The Globe and Mail

In Saturday's ROB cover story: The battle to unlock the housing market, real estate reporter Steve Ladurantaye found that an estimated 90 per cent of all home sales in Canada are still done in the traditional manner -- using real estate agents who take commissions on sales. The real estate industry's lock on information is one reason why the process of buying and selling a home in Canada has changed little since online real estate listings began in 1996, even as other customer-service-intensive industries such as travel and tourism have seen radical technological transformations.

How can you buy or sell a home privately? What tools do you need to do it properly?

Walter Melanson is a private sale professional and a managing director of PropertyGuys.com Inc. Founded in 1998, PropertyGuys.com has helped more than 40,000 Canadians buy and sell homes privately. As one of the original members of the business development team, Walter Melanson has a background in marketing, finance and real estate.

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