Thursday, 1 June 2023
Being myself lead me to meeting really great clients Ten years ago, I made a commitment to run my business by referral. It seemed the right thing to do and made total sense to me. If I do a good 
job for my clients, they’ll naturally refer me to their friends and family. This philosophy has served me well. What I then needed to learn was to embrace me, and just be myself. After all, I want people to hire me because they like me and they see the value I give to them during the purchase and/or sale of their property. Just to make sure I covered all bases, I made sure that my public profile on realtor.ca was up to date and even though I’m generally a pretty private person, I decided to add some bits about my past career on that profile and things I’m kind of interested in. Honestly, at first I thought who’s going to care about what I used to do for a living, or that I love dogs. Then I started to see the value in my experience as a former nursing assistant and how I can use that experience to serve my clients, and that it would be cool to work with clients who also love dogs. Opening up publicly, even just a little, felt unnatural but I did it anyway. I’m glad I did, because it led me to meeting Mary Beth.
One day I received an email through my website. Now, most emails are spam but this one from Mary Beth looked different. I called her and we had a great phone conversation. This led to an in person meeting at her home to discuss selling it. Upon arrival, I asked her how she heard about me as we didn’t have any friends in common. We were strangers to each other. She said with a nonchalant smile, that she was checking out profiles on realtor.ca and she liked mine because of my nursing background and I sounded like someone she’d want to meet and possibly work with. She was looking for someone who would care enough to guide her through the process because she had never done this before. She was honest with me as well that in the interest of interviewing a few people, as it was suggested to her to do, that she had contacted a few other real estate agents. A few days later she called me to take the next step and list her home.
Mary Beth had lived in that home for over 20 years. She scrimped and saved to buy it, made any necessary repairs, and maintained it for a little over two decades. It was difficult for her to leave this home because she loved it so much, but it was time to execute her plan for the upcoming next stage of her life. She and her partner were ready to make a home together and she was moving into Renate’s apartment with her. Their plan was to see how they do living together, then purchase a home together. This all happened in the Summer/Fall of 2020. None of us knew what laid ahead for the housing market. The lack of listings and multiple offers that continued well into 2022. The thing though with Mary Beth and Renate, they tweak the plan, but stick to the dream.
We all stayed in contact with each other the entire time after the sale of her home and in March 2023, I decided to host an event with a couple of buyers, a panel discussion about what their experience was like and Mary Beth and Renate signed up to attend. They had never wavered from their dream to buy a home together and nearly three years later after having to adjust the plan, we began the hunt for their first home as a couple.
I started with the usual questions about finances and needs and wants. From the beginning they were bent on buying a bungalow in either of two different cities in the Niagara Region. I had suggested perhaps a raised bungalow may serve their needs better as it has a higher basement due to the first floor being raised up but they just weren't sure. It just so happened a colleague of mine who was looking after my clients while I was away at a business conference showed them a raised bungalow. They fell in love with the design, just not the home they saw. When I returned, we went to view a similar home with more upgrades and features that they preferred, and guess what they bought? A raised bungalow and next month they’ll be living there as its proud new owners.
They’re now talking about paint colours and how to place the furniture once they move in. The home has a great back sunroom and when I heard Renate say she may use it for a writing room, my heart was so happy. It’s like this house is already bringing out their creativity again and they can see all the possibilities it has as it gives them space to live, work and enjoy their hobbies again.
I’m so grateful that I decided to just be me, as it attracted two ladies into my life whom I may not have met. They’ve taught me to keep your eye on the prize and even if you have to tweak your plan, you can still fulfill your dream.
