Commission in Ontario is negotiated between you and the brokerage you list with. There is no fixed or standard rate, and any suggestion otherwise is wrong. It is set out in your listing agreement, and it is generally paid from the proceeds on closing and split between the listing brokerage and the brokerage representing the buyer.

What it should buy you is worth asking about specifically: pricing analysis based on real comparable sales, advice on which preparation is worth doing, professional photography, the marketing itself, management of showings and offers, negotiation, and coordination through to closing.

The useful question is not only what the rate is. It is what is included, what the brokerage pays for and what you pay for, and what happens if the property does not sell. Ask all three before you sign, and get the answers in the agreement.

If you are still in a mortgage term and you break it to sell, your lender may charge a prepayment penalty. How it is calculated differs between fixed and variable mortgages and between lenders, and on a fixed mortgage it can be substantial.

Two things can reduce or remove it. Porting moves your existing mortgage to your new property, which usually requires buying within a set window and qualifying again. Assumption, where the buyer takes over your mortgage, is less common but exists.

Phone your lender before you list and ask for the penalty figure in writing as of your expected closing date, along with whether porting is available and what the conditions are. This is a five minute call that occasionally changes whether selling now makes sense at all.

Separately from the penalty, there is usually an administrative discharge fee to remove the mortgage from title. Smaller, but it is there.

Where a property has been your principal residence for the whole time you owned it, there is generally relief from tax on the gain. Where it has not, including investment properties, second homes and periods when the property was rented, the position is different and some or all of the gain may be taxable.

There are also reporting requirements on the sale of a principal residence, and additional rules that can apply to properties sold within a short holding period or where the seller is a non-resident.

None of that is something to work out from an article. The rules change, they turn on details specific to you, and the cost of getting it wrong is far higher than the cost of asking. Speak to an accountant before you list if there is any chance the property is not a straightforward principal residence.

A net sheet lists the expected sale price, then every cost that comes off it, and gives you the number you can actually plan around. Any agent should prepare one on request, and a good one offers it without being asked.

Ask for it at two or three price points rather than one, so you can see how the net changes if the market comes in softer than hoped. That is far more useful than a single optimistic figure.

The costs only your lawyer and your lender can confirm, the exact legal fee and the exact mortgage penalty, should be obtained from them directly and added in. The net sheet is an estimate until those two numbers are real.

On closing, the buyer's lawyer sends the funds to your lawyer and the transfer registers electronically. Your lawyer then pays out what has to be paid from the proceeds: your mortgage, the commission, any discharge fees and adjustments, and their own account. What remains is yours.

That balance typically reaches you the same day or the next business day, by certified cheque, bank draft or direct deposit depending on your lawyer's process and what you arrange with them. Registration can complete late in the day, which is why same-day transfer is not guaranteed.

Two practical points. If you are using the proceeds to close a purchase the same day, your lawyer handles that directly between the two transactions, so you are not waiting on funds to arrive and go back out. And if you need the money for something else immediately, tell your lawyer in advance how you want it delivered rather than assuming.

You will also receive a statement of adjustments showing exactly how the final number was reached. Read it, and ask about anything you do not recognize.

Usually worth it: paint, decluttering, a deep clean, lighting, fixing the obvious small defects, professional photography, and staging where the home is empty or the furniture does not suit it.

Usually not worth it immediately before selling: full kitchen and bathroom renovations, which rarely return their cost on a home about to change hands, and major landscaping.

The honest version: get a walkthrough from your agent before you spend anything. Sellers routinely spend on the wrong things and skip the cheap ones that actually move the price. An hour of advice ahead of the work is worth more than the work itself.