Strategy Comes First

Real estate can be a really stressful journey.

Whether it's searching for your next home or figuring out how to price your current one, it often feels like taking a shot in the dark. Government regulations constantly change, markets are volatile, especially these days. Plus, real estate seems to be full of unfamiliar words.

It's easy to feel overwhelmed and confused by it all.

That's why I became a real estate agent. I was tired of being confused by all the real estate jargon, of feeling rushed and constantly pressured, like I was on somebody else’s schedule, when I tried to buy or sell.

I always thought there had to be a better way to go through the real estate process.

I wanted to educate and simplify so individuals could be empowered to build wealth and find comfort through real estate. By providing guidance, sharing knowledge, and demystifying the buying and selling process, I hoped to make real estate more accessible to other people that felt like me.

Over 20+ years, I learned what to do and what mistakes to avoid when buying a home with and without children and pets. One of the key things I learned was being prepared for the unexpected.

Knowing what to do once an issue came along helped relieve a tremendous amount of stress for me and for my clients. It became a central part of how I deal with real estate today.

I cannot stress (pun intended) how powerful a well thought out strategy can be.

Strategy in Action

When Erin came to me, she had already been searching for her next home for 2 years.

She was at her wits’ end.

She had made offers on several homes but kept losing out. Pressure mounted as interest rates continued to rise rapidly and what she could afford shrunk. She was losing hope and feeling depressed as a result of the added stress.

There were only so many houses she could see between work meetings and daycare pickups, and only so much she could offer without knowing how much her current home would sell for.

She decided she had to make a change. And she was surprised by my approach. Instead of jumping immediately into showing homes and setting up searches, we started with a conversation about strategy.

We talked about why she wanted to move her hopes for her new home, and the steps she had taken so far.

We started crafting a strategy to get her into a new home that would fit her current lifestyle, and get her home sold quickly and for the most money possible. We covered all kinds of “what if” scenarios and discussed risk tolerance and which type of risks were more palatable.

How would she feel selling without buying the new home first? How would she feel if the house didn’t sell within a certain period? And then we addressed her most pressing questions.

Going through this process lifted the weight from her shoulders. She was excited and hopeful to get going.

With her newfound confidence, she spoke to a mortgage broker that I referred to get an update on the mortgage possibilities.

Of course the road had some bumps along the way, but our strategy, our roadmap, kept the stress to a minimum because the bumps were not unexpected.

Erin found her home within two months of beginning her work with me. It was within her budget and had the space she had always hoped for.

I loved that I got to be part of their journey.

What You Need to Know

It's Never Too Early To Start Planning

Even if you're months away from even starting the move process, going through the planning process will help you make better decisions.

Give yourself the time to get everything in order to make the most out of your real estate journey and your future decisions. A strategy session will clarify when to start, the state of the current Ottawa real estate market, what you can do to prepare your home for sale (repairs, improvements, etc.)

Stress Comes From Doubt

Much of the stress that you encounter when buying or selling a home comes from analysis paralysis. There are so many options, so many things to keep track of, and impending and sometimes very quick deadlines that are almost a guaranteed recipe for overwhelm.

Rather than having to stop, research, analyze, evaluate and make a decision with a hundred options at every bend in the road, a well crafted strategy will help you focus on what is most important while I deal with the rest for you.

Affordability is Constantly Changing

No one has any control over how the market behaves. While understanding market conditions is valuable, it’s not the most important thing.

Affordability really comes down to what you are comfortable spending on a monthly or yearly basis for your home. Creating an affordability strategy will let you know exactly what’s possible for your next home, and what you need to do in order to get there.