The life of a Toronto Real Estate agent might not be glamorous, but being part of the best Toronto real estate team sure keeps us busy! Here we share a glimpse of what a typical day looks like for The Christine Cowern Team.
Team Meetings
Meetings kick off a day in the life of the best Toronto real estate team. Our meetings bring different skill sets and experiences to the table, allowing us to gain from each other’s input. All ideas are considered relevant and valid, and daily meetings are the best way to help generate ideas.
Our meetings are the driving force behind our collaborative approach. It allows us to work within our unique abilities and level up to service our clients with limited disruptions to the process. Because we’re in constant conversations with each other, we always spot blips on the radar, and proactively come up with practical solutions to ensure sales or purchases are seamless. We avoid dropping the proverbial ball and share a laugh or two with some good old-fashioned bonding thrown in for good measure. A daily meeting puts a stop to issues in a very team-bondy way!
However, our meetings aren’t exclusive to our internal team. We have a network of vetted experts who share our commitment to “kickassedness” contributing to your transactions. As a result, you’ll also find us on video calls (sometimes wearing PJ bottoms!) throughout the day, ensuring each element of a transaction is covered.
Get to know our team here:
Taking and Making Calls (or Texting)
Whether soothing last-minute client jitters, scheduling showings, arranging movers, or helping clients find where the heck the main water shutoff thingy is hidden, our cell phones are glued to our palms morning, noon, and night.
Buyer and Seller Consultations
A lot of our time is spent with clients, which, frankly, is why we love what we do. We’re constantly meeting with new clients. For example, a buyer analysis tells us about a client, helps us set a budget based on what a client wants, and helps buyers understand what it takes to get their dream home at the best price.
We also provide free market evaluations for sellers, so we’ll spend time explaining the current state of the market and whether now’s the right time to sell. During these consultations, we also let sellers know what they’ll get for their homes as is or with our rock-star de-cluttering, staging, or reno recommendations. So, you’ll often find us walking through homes and making assessments.
A lot of times, we answer burning questions and offer advice before we even get to the consultation stage. (No pressure. You do you.)
Thinking about buying or selling soon? Here are 10 tips to help find the best Toronto real estate agent for you. Read more.
Previews and Showings
Previews are property walk-throughs where we consider homes for our clients and get the inside scoop from seller’s agents. We like to get a feel for the home and how it might fit in with our clients’ needs. From there, we decide whether to show the property to any of our clients.
On the other side of the transaction, we also arrange showings for sellers with buyers’ agents. We try to keep showings to a minimum, so a lot of our day is very strategic, figuring out ways to get homes sold faster so sellers have less disruption to their daily life. This is one of the biggest pains in the butt when selling, so we try to make it as painless as possible.
Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)
CMA’s are a big part of our job. We need to constantly conduct market analysis to estimate the value of properties to ensure we choose the right price when listing a home. We have to evaluate similar homes in the area and then compare the details and conditions of each home to other listed homes to decide what it will take to get top dollar.
Comps, as we call them, are also essential for buyers. We don’t want to ever see our clients overpay for a property. By understanding sales in the area, we can create an offer strategy that gets the home for a fair price. So, we’re often crunching numbers well into the wee hours of the morning.
Submitting and Negotiating Offers
That brings us to the nitty gritty of our jobs. This is where gloves are off, and we fight for our clients. As tough as this might sound, we are very strategic in our role as negotiators forging strong relationships with other agents, so we always have an in. Our razor-sharp edge is unwavering in protecting our clients’ interests. We love a challenge, and this part of our day allows us to step up to bat to knock one out of the park. So, whenever we sit down at the table, we’re in the zone and use our smarts to negotiate the best deal for our clients.
Negotiating is a huge part of our job. Learn more about how to respond to multiple offers as a seller here.
Attending Home Inspections and Purchasers Visits
By now, you’re probably wondering how we get it all done. The truth is that we are very strategic with everything we do. We aren’t about quantity but instead quality. By ensuring we have team members able to handle different stages of the transaction, we make sure our agents are by our clients’ side for every little but necessary step of a transaction. That includes attending home inspections and purchaser visits to ensure buyers don’t make bad decisions and end up with a money pit on their hands. So, while walking around with an inspector is a bit of a yawn, those exciting moments when they reveal a real problem make it all worth it.
