Michael Owen Real Estate

Michael helped us buy a townhouse in 2013 that appreciated to the point that it set us up well for a house purchase + we have no doubt that where we have landed (a detached 4 bedroom home in bloordale) will do the same over the next few years.

The process took 9 months - a reflection of the market and
throughout the time, Michael was an incredible resource.

A few things that make him standout:

1) He knows Toronto inside and out - from neighbourhoods, to watchouts / benefits of a location, to upcoming builds - no surprises.
2) He's patient, and doesn't push you into anything. Whether a house, price or other agreement.
3) He has a baseline knowledge of construction that made reno's ever so slightly less daunting.

We will always work with Michael, and would recommend him to all our friends.

Overall, I had an excellent experience working with Michael.

Before working with Michael, I had a generally pessimistic view of realtors. Over the years of visiting multiple open houses, and after many horror stories, I'd generally become a bit wary of realtors. I definitely wasn't a fan of the aggressive, transactional, sales driven encounter that usually followed. I even questioned the value proposition - sure, in theory, they should be knowledgeable and provide good insight into buying a home, but again, first-hand experience and horror stories suggested that many of them can be in to make a quick buck while you're left holding the bag.

Michael is the complete opposite of this. An almost immediate initial impression is that Michael won't be pushy or aggressive about your decisions. He'll give a very honest assessment of a place, turning over every rock to point out any warnings signs, which was great for first time homebuyers trying to learn what to look for. However, one of the main reasons we decided to work with Michael was the amount of analysis that he puts into his work.

If we were even slightly interested in bidding on a house, Michael would stay up late pouring over the details of prior listings with similar features, looking at the pictures to determine differences in the condition, and coming up with a price adjustments needed to bring the comparator to the level of the house we were looking at. Michael provided these details to us, and gave us an expected selling range. Usually, these estimates were bang on.

This gave us a bit of confidence in evaluating whether houses were under or over priced, but we became really good at being able to guess whether a price was too low and warranted over bidding, vs other times when the asking price was the right offer - occasionally the house would go slightly under or significantly over. This significantly empowered our decisions making, and when the right house came on the market at a great price, we were able to swoop in quickly and snap it up.

When we wanted to make offers or bully bids, Michael made himself extremely available to facilitate these 24/7. Dealing with realtors on the sell side who were not as available was occasionally frustrating. Being able to act quickly also contributed to our success in buying a place.