Where the homes are
🇨🇦
ON-TOR · 2026
Toronto,
Ontario
Presale completions arriving below contract price.
Assumable Mortgage
Marketplace
Marketplace
The payment
is the price$0 down
Toronto,
Payment $1,500–3,500+
Rate under 4%+
Down $0+
Term left 2–5 yr+
Map unavailable offline.
Preview — filters go live with the first buyer profiles. Markers show the Canadian and U.S. metros where negative-equity and distressed inventory is most concentrated. Market data only — we don't list properties. Tap a marker for the detail.
The payment
Live math
Example · 2.875% assumed loan
$2,393
/ mo, all in
Assume the existing loan2.875% · 24 yrs left
Same home today$3,034 / mo
You save monthly+$641
Balance vs. value−$20,600
Break even in month 33. Hold seven years and you're $33,237
ahead — even after starting underwater.
Step into a mortgage that's already funded, instead of saving $45,000 first. No down payment. No commission.
- Free to list
- Free to browse
- 0% commission
28,000
Toronto pre-construction condos completing this year, appraising 10–30% under contract
$45,000
the minimum down payment on a $700,000 Canadian home — 5% of the first $500k, 10% above it
$7,500
roughly what it costs to step into a mortgage that already exists instead
$0
what Handoff charges either side — being free is what keeps us out of the trade
Two sides, one problem
Someone needs out. Someone needs in.
The homeowner can't sell without writing a cheque they don't have. The buyer has the income but not the down payment. Handoff is the introduction.
Hand the mortgage to someone who wants it.
You bought at the top, or your rental stopped covering itself, or the insurance doubled. Selling normally means paying tens of thousands out of pocket just to walk away. There's another exit.
- Browse buyers who've already published what they can carry — free, no agent
- You reach out to them privately. Nothing about your home is ever posted here
- Whether you're released from liability depends on your lender and your province — we tell you which before you start, not after
- No commission means no cheque to write on the way out
Buy the payment, not the down payment.
You can afford a mortgage. What you can't afford is $45,000 sitting in a savings account first. These homes come with a mortgage already funded — and an owner who needs out more than they need a profit.
- Publish what you can carry each month — owners come to you
- Little to no down payment; the mortgage is already in place
- We show the equity gap in dollars, up front, before you get attached
- We show you when the deal doesn't work, too
How a handoff works
Four steps, in plain English.
-
01
A buyer publishes what they can carry
Income, a comfortable monthly payment, cash on hand, province, timeline. No property, no address — just a person and a number. Notice which way round that is: the buyer posts, not the home.
-
02
An owner finds them and reaches out
Owners browse buyer profiles and make contact privately, on their own terms. We never post a property, never represent either side, and never sit in the negotiation. That's deliberate, and section four explains why.
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03
The lender qualifies the buyer
This is a real assumption, not a handshake. The buyer applies to the existing lender and qualifies on income and credit — including the stress test, where the lender is federally regulated. That gate is slow, and it is exactly what protects the seller.
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04
A lawyer or notary closes it
A notary in Quebec, a lawyer or notary in B.C., a real estate lawyer everywhere else. Whether the seller walks away fully released depends on the lender and the province — it is not automatic, and we say which applies to you before anyone signs anything.
The part nobody explains
Why would anyone take over a loan bigger than the house?
Fair question, and we'd rather answer it than dodge it. It's the whole reason this works — and the reason it sometimes doesn't.
1
The down payment is the whole deal
A $700,000 home in Canada needs $45,000 down — 5% of the first $500,000, 10% above that. Stepping into a mortgage that's already funded costs closer to $7,500 in legal fees and an assignment fee. For someone with steady income and no savings, that gap is the difference between owning and renting for another five years.
2
The rate is worth less than you've read
American articles quote six-figure savings. Those don't exist here — a Canadian term runs about five years, not thirty. Compared honestly, a 2.9% mortgage with twenty years left against a fresh 4.6% over twenty-five saves roughly $41 to $67 a month, about $3,000 across the term. Real, but not the reason to do this. We'd rather you hear that from us.
3
And the catch, stated plainly
You start underwater. If you need to sell in the first couple of years, you will likely lose money. We put the equity gap in dollars on the screen before anything else, because someone who doesn't understand that shouldn't be doing this.
