In the 19 years I have been in real estate I have often contemplated this question.....what DO we stand for? And in addition to that, what do we stand against?
Not to get too philosophical here, but I feel like it's important for us to have a clear mission statement if you will and, even more importantly, to put it out there where prospective clients can access it. I believe that if I were shopping for a realtor, it's something I would use as a gauge to help me decide who I wanted to work with; to ensure that our vision, values and beliefs were in alignment. To some this may not be important, but in most cases buying and selling a home can be an incredibly emotional and stressful process, so having someone who you trust, who you know has your back and who is willing to go that extra mile for you, is invaluable.
I started in real estate in 2000 and a lot has changed since then, but at it's core the job has remained the same, and our love for the job has remained constant. I would say that the biggest changes we have seen are the technological advances in the industry, and the sheer number of realtors out in the marketplace today. Unbelievably, when I first started we couldn't even e-mail listings to clients, we had to fax them - FAX!!! Man, I'm aging myself, but moving on!
When I think about our core values, I think I can summarize them under a few broad categories:
Integrity
There really can be a lot of grey areas in real estate and we strive to make the right decision, sometimes the hard decision, every. single. time. I'm not going to lie, this has worked to our detriment a few times over the years, but at the end of the day we know that we have taken the moral high ground and well, karma's a bitch.
Alignment
Real estate is a people business so the process is always going to go more smoothly and have a better outcome when you are working with people who you align with. Over the years we have definitely worked with clients where this wasn't the case, and although the outcome was usually good, the road to get there was often stressful and complicated. This is usually something you can tell early on in a relationship, so now the choice goes both ways, if we find we just aren't lining up, we feel it is better to refer them elsewhere or just go our separate ways......which leads to our next point.
Quality over Quantity
Not only have we made a commitment to work only with clients who we align with, but we will also only take on as much work as we are able to handle, while maintaining the high service standards that we have set for ourselves. This seems to be out of vogue, as more and more agents promote the high number of listings that they have as a positive. Which is great if you have a big team to support all these listings, but we are a small committed team of two with no ambitions to grow any bigger, and our goal is to be 100% accessible and attentive to our clients while providing an unparalleled level of service. If you choose to have us represent you, we will not pass you off to anyone else, you will deal directly with us 100% of the time.
Experience
As I mentioned, one of the big changes we have seen is the sheer number of realtors in the Toronto marketplace today. Everyone seems to know a handful of agents nowadays and it seems that the sustained growth in the Toronto real estate market has been a big contributor to this. People think it is easy money, without really considering what is required to be a really good agent. We deal with inexperienced agents all the time, and sometimes even have to walk them through the process, which is fine when a deal goes smoothly and the market is hot, but when the market cools (as it inevitably does) or the deal gets complicated (which can often be the case), a high level of experience is an invaluable asset to have in your realtor.
Empathy
Selling your house or buying in a busy market is stressful, we get it and not only do we empathize with the situation, we go out of our way to try to reduce the amount of stress that you experience. We have processes in place to reduce your stress and the stress on your family, and we are also always available for your questions, your concerns or just plain old stress relief!
Community
We live here, we shop here and our kids go to school here. This community, the people, the schools and the businesses are important to us and we go out of our way to promote and support them whenever we can. We love to shop local, to promote small local business, to do our part to improve the environment and support one another through community events & activities. We also try to give back where we can, and donate money to local causes that will improve our community as a whole. We have made a conscious effort to dedicate our social media feed to not only promoting our listings and ourselves, but our community and values as a whole.
Technology
We fully embrace technology in all aspects of our business. We use it to market your property online and on social media, and we are constantly engaged in improving our skills in order to utilize technology to its utmost. Technology is great for doing our due diligence and research, to ensure we are maximizing your sale price or saving you money on your purchase. It can also be highly efficient, especially when engaging the use of electronic signatures to improve efficiency, reduce waste and ensure that we are completely prepared to react quickly in this fast paced market. We also use technology to communicate processes or provide client education, but we are still old school enough to know that sometimes nothing beats personal one-on-one communication. We might even call you on the phone ;).
If these values resonate with you and you would like to discuss buying or selling your home, give us a call, we are always available to chat!