We were introduced to Shawn last fall as an agent for us as purchasers. We had listed our house in the Avenue Road and St Clair area for sale with another agent and were intending to downsize. We were not in a hurry to sell or buy and did not want to buy before selling. We were confident that we would find a great place once we knew what we were going to receive on the sale of our house. The fall listing did not result in a sale so we decided to relist in the spring.

In the meantime, Shawn was very helpful sending us new listings that met our selection criteria. We expected to cut our living space from over 4,500 sq. ft. to about 2,000 sq. ft. and were looking at spending around half the proceeds from the sale of our house. We wanted to live near Yonge and St. Clair but hadn’t decided whether we preferred a house, townhouse or high-rise condo.  We also considered buying a duplex at a higher cost that we could live in while renting out part of it. As time went on we expanded our search area to a short drive or transit ride to Yonge and St. Clair. In the spring when we re-listed, Shawn took it up a notch. He was very diligent in setting up showings that we requested and provided a lot of very useful information on relevant prior listings and area sales.

Throughout the 6 months that we worked with him, Shawn was in tune with our approach to buying. He was very client conscious and up beat during the searching phase. While some clients would prefer that he filter the available prospective purchases down to a few for viewing, we wanted to see as many as we could within our broad selection criteria. His cheerful demeanour was welcome as we set up a number of multi viewing days. His personal knowledge of our area and of the condominiums that we considered was very helpful. When we got down to a few candidates and contemplated making offers, he took it up another notch and provided draft documents, specific comments and checklists all on tight timelines. We are still not sure when he sleeps. Armed with in-depth histories for the specific unit and relevant comparables and with additional information that he had obtained we were very confident in making an offer on a Bloor St. condominium that met our selection criteria. We will be moving in June.