Common questions

Questions people actually ask

Short answers, grouped. Where a question deserves more than a paragraph, the answer links to the page that covers it properly.

About ClickHomes

What this is, what it costs, and where it works.

What is ClickHomes?

A real estate platform for the Greater Toronto Area. Search and compare listings, run the numbers on a purchase, sale or tenancy with fifteen calculators, look at market data by area, and connect with a licensed agent when you want one. Listings come from TRREB board data through a RESO-compliant pipeline.

Start here
Which areas does it cover?

The GTA and surrounding communities — Milton, Oakville, Burlington, Mississauga, Brampton, Toronto and the rest of the TRREB area. Market data goes down to neighbourhood and street level.

Browse areas
Is it free?

The tools are free and none of them are behind an account: search, comparison, all fifteen calculators, home value estimates, market analytics and the AI assistant. An account keeps your shortlist, searches and scenarios between visits — that is the only thing it adds.

Do I need an account to keep a calculator result?

No. Every calculator has a "Keep this result" panel under the answer. Enter an email and the full breakdown arrives as a PDF, with each figure marked as yours, our assumption, market data, or set by law.

What each calculator answers
Does it work on a phone?

Yes, and it installs to your home screen as an app. It works offline for pages you have already visited and supports push notifications for the alerts you set up.

Is ClickHomes a brokerage?

No. We are a platform. We do not represent you, cannot advise you on a transaction, and nobody here can act on your behalf. We connect you to licensed agents who can.

Working with an agent

Buying

Working out what you can afford, and what a purchase actually costs.

How much can I afford?

The affordability calculator works it out from your income, debts and down payment, and — importantly — qualifies you at the stress-test rate rather than the rate you would be quoted. That is why its answer is lower than a simple payment sum suggests, and it is the number a lender will actually apply.

Affordability calculator
What is the mortgage stress test?

Federally regulated lenders must qualify you at the greater of your contract rate plus two percentage points, or a floor rate set by OSFI. You are approved on a payment higher than the one you would make, which is why your maximum price is meaningfully below what your quoted rate implies. Credit unions and private lenders are not always bound by the same rule.

Affordability calculator
What is the minimum down payment in Canada?

It is tiered by purchase price, with a higher rate on the portion above the first threshold and a flat minimum above a second. Rather than restate the bands here where they can go stale, the calculator computes the exact minimum for your price and tells you whether the purchase is insurable at all.

Down payment planner
What is mortgage default insurance and when do I need it?

Also called CMHC insurance. It is required when your down payment is under 20%, and it protects the lender rather than you. The premium is added to your mortgage — but in Ontario the 8% PST on that premium is not, and is due in cash at closing. That last part is the one most budgets miss.

Mortgage calculator
How much is land transfer tax?

Ontario charges it on a bracket schedule, and a purchase inside the City of Toronto attracts a second municipal tax on top — roughly doubling it. First-time buyer rebates apply to both but rarely erase either. The calculator applies the current brackets and rebates for your price and location.

Land transfer tax calculator
What closing costs should I budget for?

Land transfer tax, legal fees, title insurance, a home inspection, the status certificate on a condo, and adjustments for tax and utilities the seller prepaid. On an insured mortgage, add the PST on the insurance premium. The tool itemises all of it for your purchase price.

Closing costs calculator
What about the FHSA, the RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan and the Home Buyers’ Amount?

All three can be used on the same purchase, and stacking them is usually the right move for a first-time buyer. The contribution and withdrawal limits are set federally and change with budgets, so check the current figures with the Canada Revenue Agency rather than trusting any third-party page — including this one.

How the three stack
Should I take a 30-year amortization?

A longer amortization lowers the payment and raises total interest — the trade is buying power now against cost over the life of the loan. Insured 30-year terms are available to first-time buyers and on new builds, with conditions. Run both and compare the total, not just the payment.

Mortgage calculator

Selling

What your home might be worth, and what you keep.

How accurate is the home value estimate?

It is a range built from comparable sales nearby, with a confidence rating based on how many were found. Under three comparables it is leaning on city-wide averages and should be read as very wide. It cannot see condition, renovations, aspect or anything that made a comparable sale unusual.

Where our numbers come from
What will I actually walk away with?

Sale price less commission, HST on that commission, legal fees and your mortgage discharge — and on an investment property, possibly capital gains tax. The HST is the line most sums forget: commission attracts 13% in Ontario, which is $6,500 on a $50,000 commission.

Net proceeds calculator
Is commission negotiable?

Yes, and what it buys varies between brokerages. Worth asking specifically: what marketing is included, who runs the showings, and how offers will be presented to you.

Selling, start to close
How long will it take to sell?

The timeline tool breaks it into preparing, listing and showing, offers, and closing, using typical days on market for your city and property condition. Preparation is the phase most sellers underestimate.

Selling timeline
What is worth doing before listing?

