Referral rewards
Know a house that needs selling? That’s worth $2,500.
Tell us about a house in Calgary or the towns around it. If we buy it, we pay you $2,500 within 30 days of closing. No limit on how many you send.
- $2,500Per house we buy
- 30 daysAfter it closes
- No capRefer as many as you like
Paid only if the sale actually closes. The house can’t already be listed, and the owner can’t already have an agent. The rest of the conditions are here — there are only nine and they fit on one screen.
Two ways to do it
One takes ten seconds. Both pay the same.
01Just give them our number
The simplest one, and the one we’d rather you used. Send them a message, or write our number on the back of something. When they call, they mention your name — that’s all it takes for the reward to be yours.
Nothing about them comes to us until they decide to get in touch. Nobody gets a call they didn’t ask for.
Here’s a message you can send them
Hi — you mentioned the house. There’s a company here in Calgary called Direct Home Buyer that buys houses as they are, no repairs or cleaning, and they put the offer in writing in 24 hours. Worth a call even just to know the number: 403-690-2558. Tell them I sent you.
Then tell us who you sent it to using the form, or just let us know when they call. Either works.
02Send us the address yourself
Quicker for us, and it means we can reach out rather than waiting. But it only works if you’ve asked them first — we won’t cold-call somebody who doesn’t know their name has been passed on, and when we do call we tell them you referred them.
What happens next
Four steps, and you’re told at every one.
- 01
We email you the same day to say we’ve got it
- 02
We ring the owner — and tell them you sent us
- 03
If it’s a fit, we visit once and put an offer in writing within 24 hours
- 04
The day it closes, we pay you $2,500
If it stops at any step, we tell you why. The most common reason is the simplest one: listing it would leave them better off, so we said so.
What happens to the house afterwards
Drag it. A real kitchen in a real house we bought exactly as it stood — the owner cleaned nothing and fixed nothing.
What we’re looking for
The houses nobody else wants to photograph.
- Older houses that need real work
- Estates and inherited property
- Houses with tenants still in them
- Fire, water, mould, foundation movement
- A house that’s been shut up for a while
- An owner who can’t face repairs or showings
- Calgary, Airdrie, Cochrane, Okotoks, Chestermere, High River, Strathmore
What we can’t use
Two things, and they’re both about staying out of the way.
- A house already listed on MLS
- An owner who already has a real estate professional acting for them
Not a technicality. When somebody has already signed with an agent, that agent is working for them and we don’t interfere with it. If the listing expires and they’re still stuck, that’s a different conversation — send it then.
People we’ve bought from
The people you would be sending us to.
Four Calgary houses, bought straight from the owners. No sign on the lawn, no commission, nothing repaired, nothing cleaned.
Four people who now have the house behind them. The next one could come from you.
Questions
The ones people actually ask.
Who can refer someone?
Almost anyone. Neighbours, tradespeople, property managers, cleaners, movers, friends of the family — if you know a house in Calgary or the towns around it that needs to be sold and can't easily be listed, we want to hear about it.
Three groups can't take the reward: anyone at Direct Home Buyer and their immediate family, anyone with a legal or financial interest in the property itself, and licensed real estate professionals — a licensee's referral fee has to go through their own brokerage, not to them personally, so please have your broker contact us instead.
When do I actually get paid?
Within 30 days of the sale closing. Not when you send the referral, not when we make an offer — when the house is bought and the money has moved.
We'll email you the same day we receive your referral so you know it landed, and again if it turns into an offer. You won't have to chase us for an update.
What kind of house are you looking for?
Older houses that need work, in Calgary, Airdrie, Cochrane, Okotoks, Chestermere, High River or Strathmore. Estates. Houses with tenants in them. Houses nobody wants to photograph. Fire, water, mould, foundation, a hoard — none of it puts us off.
What we can't use: a house already listed on MLS, or an owner who already has a real estate professional representing them. We don't go near another brokerage's client.
Do I have to tell them I'm referring them?
Yes, and it's the one rule we won't bend. Before you send us anybody's details, ask them. And when we make contact we tell them who referred us — we won't pretend we found them by chance.
If asking feels awkward, use the first option on this page instead: pass them our number and let them call us. You still get the reward.
Is the reward taxable?
Yes. It's income, not a gift. The Canada Revenue Agency requires us to report payments for services over $500 in a calendar year, so we'll issue you a T4A and we'll need your legal name, address and Social Insurance Number before we can pay you.
The $2,500 is the whole amount — it includes any GST or HST that might apply.
What if two people refer the same house?
The first one to reach us gets the reward. One reward per property, however many people send it in. We'll tell the second person straight away rather than let them wait and find out at the end.
What if they'd get more by listing it?
Then we say so, to them, in plain words — and you still get nothing, because there's no sale. We'd rather that than talk somebody into the wrong decision to trigger a payment.
That's not a courtesy, it's the whole basis of the business. A referral programme that pays people to push their neighbours into a bad sale would poison it.
The conditions
All nine. Nothing in a footnote.
- Paid on closing, not before. The reward is due only if Direct Home Buyer completes the purchase. An offer that isn’t accepted, or a sale that falls through, pays nothing.
- $2,500, flat. The same amount whatever the house sells for. It is not a commission and it is not a share of the price.
- Within 30 days of closing, by cheque or e-transfer.
- One reward per property, to the first eligible person who tells us about it. If two people send the same address, the earlier timestamp wins and we tell the other person immediately.
- The property must not be listed on MLS, and the owner must not already be represented by a real estate professional, at the time you refer it.
- You must have the owner’s permission before sending us their details, and we will tell them you referred them when we make contact.
- Not eligible: anyone at Direct Home Buyer and their immediate family; anyone holding a legal or beneficial interest in the property; and licensed real estate professionals, whose referral fees must be paid through their brokerage rather than to them personally.
- Taxable. The reward is income. We report payments over $500 a year to the CRA and issue a T4A, so we need your legal name, address and SIN before paying. The amount includes any GST or HST that applies.
- We decide which houses we buy. Sending a referral doesn’t oblige us to make an offer, and we may decline any referral. We can change or end this programme at any time — referrals already sent to us are honoured under the terms in place when you sent them.
Direct Home Buyer buys houses for its own account. We are the buyer. We do not act as anybody’s real estate brokerage, we do not represent the seller, and we owe the seller no agency duty. Every seller is told this in writing before they sign anything, and encouraged to get their own lawyer.