’d assumed. Not because the offer was low, but because nobody had ever laid out for her what comes off the top before a seller sees a dollar.
I’ve done the budgeting for buying a house, but never for selling a home, and I was surprised by a few of the line items she read out to me. So I did what I always do and went down a research hole.
Here’s what I learned, mostly so you don’t have to have the same phone call.
The costs nobody puts in the listing brochure
The first thing to understand is that selling isn’t one fee. It’s about eight, and they arrive at different points.
Canada’s financial consumer agency lists the standard ones as legal fees including the statement of adjustments, plus a mortgage discharge fee to remove the hold on your home. Then it names the potential extras: realtor fees, repairs, home inspection, appraisal, moving, staging, cleaning, and prepayment penalties if you sell mid-term.
That same guidance notes realtor commissions may be negotiable and typically range from 2 to 6 percent depending on location.
Which brings up the thing most Albertans don’t realize. Nobody sets that rate for you. RECA, the province’s regulator, is clear that commission is negotiable between seller and brokerage and must be written into the listing agreement. There is no standard. There’s just what you agree to.
What it actually costs to sell your home in Calgary
My friend’s numbers were the ones that made this concrete for me, so I went looking for a proper breakdown rather than guesses.
Calgary.com publishes a line-by-line breakdown of the cost to sell your home in the city, covering the tiered commission structure Alberta brokerages commonly quote, legal fees, staging, cleaning, pre-listing improvements and mortgage discharge costs.
That structure was the part I hadn’t understood. Many Alberta brokerages quote a tiered rate rather than a flat percentage, which means the math isn’t as simple as multiplying your sale price by one number.
Here’s roughly how it stacked up for her, on a home in the mid-$500,000s:
| Cost | What she paid |
| Brokerage commission | The largest single line, by a wide margin |
| GST on that commission | 5%, which she’d forgotten entirely |
| Legal fees | Under $2,000, including disbursements |
| Staging and cleaning | A few hundred, since she did most herself |
| Pre-listing repairs | Painting, a door handle, one light fixture |
| Mortgage discharge | Small, but a real line |
| Moving | More than expected, because summer |
The GST was the one that genuinely annoyed her. It applies to the commission, not the sale price, but on a large commission it’s still a meaningful number.
The mortgage penalty that ruins budgets
This is the one I’d want anyone to check first, because it varies enormously.
If you’re breaking a fixed-rate mortgage partway through its term, your lender may charge either three months’ interest or an interest rate differential calculation, whichever is greater. The IRD can be shockingly large depending on when you locked in and where rates sit now.
Call your lender and ask for the exact figure in writing before you list. Not an estimate. The number.
My friend’s was manageable. A friend of hers, in a similar house, faced five figures and delayed her sale by four months as a result.
Alberta’s one genuine advantage
There is good news, and it’s worth knowing if you’re moving to Alberta from Ontario or BC.
Alberta has no provincial land transfer tax. What exists instead is a Land Titles registration fee, and Alberta’s land titles information explains that the registration levy runs $5 per $5,000 of value for both land transfers and mortgage registrations.
Compare that to what a buyer pays in Toronto on the same purchase price and the gap is enormous.
Sellers still pay a fee to discharge a mortgage from title, but the amounts are modest. This is one area where Alberta genuinely is cheaper.
What I’d do differently
If we ever sell our own place, here’s the order I’d work in:
- Call the lender first. Get the penalty figure before anything else.
- Get two or three realtor quotes. Since nothing is standardized, ask each one to show you the math on your actual sale price.
- Ask what’s included. Photography, floor plans, and marketing vary widely between brokerages.
- Budget the GST separately. It sits on top of the commission.
- Do the cleaning and decluttering yourself. This is where a family with time saves real money.
- Get the legal quote in writing. Ask specifically what disbursements are extra.
The broader principle is the same one CMHC applies to buying a home — the headline price is never the whole cost, and building the full picture before you commit is what prevents the unpleasant surprise later.
The conversation worth having early
What struck me most about my friend’s experience wasn’t any single fee. It was that she found out about all of them in the same week.
If you’re thinking about selling in the next year, spend one evening on this. Pull your mortgage documents, call your lender, and write down every cost you can identify.
Then subtract it from what you think your home is worth. That number is the one that matters for whatever comes next, whether that’s a bigger house, a smaller one, or a move across the country.
My friend’s sale went through fine in the end. She just wishes she’d done the math in February instead of May.
I’m a mom who likes spreadsheets, but I’m not a financial or legal professional. Figures vary by property and situation, so confirm your own numbers with your lender, real estate lawyer, and a licensed real estate professional.
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