Cleaning, decluttering and professional photography return more per dollar than a renovation, almost always. The seller workspace keeps a prep list with cost ranges so you can decide what pays.

Seller workspace

Renting and letting

All-in costs, deposits, and whether a rent increase is lawful.

Why is the rent I pay higher than the advertised rent?

Utilities, tenant insurance, internet and parking are usually on top, and together they routinely add $300 to $600 a month. The rental affordability tool costs it all in and shows the gap against the advertised figure.

Rental affordability
How much deposit can a landlord ask for in Ontario?

A residential rent deposit is capped at one month’s rent, and it must be applied to the last month of the tenancy. It is not a damage deposit and cannot be spent on repairs.

Renting without surprises
Is my rent increase legal?

For most units Ontario caps the annual increase, requires twelve months since the last one, and requires ninety days’ written notice. Units first occupied after 15 November 2018 are exempt from the cap, though the timing and notice rules still apply. The tool checks all four.

Rent increase check
Should I rent or buy?

Over a short horizon renting usually wins. The crossover depends on price growth, your mortgage rate, and what the down payment would otherwise earn invested — which is why the tool asks for all three rather than assuming them.

Rent vs buy
I am letting a property out. What will I net?

Gross rent less vacancy between tenants, any free-month incentive, the leasing commission and your carrying costs. A unit advertised at $2,500 with one free month and three weeks of vacancy nets closer to $2,100 a month.

Landlord rent strategy

Data and market numbers

Where the figures come from and how fresh they are.

How current is the data?

Listings and market statistics refresh daily rather than continuously. For the live status of one specific property — whether it is still available, whether an offer is in — the listing agent is the only reliable source.

What is the average price where I am looking?

It changes every month, so we do not print a number here that would be wrong by the time you read it. The analytics pages show current averages, days on market, sale-to-list ratio and months of inventory for the area you choose.

Market analytics
What do days on market, sale-to-list and months of inventory mean?

Days on market is how long a listing sat before selling — low means competition. Sale-to-list compares sold price to asking, so above 100% means homes are going over. Months of inventory is listings divided by monthly sales: under two is a seller’s market, over four is a buyer’s. All three are on the analytics pages for your area.

Market analytics
Is now a good time to buy?

Nobody can answer that for you, and anyone who does is guessing. What we can give you is the current inventory, price trend and days on market for the specific area you are considering, plus tools to work out what you could carry. The honest general answer is that the right time is when you can afford it and expect to stay put for several years.

Market analytics

Privacy, email and your data

What we store, who sees it, and how to stop hearing from us.

What do you store about me?

Browsing signed out, only your shortlist and search in this browser — nothing that identifies you. With an account, your email, name and the things you save. If you ask for a report by email, your address plus the scenario you ran, which is stated on the form before you send it.

What we store, in full
What does an agent see when I contact one?

Your contact details, the city and property type you named, the tool you came from with the scenario you had on screen, and anything you typed. The scenario is included so the first conversation is not them asking you to repeat numbers you already entered.

Working with an agent
Does using a calculator send anything to an agent?

No. Running a tool, saving a home or building a comparison sends nothing. A lead is created only when you submit a form or ask for a report by email.

How do I stop the emails?

Every commercial email carries a one-click unsubscribe, in the message and in its headers, and it works without signing in. Deleting a saved search stops its alerts too. Account mail — password resets and address verification — has no unsubscribe, because it is how you keep control of your account.

Email and alerts
Do you sell my data?

No. We do not sell personal information to third parties. Your details go to an agent only when you ask to be contacted.

Privacy policy
Can I have my account deleted?

Yes, from your account settings. Where a lead has already gone to a brokerage, that brokerage holds its own record under its own obligations and you would need to ask them — we cannot delete data on another company’s behalf.

What we store, in full
What happens to my AI chat conversations?

They are stored with your account so a conversation can continue across visits, and they are not used to train external models. If you asked to be contacted, the assigned agent can read the transcript — which is the point, so you do not have to explain yourself twice.

For agents

Short answers. The full documentation is a separate section.

What does the agent workspace include?

A lead inbox with scoring and routing, a pipeline, AI chat with handoff, showings and scheduling, tasks, email and campaigns, area farming, pre-listing packages, market data, new-home inventory, and public pages you can put your own domain on.

Agent documentation
How do I get started?

There is an ordered first-hour setup: notifications before leads, so nothing arrives where you are not looking, and your public page before any campaign, so you are not driving traffic to a placeholder.

Your first hour
Are my public pages branded as ClickHomes?

No. They carry your name, your brand and your domain if you want one. They share our behaviour underneath — accessibility, consent handling, lead capture — but not our identity.

Your public pages
Can a client see their lead score?

No. Lead scores, quality buckets and engagement metrics are excluded from every consumer-facing surface, and the assistant cannot report them either. That boundary is enforced in the backend rather than left to the interface to remember.

How scoring and routing work
How do I join?

Apply through the agent page. You will need your licence details and your brokerage.

Join as an agent