When we began our search, location was of the utmost importance. We were interested in the Beaches area as well as Leslieville, Bloor/Ossington, and Bloor West Village. Towards the end of the search, the options were: Bloor West Village, High Park and Yonge/Lawrence or Yonge/Eglinton area as one of our offices moved to Mississauga during the search!

We were willing to consider either a detached or semi-detached home, but we needed to be within walking distance to restaurants, shops and every day necessities as well as a good school district. We weren’t sure if we wanted an older style house or more modern, we were open to looking at everything.

Other wants:

• At least 1 parking spot, however 2 would be better
• 3 bedrooms and at least 2 bathrooms
• Open concept living – good visualization of the floor when you walk in (no narrow hallways, smaller rooms due to multiple walls
• Open concept kitchen and fairly large kitchen (for downtown standards)

As we were looking our budget continually went up, up and up. We were becoming increasingly frustrated by the quality of the houses we were seeing.  A lot of our criteria weren’t being met, and prices in Toronto were so high. During our entire search, there were only 2 properties we put offers in for and the 2^nd property was the one we won!

We believe we got everything we wanted and more! The house we bought is a detached home in the Yonge & Eglinton area. It is modern and has a very open concept floor plan.

• 3 bedrooms + 1 bedroom in basement
• 2 parking spots in rear (rare for this neighbourhood!)
• Walking distance to Yonge & Eglinton, TTC, shops, restaurants – amazing location!
• Great school district
• We went WAY over our original budget, but we feel we got the house of our dreams and it was a great investment in a great neighbourhood

We loved working with Shawn: He is friendly, personable, and knowledgeable about hot neighbourhoods in Toronto as well as what’s going on in the real estate market. He was very patient, we never felt rushed when he made the time to attend viewings with us. As we continued our home search, he continued to probe and check our wish list to see if anything critical had changed within our criteria. Upon signing the official offer papers, he provided good advice to prepare us for the next steps.