On the other hand, we love the purchaser visits as it’s when we get to see the reality of home ownership dawning on our clients, and pride kicks in knowing we’ve done good!
Staging Our Listings
Okay, so we don’t have a show on HGTV! But we are still pretty damn good at staging our listings. This is one of the fun parts of our day. We get to be creative and finesse homes into living spaces that appeal to the masses.
A typical day prepping a home for sale includes de-cluttering, Monica Geller-obsessed cleaning, and then suggesting minor repairs our sellers can do to make their home feel move-in ready. However, there are also times when we need to do a complete overhaul – that’s where home staging and a touch of diplomacy come in. We gently help sellers not take the changes personally so they’re comfortable with the process. Our professional stager then waves their magic wand to produce “love-it” level furniture, accessories, and neutral, soothing colour palettes to completely transform ho-hum spaces into showcase homes. Our days are jammed doing what it takes to get listings ready to sell.
Learn more about our staging philosophy in these posts next:
Doing Photography/Video Marketing
Once we get a new listing, our team kicks into marketing mode and creates schedules for staging, marketing photos, and videos. We put together marketing materials like feature sheets designed to help buyers know when they’ve found “the one.” Our thumbs are also busy, furiously typing social posts so buyers can easily find homes for sale on Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus, Linked In, etc.
There’s some research involved, so we channel our inner stats nerd to find the ideal target buyer and sell that downtown core condo to a single professional or get that East York three-bedroom home sold to a young family. We also research the typical agent likely representing these buyers and will do some email marketing to get them excited to show their clients our listings. It sounds like a lot of work, but because we use a proven formula, we can get the marketing out there fast using our network of professional photographers, videographers, writers, and marketers to nail it every time.
Checking Out Neighbourhoods For Our Buyers
So, you might be thinking, shouldn’t you already know the neighborhoods? But that’s a bit of a trick question, at least for us, because we know how quickly neighbourhoods change. We are constantly interacting with neighbourhoods in new ways, discovering new little niches, and listening to the needs of our clients while keeping our ears to the ground to keep up with Toronto real estate trends. From Carleton Village near St. Clair and Old Weston Road to the emerging Hangar District in Downsview and Front Street’s Rail District between Bathurst and Peter to finding the best area for laneway, garden, and coach houses, we’re checking out neighbourhoods and opportunities for buyers like nobody’s business.
Curious about the best neighbourhoods in Toronto for you and your family? Check out our neighbourhood guides here.
Connecting With Listing And Co-Op Agents About Properties
We’ve already mentioned team meetings, but we’re also constantly meeting with local listing and co-op agents about properties. Again, we need to keep our ear to the ground while developing and nurturing a network of fellow real estate experts. This is the best way we know to keep us in the loop and ensure we have strong ties to the real estate industry. It’s also fun exchanging stories and learning new things about the city and what clients are looking for and expect. It keeps us one step ahead of trends while building meaningful, mutually beneficial connections. It’s a very social and chatty part of our day.
Planning and Throwing Fancy Client Parties
We get fancy schmancy now and then. We sincerely appreciate the clients and people who contribute to our growth and success. As a result, we fancy ourselves as hosts-with-the-most kind of people who understand the importance of entertaining clients. While you might not need us once your transaction is over and done with, we appreciate you and will reach out with unexpected invitations for our latest celebrations now and then. So, event planning might include reviewing the guest list, sending out invites, thinking up a fun theme, ordering flowers, lining up caterers, etc.
The Little Things
We hate to brag, but we’ve been known to do a few unexpected “solids” for our clients throughout our day, like finding daycare for restless pooches or shy kitties before a showing or helping keep front yards tidy and weed-free when a client is away on business. We’re courier-callers who get keys to you on closing day, and movers and shakers using our move management service to get you settled in your new home. We are valiant traffic fighters driving across town to get in offers before someone else does. We are coffee grabbers picking up coffee before we head out to client meetings. We are couples’ counselors helping partners find even ground and picture hangers when a wall is looking a little blank just before a showing. These are the little things we do every day to meet the needs of our clients.
Being part of the best Toronto real estate team is hectic, unpredictable, and competitive, and we wouldn’t have it any other way!
Call The Christine Cowern Team at 416.291.7372 or email us at hello@christinecowern.com with any questions you have about Toronto real estate. We’d love to work with you!
