Meet Kristin Shensel, Broker

Year Licensed: 2014
Joined The BREL Team: 2014

Designations: Certified Negotiation Expert
Languages: English

Lives: The Beaches (Formerly: Junction, Queens Quay, Upper Beach, the Danforth, Birchcliffe-Cliffside)

Fun Fact: With the help of my friend Laura I am training for a half ironman in June 2023. Yeah. I am that dumb.

My Life Before Real Estate

Before real estate, I worked in newspapers and publishing for my entire career. I was in charge of The New York Times sections in the Sunday Toronto Star. Before that, I headed up the Marketing team at Penguin Books. Both AMAZING jobs.

What I Love About Being a Realtor

I am obsessed with houses and condos. Obsessed. From as far back as I can remember I wanted to be a real estate agent. As a child, Sundays were always filled with going to open houses with my parents after church and breakfast at a greasy spoon. Every day is different – it is challenging, sometimes difficult, always stressful (in all of the good ways) and helping people realize their family or investment dreams is my dream come true career.

Why I love helping Buyers

When I start working with new Buyer clients I always like to stress that it is a journey. A marathon, not a race, if you will. There is so much information to absorb, so many properties to see and it can’t be done all at once. And you don’t always end up where you started—and that is a good thing.

Favourite Buyer story

I worked with my client Corey (now friend) over the course of the pandemic, during summer of 2020. Based on his budget and wish list we might as well have been looking for a unicorn. But we both knew it was out there. 20+ properties, 1 elevator mishap, and TONS of parking tickets later we found it. The perfect space at the perfect price the very first morning it hit the market. Congratulations Corey. I am still so thrilled for you.

Why I Love Helping Sellers

One of the favourite parts of my job is helping Sellers prep their properties for sale.

My Life Outside of Real Estate

Running, Sleeping, Eating: Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Related: Read Kristin’s Agent Spotlight

What I'm Really Like

Sales Stats

* Total transactions since becoming a licensed real estate professional

** Based on sales where I represented the Seller in 2023

# of Transactions *

236

Average Days on Market **

14

% Asking Price **

107.3%

Houses

44%

Lofts

6%

Condos

49%

Represented The Buyer

57%

Represented The Seller

43%

Client Reviews

Read My Reviews
Five star service, fantastic experience from start to finish with selling our east end home. Our agent Kristin was a superstar, responsive, organized, knowledgeable, passionate and very well connected. The Brel team exceeded expectations, a real pleasure to work with, shout out to Manh, Zun and Sydney, Thank you! When we saw our listing go live we were blown away, looked amazing and no doubt helped to knock competition out of the way. I highly recommend the BREL team to anyone looking to sell their home. Do yourself a favour and give them a call, the team and their contacts go above and beyond to get you what you want. Thanks again

- Curtis M.

115 Showings; 25 Bidders and a Life-Changing Result Buying and selling a home is one of the most all-encompassing and stressful things in your life. Add in the insanity of the GTA housing market and you are dealing with a whole other level. So, having the best possible team supporting you is crucial. It’s critical they can combine expertise with empathy – have the know-how to get the job done above expectations; and the compassion to support you through all the ups and downs. After the past few months, I can tell you there is no one better at combining expertise with empathy than Kristin Shensel and her team at BREL and Bspoke Reality. And yes, that headline is correct – the efforts of the BREL team (and it was a TRUE team effort) resulted in 115 showings of our house; 25 bidders on offer night and a final result that still has me and my husband wondering if we won the lottery. When I say it’s a full team effort, it’s no lie – and each member of the BREL team brought their own expertise and empathy to the process. From the very beginning when we looked to buy our new house, Kristin gave us a crash course in the market and had us fully prepared with a strategy for offer night. Throughout the process she was checking in, seeing how we were feeling while still counselling us on our offers and the pros and cons of each decision. Then it came time to sell our house – and it was like the Avengers assembling. Kristin had an amazing handyman in our house tackling all those tiny tweaks that you never get around to but wish you would have as soon as they’re done. And then there’s Kiel, Enoch and Jim – the staging team of my dreams. They transformed our house into something magazine worthy that showed would-be buyers see the true potential of our previously humble home. The BREL marketing team then stepped in and stepped it up – incredible photography that showcased Keil & team’s staging miracle, interactive 3D videos; social posts and a attention grabbing write up that gave a voice and personality to our home that undoubtedly piqued the curiosity of many who came through our doors. Through it all, we had stellar support from the BREL admin team – documents, updates, lawyers, you name it – it was all handled with quickly and expertly. If there was a bump in the road, we were constantly told “That’s our issue to fix, not yours.” And they fixed it every time. The final step before listing was pricing strategy. Kristin went far beyond merely looking at comps. She personally toured the homes in our area that were for sale leading up so she understood what was out there and what we should price at to maximize interest and offers. Once the house was up, the comp visits continued to prep for offer night. Kristin was in constant touch about how things were going and through it all, she was always asking us how we were doing and encouraging us to be confident and not stress. Then came offer night – a whirlwind of numbers and emotions. Given the interest, Kristin pulled in additional support from the BREL team to organize the offers and handle the paperwork so she could deal with the flood of agent calls. And as things came to a head, she showed her empathy by ensuring all agents were informed to the best of her ability in the moment and allowing them to keep their clients up to speed. And in the final offers, she pulled in the senior BREL partners to add additional counsel to ensure we were set up for the best possible result. Which we got – and then some. I keep telling Kristin she’s changed our lives for the better – and she deflects out of humility, I guess. Well, I’m writing this review so she can’t stop me from saying it here….. Kristin, you have forever changed our lives for the better and did it all with care and kindness. We are forever grateful. Short story long – hire her – she’s amazing.

- Lindy F.

As a seller, it was essential (critical) to select the best representation for our property. Toronto is saturated with agents, and we quickly learned that all agents are not made equal. Being one of the biggest transactions in life, we knew we had to be careful, and extremely selective in weeding out the amateurs vs. pros. After numerous interviews of various agents and brokerages, we decided on the Brel Team and THANK GOODNESS, we did. After initial discussions with Brendan and Mel, Kristin Shensel was brought on to sell our property. Despite being told by other agents that we would not likely get what we had in mind, Kristin completely proved the opposite. She presented and executed a sales strategy that ended up getting us 14% over listing and our home sold very quickly on offer night after 7 days and it all happened during the worst ice storm - this completely surpassed our expectations! Throughout the process, she demonstrated true knowledge and experience and never over promised, but rather and IN FACT over delivered! She was SUPER responsive to the hundreds of questions (via text, phone, email) and kept us informed (and sane) each and every day (morning, noon, and night). What a professional! If you are currently in search of a top agent, DO NOT look any further. The Brel Team is turnkey. They offer all the essentials and so much more. From beautiful staging, to amazing photography and closing out deals, they are truly a power house. Agents will say and tell you what you want to hear and claim they are the best, but we trusted our gut and the Brel Team has proof in the pudding with real transactional facts! Don't risk the biggest transaction of your life on amateurs, we were so fortunate we didn't. Thank you so much Kristin, Brendan, Mel, Kiel and Jimmy! We are so grateful and indebted to you all. Best wishes.

- Stephanie T.