How to get real estate leads in Canada: nine sources and what each one costs
Most guides to getting real estate leads are written for the US, around Zillow and American ad and email rules. Canada works differently: realtor.ca sends its inquiries to the listing agent, housing ads have their own targeting rules here, and email follow-up needs consent under Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation.
This guide lists the nine sources a Canadian agent or team can actually use, with what each costs and how quickly it works. Prices name their source and the date they were checked. Figures marked as a sample are examples.
The nine sources at a glance
| Source | What it costs | How fast | Who owns the lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your sphere and past clients | Time | Slow, steady | You |
| realtor.ca inquiries | Included in CREA membership | As fast as you list | The listing agent |
| Open houses | Time | Same day | You |
| Farming by mail and door | $187 postage per 1,000 homes, or from $999 a month done for you | Weeks to months | You |
| Agent-to-agent referrals | A share of commission at closing | Unpredictable | You, after the fee |
| Google search ads | US$4.74 to $8.95 a click (GTA agent searches) | Days | You |
| Facebook and Instagram ads | About US$13.74 a lead (US benchmark) | Days | You |
| Bought leads | $849 to $2,699 a month | Days | You, once delivered |
| Your own site or portal | $249 to $790 a month, plus setup | Three to six months | You, with the pages and rankings |
1. Your sphere and past clients
Everyone you already know, and everyone you've helped buy or sell. It's the cheapest source and the one with the highest trust. The work is staying in touch: a call on the anniversary of a purchase, and a useful email once a month. Our guide to real estate newsletters in Canada covers what to send and what consent you need.
2. realtor.ca
CREA says REALTOR.ca sent 5.7 million leads to members in 2022, and that the leads are "exclusively available to you as a benefit of your CREA membership" (CREA, figures from 2022, the latest it publishes). An inquiry on a listing goes to that listing's agent or office.
So realtor.ca rewards the agents who already have listings. If you're trying to win your first listings in an area, it won't send you much.
3. Open houses
An open house puts you in a room with people who are actively looking, and with neighbours who are curious what the house down the street is worth. A sign-in counts as an inquiry under Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation, which gives you six months of implied consent to follow up by email.
4. Farming by mail and door
Farming means marketing to one area until its homeowners know your name. Canada Post's Neighbourhood Mail costs 18.7¢ per standard piece, or $187 in postage for 1,000 homes, before printing (price sheet, effective March 23, 2026). A done-for-you service in the GTA advertises pricing from $999 a month for at least 1,000 doors (realestatefarming.ca, checked November 7, 2026). Door-knocking costs only time.
Farming builds familiarity slowly. It works best when every card and conversation points to one page about the neighbourhood. See real estate farming, done online.
5. Referrals from other agents
Another brokerage sends you a client and takes a share of the commission when the deal closes. As a sample, a 25% referral fee on the listing side of an average GTA sale is about $6,400. In Ontario the fee is paid brokerage to brokerage. Referrals carry no upfront cost, and you can't order more of them in a slow month.
6. Google search ads
You pay per click and send the clicks to your own page. Average costs per click for GTA agent searches ran from US$4.74 ("etobicoke real estate agent") to US$8.95 ("real estate agent toronto") in November 2026 (DataForSEO via OpenSEO).
Housing ads on Google in Canada can't target by age, gender or full postal code. They can target the first three characters of a postal code or a radius of at least 1 km (Google Ads policy), which is precise enough for one neighbourhood. As a sample, if 1 in 20 visitors leaves their details, a $7.94 click works out to about US$159 a lead.
7. Facebook and Instagram ads
The most-cited benchmark puts real estate lead campaigns at US$13.74 a lead (LocaliQ, updated September 23, 2026; US averages). In Canada, housing ads on Meta must be declared as a special ad category, which fixes the age range, removes postal-code targeting and sets a minimum radius of 25 km. The leads are cheap and broad. Facebook ads for realtors in Ontario has the detail.
8. Bought leads
A vendor runs the ads and sells you the names. realestateleads.ca publishes packages from $849 a month for 20 to 40 exclusive buyer leads up to $2,699 for 110 to 200 (services page, checked November 6, 2026). They arrive within days. The person signed up on the vendor's page, so they may not know your name when you call. Buying real estate leads vs owning them works through the cost per lead.
9. Your own site or portal
A site that ranks on Google for your area's searches and asks visitors to register. On a VOW, sold prices sit behind a registration the board requires, so each sign-up is a named lead who has shown you which street or listing they care about.
It's the slowest source to start, usually three to six months before pages rank, and the only one where the pages, the rankings and every registration stay with your team. Our plans run from $249 a month (Starter, plus $1,000 setup) to $790 a month with monthly SEO (Neighbourhood, plus $1,500 setup); every plan is on the pricing page. For a real figure: one portal we run for a GTA team logged 950 registrations from January 1, 2025 to November 4, 2026, about 43 a month (case study).
Seller leads work the same way. Canadians search "home value estimator canada" about 1,000 times a month and "free home evaluation" about 170 (Google Canada data, October 2026). A home-evaluation page on your own site catches some of those searches in your farm.
Which ones to start with
It depends on what you need and when.
- You need conversations this month: open houses, search ads or bought leads. All three work in days and stop when you stop.
- You have listings already: work your realtor.ca inquiries quickly, and ask every past client for a referral.
- You want leads a year from now without paying per lead: pick a farm, then build familiarity with mail and a site that ranks for the farm's searches.
Most teams run one fast source and one slow one at the same time. The fast one pays the bills while the slow one builds.
In October 2026, GTA new listings were down 11.9% from a year earlier (TRREB, November 4, 2026). With fewer listings to go around, the sources that reach homeowners before they call anyone are worth the most: sphere, farming and a site that answers "what did the house on my street sell for".
Rules that apply to every source
- Email and text follow-up needs consent under CASL. An inquiry gives implied consent for six months and a purchase for two years; express consent lasts until the person unsubscribes (CASL, section 10).
- Advertising must show your brokerage name clearly (RECO Bulletin 5.1).
- Referral fees are paid through your brokerage.
This is general information, not legal advice; check with your brokerage.
What to do with them
A lead is only worth what happens next. Whatever sources you choose, send every lead to one place, respond the same day, and track which source each listing came from. Our real estate CRM guide for Canadian teams compares what the main CRMs cost, and our real estate lead generation page explains how a portal fits in.
