We were looking for a condo for our daughter who is studying Engineering at U of T. She was moving out of residence and knowing she’d be in Toronto for four more years, our thinking was that it made more sense to spend $1000 a month on a mortgage for a nice condo than on rent for something the size of Harry Potter’s closet under the stairs.

We wanted something that was within walking distance of U of T or at least with access to fast and accessible transportation. We were open to a two bedroom apartment and even considered a three bedroom unit, but ruled it out due to concerns we couldn’t keep the rooms filled. It was also a little further away.

Adding to the pressure was that my husband was only in town for two weeks and had to return to Australia. If we didn’t find something in that time frame, I’d be making the 100km drive to Toronto myself to consider the search.

We live out of town so we depended on Shawn to guide us through the neighbourhoods. Shawn was aware of our time constraints and our budget and came up with a lot of possibilities. We spent one night and one full Saturday looking at condos and he was amazing – I didn’t think we’d get to see everything we did.

The condo we ended up with is the third unit we put an offer on. The first two already had offers! One of the units we lost was in a building that was a ten minute walk to U of T and had a 24 hour concierge. After we found out about losing that condo, Shawn’s assistant called him to let him know there was a similar unit across the street in a twin building and that’s the one we bought. Same location, also with a 24 hour concierge.

Thanks to Shawn, we ended up with a condo in our price range  in an ideal location and it was found within our tight time frame.

He was really accommodating and showed us so many things in a short period of time. It helps that he walks at demon speed. He has a great sense of humour, he never got cranky or tired because we had a very short time.

I was amazed at his knowledge – he knows the history of every building downtown, which ones need renovations, which ones are near future condo, he’s a walking encyclopedia of downtown Toronto.

He also gave us a fabulous lawyer!