2024 TORONTO REAL ESTATE MARKET GUIDE

Arlene has been our Realtor® since 2008.

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Covid hit us in ways we never expected. After owning our home at Yonge and Lawrence for 11 years, we made the tough decision to sell. We had struggled to accept the changes that Covid brought to our lives, and felt lonely and isolated from family living outside the city.

When we bought our home in 2010 with Arlene after she sold our downtown condo (which we had bought with her in 2008), we had a 12-week old newborn. We moved in just in time for his first Christmas. Two-and-a-half years later, we welcomed a second child. We renovated and enjoyed the house in Bedford Park for more than a decade. 

Then March 2020 arrived. What seemed at first like something that would last just a few months became something far more serious. And, for a variety of personal reasons, by summer 2021, we knew it was time to make some changes. The kids were bigger and we wanted to be closer to family, and we needed a home with more interior space for our kids to grow into. 

We approached Arlene about what to do. The seller’s market meant it was a good time to make a move. We worked through the pros and cons with Arlene and decided to list the house. Arlene made it all effortless, being extremely sensitive to the emotions we were experiencing. She recommended a pricing and marketing strategy that ensured we got top dollar for our beautiful city home, and it sold for 119% of the asking price on our offer day!! We put our furniture in storage, went to stay with my parents, and started exploring what the next chapter of our life looked like, outside the city. 

I didn’t expect the new normal of buying a house. Or the insanity of buying a house outside Toronto. Competition.. bidding wars… 19 offers on any given offer night. Arlene kept nudging us along, never complaining when we had her drive all over the place to give us her thoughts on country properties, town properties, properties with septic tanks and wells, properties with bees (that the seller was taking), and properties that seemed in total disrepair for a gazillion dollars. We made 3 (almost 4) offers before we found our house. 

But we did find it. A few streets over from my brother and his family, and a short drive from my parents. Arlene negotiated the deal for us, and we paid significantly under the asking price!! We were very satisfied with how the transaction was executed - with total professionalism and our best interests in mind. 

Now we’re all living in the same small town I grew up in. Sometimes, you have to fly far from the nest to realize that home is really where your people are.