They said they have a friend who is a realtor who would sell it commission free anytime..
I'll admit, I'm not an expert on Canada realtor practices...but he's an idiot if he thinks it will cost him $0 to sell the house in this manner. Even if the realtor does him a favor and doesn't charge him for the
selling realtor's effort, he's just the seller's agent. The buyer's agent will still want their full commission, which is half the total (at least in the US). Also, even though an agent may waive their fee (for a friend), the agency they work for (RE/MAX, Sutton, etc.) will not, and they are usually entitled to 40-60% of the seller's commission. So take that $15k, $7.5k goes to the buyer's agent, $3,000 goes to the seller's agency, and $4,500 is what the realtor may waive as a favor. All in all, it will still cost him ~$10,500 in realtor fees to sell his home.
At best, the realtor is a completely independent agent, and will forgo working with buyers who have their own agent (to avoid cutting that agent in on a commission). There are still minimum fees to list the house and do marketing and such.