“
We are not selling free houses. You're financing a down payment you don't have, and paying for it by starting out in negative equity. When that trade is good, it's very good. When it isn't, we'll be the ones telling you.
Where this has gone wrong before
The safeguards are the product.
Taking over someone's mortgage has a history, and a lot of it is ugly. Here's exactly what we do about each failure we know of.
The buyer stops paying
The old scam: take the deed, collect rent, never pay the lender, and the seller's credit is destroyed.
What we do — payments route through a third-party loan servicer that pays the lender directly and reports to the bureaus. The seller watches every payment land.
The seller is still on the hook
Assumption and release are two different things, and plenty of sellers discover that only after the buyer misses a payment.
What we do — we tell you which province you're in and what that means. It genuinely differs: Manitoba can compel a lender not to unreasonably withhold a release, while in Alberta the protection on a conventional mortgage works differently again.
The lender simply says no
In Canada an assumption is the lender's decision, not the seller's. The buyer has to qualify — including the stress test at a federally regulated lender.
What we do — we put the qualification maths in front of the buyer before anyone gets attached, so the conversation starts with a realistic number rather than ending on one.
Nobody reads the fine print
Special assessments, a status certificate nobody ordered, condo fees that jump on completion, an assignment clause that forbids the whole arrangement.
What we do — we say plainly that pre-construction agreements often bar publicly marketing an assignment — which is exactly why this site never publishes your property.
Handoff is not a brokerage, a lender, or a law firm. We do not list properties, represent anyone, negotiate, or take a cut of a sale — buyers publish what they can afford, owners make contact themselves, and every deal closes through a lawyer or notary.
The waitlist
We open the doors once the shelves are full.
An empty marketplace helps nobody. We're collecting homeowners and buyers in the same places at the same time, and we go live market by market — as soon as there's enough on both sides for it to actually be useful on day one.
0
people on the list
- Early access before we open publicly
- Your market gets prioritised as signups build there
- Free to list and free to browse — that isn't a launch promotion
- One email when we're live in your area. Nothing else.
You're on the list.
We'll email you the moment Handoff opens in your area — and nothing before that.
Know someone stuck in a house they can't sell?
Questions
Frequently asked
Is this actually legal?
Yes, and the structure is deliberate rather than incidental. In Ontario, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the three territories, listing and advertising property are regulated acts. So we don't do them. Buyers publish what they can afford; owners reach out privately; we never represent anyone or take a cut of a sale. Being free isn't a promotion — it's the legal basis for operating this way.
Am I really off the mortgage as the seller?
Sometimes — and it depends on your lender and your province. This is the single most important thing on the site and we won't blur it. An assumption transfers who makes the payments. A release of liability is a separate approval your lender has to grant, and it is not automatic. Manitoba is the one province that can compel a lender not to unreasonably withhold it. Everywhere else, get the answer before you sign, not after.
Why is it free? What's the catch?
Two reasons, and the second is the real one. Charging people who are already underwater to get out is a bad way to start a company. But more concretely: taking a fee from either side of a trade is precisely what converts a website into a regulated brokerage in six provinces. Free is structural, not promotional. Later we may charge for optional things — payment servicing, or licensing our tax data to professionals — and those will be clearly priced and never a percentage of your home.
What does the buyer actually need?
Income and credit good enough to satisfy the existing lender — including the stress test, if it's a federally regulated one — plus legal fees and any assumption or assignment fee. That's roughly $7,500, against the $45,000 minimum down payment on a $700,000 home. If the property has positive equity the buyer has to cover that gap too. The ones where there's no equity to cover are the entire point of this.
Do I need a realtor?
No. You can work with one if you'd like, but there's usually no commission available in these deals — which is exactly why traditional agents can't help with them. Handoff is free specifically so that isn't a barrier.
Which markets open first?
Whichever ones fill up first. We're watching signups by city. Alberta and the Toronto pre-construction market are where both sides of this actually exist in numbers right now — Alberta has the established culture of assumptions, and the GTA has the owners who need out. Putting your city in the form is what moves it up the list.
Does this work in the United States?
Eventually. We show U.S. market data on the map because the underwater problem is continental, but we're building Canada properly first — the rules, the arithmetic and the paperwork are genuinely different, and doing both at once badly would help nobody. Put your city in the form either way; that's how we decide where to go.