A North York purchase, and why we didn't rush it.

I'm so thrilled that we took the time on this one. My clients just firmed up a deal on a home in North York after six months of looking, and I thought it was a good opportunity to walk you through the reality of getting it right in this market.

It's more than just walking through dozens of beautiful homes. It's enduring hours of traffic snarls, the flooding of Toronto streets, power outages during showings, tenants-of-doom, and so much more. All that colour is part of the process - just like someone slowly grilling a meal to perfection. It takes time.

And when you ultimately find the right place, everything falls into place. It's not that it all of a sudden becomes easy. It's that the goal becomes clear, and we push forward full steam ahead. No regrets.

We saw a lot of houses

Honestly, probably too many. New ones, old ones, custom builds, plain ones. If it was in one of the neighbourhoods on their list, we went. There were evenings where we squeezed in so many showings that we were walking through the last one in near-darkness.

My clients knew what they wanted, which is usually the hard part. They wanted the size and they wanted the location, and the houses that had both tended to need upgrades. So every showing turned into the same conversation - how much work are we really willing to take on for this one? Meanwhile the market kept drifting down, so there was never a reason to panic and grab something.

Then this one came up

And it was just right. It has the space, and it's where they wanted to be. The main floor is full of light. (I sat in that living room for a while. It's as nice as it looks in the photos.) It even has an indoor pool, which you don't see every day.

No pressure

I'm telling you all this because six months is fine. There were about 25,000 homes for sale across the GTA at the end of October (25,098, according to TRREB), so buyers have had plenty to look at and no need to hurry. But I'd work the same way in a faster market. I'm low-pressure. I would much rather keep looking than talk someone into the wrong house.

Sometimes it takes a while. That's okay. We want to get it right.

Congratulations to my clients - I couldn't be happier for you, and thank you for sticking with it (and with me). If you're thinking about a move and want someone who won't push you, send me a note or call us at 905-910-1530.