It’s that time again, when Brendan and I reflect back on the year that was. Conveniently, this year we’re doing it from a beach in Thailand (Sorry about all that ice Toronto!)
Some of our favourite moments of 2013:
- Meeting with a couple at 6 PM who talked about wanting to buy in the next 6-9 months, then finding and buying the perfect house for them by 9 PM (and consequently preparing and selling their loft in the next 8 days).
- Listing a townhouse and a loft on a Wednesday and having both sell (with multiple offers) before the open houses on Saturday.
- Having our butts kicked in a couple of bidding wars, only to find way better houses (at way better prices) for our clients.
- Watching the BREL team help 92 people find their new homes.
- Helping an international Buyer buy a luxury home solely through video, Skype and good old-fashioned trust – a true virtual purchase. We’re glad he liked it.
- Getting a standing ovation from an entire bar after winning a 10-person bidding war in the east end.
- Listing 5 properties in 36 hours (and not cutting any corners).
- Selling lofts in some of our favourite buildings: Sorauren Lofts, Robert Watson Lofts, Pop Factory, Tannery Lofts, Bartlett Lofts, and discovering some great new buildings too: Art Lofts, 90 Broadview.
- Finding a rental for a client in one day and doing the whole transaction on an iPhone.
- Hosting 70 of our favourite clients and partners in the first-ever BREL holiday party.
- Finding a home for Brendan’s brother, where our niece and nephew can grow up close to us!
Of course there were some lows in 2013 too…..
- The bidding war madness didn’t seem to subside all year, and nothing hurts more than being sent home from a bidding war because “you aren’t even close”. Of course bidding $125K over asking and losing by $80K sucked too.
- We saw different markets emerging, from neighbourhood to type of home. It wasn’t fun telling someone that their condo was worth less today than it was a year ago, and it wasn’t fun telling a Seller to expect their condo to be on the market for 60 days when the house they purchased flew off the shelf in 2.
- Losing a couple of listings to other agents because the Sellers didn’t like what we thought their home was worth (only to be proven right later, of course).
- Cancelling the Aruba getaway because we were too busy. I’m still a little bitter about that.
- Three flat tires, no A/C in our BMW in July and countless parking tickets
- Running out of hours in the day and realizing that there is a limit to how much we can do.
- Getting our first RECO complaint for a comment made on this blog (apparently not everyone has the same sense of humour as us).
