Is Buy.ca Legit or Not? Separating Fact From Fiction About This Tech-Enabled Brokerage

The real estate landscape in Canada is crowded. There’s no doubt about that. So new players that enter into the space have to get creative to make sure they stand out. But the trouble that can come with creativity in a space like real estate, that hasn’t innovated much, is that it can make potential buyers wary.  

Case in point, Buy.ca’s Down Payment Boost program. To cut through the noise amongst agents trying to reach prospective buyers, the Buy.ca team came up with an offering and a marketing strategy that revolved around providing cash back, upfront to be used towards a down payment.

While many buyers were intrigued and eager to sign up, there has also been a fair number who have thought that it’s too good to be true, and ask questions like “is Buy.ca legit?” and  “Is the Down Payment Boost program a scam?” 

In this blog we’ll take a closer look at each component of Buy.ca and its Down Payment Boost Program to address these questions more. But TLDR? Buy.ca is legit, the Down Payment Boost program is not a scam, and if you’re looking to buy, you could save a lot by exploring both. 

What is Buy.ca?

We’ve all heard of, or used sites like HouseSigma, Realtor.ca and more to look up listings. It doesn’t matter whether we’re looking to buy or just curious about how much a property is going for – doing deep dives into property values, features and neighbourhoods we like and transaction histories is a common pastime for many Canadians. 

But over the years, the user experience hasn’t changed much.

After being avid users of the usual listing sites, the team behind Buy.ca came together to try to build something better – a listing platform and real estate brokerage that could solve the pain points buyers are constantly faced with. 

Driven by the fact that buyers are getting priced out of the markets they’re familiar with, and they need better ways to discover new communities to call home, we got to building. We started with the bare bones of listing details, and then began enriching the search experience with more data sets and intuitive ways to search.

A big part of this journey has been partnering with real estate tech authority, Repliers. Using their APIs our team has been able to accelerate building out our platform.  A quick tangent here, for any brokerages and agents looking to build out a site, and needing a better way to not only manage and display listing data, but create a great user experience, we can’t recommend them enough. 

Buy.ca’s Down Payment Boost Program

In addition to the Buy.ca platform, Buy.ca also offers programs to help buyers find and close on properties faster and with fewer hurdles to cross. If this sounds too good to be true, keep reading for a breakdown on how each offering works. 

Upfront Cash Back

Cash back for real estate transactions has existed for ages. But typically the cash back is paid out after the transaction is complete, and the buying agent gets their commission. 

At Buy.ca we take 1% commission, and we advance you the remainder (i.e. 1.5% when the buying agent commission is the typical 2.5%). This is made possible through our mortgage brokerage partner. They also provide you an additional advance of up to 0.5%, that they facilitate through the lender. That means you could get 2% cash back upfront, up to $50K, to use towards your down payment.

Now in order to take advantage of the upfront cash back, you have to work with Perch, our mortgage brokerage partner. But we try to keep things as flexible as possible for you. So, you can get a pre-approval done with them to see how much you could qualify for with a soft credit check. This doesn’t lock you into choosing them as your mortgage brokerage, but it does give you a lot more information to work with.

If you want to work with another mortgage brokerage, you’re more than welcome to. But as our upfront cash back for the down payment is facilitated by Perch, with any other mortgage brokerage we provide the cash back after the transaction is complete and it will be the remainder of the buying agent commission after we take 1% (e.g. 1.5%, based on the typical 2.5% commission). 

So, is this offer from Buy.ca legit? 100%. But since we can only cram so much into our campaigns, you’ll usually get the high-level message when you come across one of our ads, to entice you to reach out and learn more.

Savings on your mortgage 

In addition to the savings of the upfront cash back, by working with Perch we’ve also secured up to 0.25% in savings on the prevailing market rate for our clients. This means that you’ll save thousands of dollars over the course of your mortgage. 

At this point, another question might have cropped up for you – is Perch legit? 

Here’s a quick backgrounder on them: 

• Founded in 2018 by CEO Alex Leduc, who previously worked for several publicly-traded mortgage companies
• Perch is a proud member of the Canadian Lenders Association, MaRS, and Communitech
• They’ve funded $400M mortgages funded to date, for thousands of Canadian homebuyers.

Flat Fee Closing Services

At Buy.ca we want to make every step of a real estate transaction more seamless and cost-effective. Because, let’s be honest – the various service providers involved tend to charge way more than the value they provide.

That’s why we’re working with Doormat, Ontario’s real estate lawyer, to offer our clients access to flat-fee closing services. Doormat offers our clients a seamless, remote closing experience for just $879 + disbursements.

For those learning about Doormat for the first time, here’s a quick snapshot about them:

• Founded in 2022, Doormat was the second company to join the Law Society of Ontario’s (LSO) Access to Innovation (A2I) program
• Doormat offers the services of expert real estate lawyers through a transparent and secure process, which includes a digital dashboard to allow buyers to track their closing progress. And they do this for 25% less than the conventional service providers.
• They also offer services for mortgage refinancing and ownership changes.

Buy.ca’s Most Popular Features

So what are these features that we think are so great? Well, keep reading, and you’ll get a snapshot below: 

21 Years of Transaction History

When you pull up a listing on Buy.ca you access up to 21 years of transaction history so that you can get a sense of the bigger picture of how well a property has done over time.

We also use this data to populate reports on trends for different communities and property types so that you have reliable metrics to guide you, whether you’re analyzing or comparing individual properties or communities.

AI Visual Search

We know, we know – everyone and anyone has launched an AI-powered this, or that. But this isn’t just fluff and hype. Our AI Visual Search allows you to find listings that have a feature you love, simply by describing it in text or uploading an image of it.

Once you’ve input the details of the feature, we populate all of the listings that have that feature for you, and display the image of it first. This way you can do a side by side comparison. You can then use our extensive filters to short list the results.  

AI-Powered Natural Language Search

Our natural language search allows Buy.ca users to find properties using a text or voice input. This search experience allows you to describe what you’re looking for, rather than having to search through and select filters (though you search that way if you prefer).

Once your results are populated from your prompt, you can look at your search results using our listing or map view where you’ll find additional filters and details to peruse. 

Proximity Search

Using Buy.ca’s map view, you can search for properties that are within a certain distance of a point of interest. Say you want to find a place close to a school or workplace – maybe both. You can use our proximity search to find options. And then, you can use our additional filters to help you find homes that match your other criteria as well.

Just enter the location, the mode of transportation you’re calculating the commute via (i.e. car, bike, public transit, or walking) and the desired amount of time. We’ll then get you results that are in line with your search. 

The Future of Buy.ca

Buy.ca has built itself up as an innovative player in the Canadian real estate market, offering unique features like AI-driven search tools and the Down Payment Boost program. These initiatives aim to simplify the home-buying process and provide financial flexibility for buyers.

While skepticism is natural with any unconventional offering, Buy.ca’s partnerships with reputable, reliable partners is all a part of our mission to help buyers navigate the most complex transactions they face, with a team that supports them every step of the way.  

That’s why we’re continuing to explore and build new partnerships that will help solve and transform even more of the pain points that Canadian buyers are faced with, before and after they buy. As we officially launch these partnerships, we’ll feature them on our site and social media profiles, so stay tuned for more updates, and better ways to buy, with Buy.ca.