I don’t know about you, but I always like real life examples. They help me picture exactly what’s happened or what to expect. This story is about how we helped a couple, let’s call them Kate and Don, downsize from their family home.

In this case, the “we” consisted of my colleague Corinne Waxberg and I, but it could have been any one of the many great Realtors here in Toronto. What makes a great Realtor? Generally speaking, in addition to their exceptionally high levels of expertise and experience, great Realtors really, really care about their clients, love to help them however they can and treat them like family. You may be shaking your head and wondering what planet I come from, but the truth is that I’ve met more great Realtors than I can count. If you haven’t found one yet, keep looking. But enough about that. Let’s get back to our story.

About five years ago, a client of mine casually mentioned “My parents are getting older and should probably move into a condo or an apartment. I gave them your number because I know you’ll take great care of them. I hope they don’t drive you crazy because I don’t think they’re ready to move yet.” Is there any greater compliment than someone trusting you enough to look after their parents (or kids or brother or sister or best friend…..)? We live for these opportunities and, luckily, most of our business comes to us this way. In my mind, Kate and Don immediately became like my own parents. I was going to do whatever I could to make sure everything turned out as perfectly as possible for them.

Corinne and I constantly talk about all our clients so we’re ready to fill in for each other if one of us is busy or out of town. When I told her about Kate and Don she said “Oh, I know them. I met them at my neighbour’s house years ago and send them a calendar every year.” Instead of running the risk of Corinne feeling a little badly that the people with whom she had kept in touch for years were going to work with another Realtor (even if that other Realtor was me), I said “Let’s work with them together. They know me, they know you, they’ll get two heads for the price of one.” So that’s what we did.

The first thing we always do with new clients is meet with them to discuss what they want to accomplish so we can develop a big picture strategy for them. Kate and Don told us “We’ve been here for about 50 years and we’re about 80 years old. We’re not sure we’re ready to move, but there are a lot of stairs in our 4 storey house, our knees aren’t getting any younger and our kids are bugging us to move. Some of our kids say we need to buy a condo because it’s a good investment and renting is throwing money away, but what do you think? Should we buy a condo or rent an apartment?”

We talked about the financial aspects of renting an apartment (paying rent) versus buying a condo (property taxes, maintenance fees, capital appreciation or depreciation) and went through some numbers so they’d have a clear idea of exactly what would happen with each option. We also told them that the apartments they could rent would be a lot larger than the condos they could buy. Ultimately, I said something like this to them: “How important is it for you to make a real estate investment at this stage of your lives? If you were my parents, I’d be telling you to do whatever would make you happiest for the next 50 years.”

Kate and Don realized that renting an apartment was most likely the better route to take, but they wanted to make sure they did the right thing. Selling a home was a completely new experience for them since they were still living in the house Don bought while Kate was recovering in the hospital from the birth of their twins. Although we all knew that they’d probably end up renting an apartment, we decided they should still explore both options. It was important not to rush things. We wanted Kate and Don to take as much time as they needed. Corinne and I (Anthony, too) often know what our clients will decide before they do because we do this every day, but it’s important to us to be patient and help our clients figure things out on their own so they’re comfortable with and confident in their ultimate decisions. Pressure is a four letter word in our lexicon.

So what happened next? Check out Downsizing 2.

In the meantime, do you know anyone that can use some real estate help in Toronto? The kind of help that involves honest answers, straightforward advice, no pressure and being treated like family? If you do, please let me know the best way for me to connect with them because I’d like to offer them this kind of help. And as always, don’t be shy if you have any questions or comments about this post! Thanks for reading.