Chris has been a client of mine since 2009, when I sold his house in Ajax. All told, our team has helped Chris sell two homes and buy two homes. Back in 2009, the market was starting to recover from a downturn. Sales were down, prices were down and more tellingly, showings were also down. As Chris notes in the testimonial he sent me after the sale, he expresses how impressed they were that they had 15 agents who brought their buyers through the house in one week, which was a lot of buyers at that time. Compare that to February 2022 though, when we had the hottest market in history and we would have 15 showings in one day!
Sometimes you just know when you have the right house and the right clients at the right time. Although it wasn’t anything resembling a “hot” market, I had clients who really took care of their home – it was completely renovated and showed beautifully. More importantly, I had clients who listened to my advice and priced it appropriately in that slow market. The kicker, I enjoyed working with them. The result – a quick sale at a top price. And very happy clients, as you can see by the testimonial Chris and Mahi sent me, which you can see below:
Dear Brian Kondo,
My wife and I wanted to express our appreciation for the gift cards that you sent us for the Pickering Town Centre.
We felt that you did an amazing job selling our house in Ajax.
I recently was talking about the quality of service that we had from you to one of our friends and why we liked you as an agent. We told them we were impressed by:
1. The professional in-home free appraisal that you did for us. That you came to our house with two customized binders for me and my wife with all the MLS listings in our neighbourhood over the last 5 years. We agreed with the value that you assessed on our house based on our knowledge of our neighbourhood.
2. We were very impressed by the virtual tour and photography that your videographer did on our home. You hired someone at your expense to come into our home and videograph our house for selling purposes. We were so impressed by this technology that we requested a copy of the disk, which you provided for us free of charge.
3. You must be the best realtor in Ajax, because within the first week of showings we had 15 realtors come into our home with clients to give our property exposure.
4. My wife and I couldn’t believe that you sold our house in 1 week, which allowed us to quickly transition into our new beautifully built home the same summer.
Brian, you and your staff exceeded our expectations. We recommend you highly to all our friends and if we hear that they are ready to sell we will let you know so that you can provide them with the same excellent service that you provided for us. Thanks a million and god bless.
Chris and Mahi
The house Chris mentions in his testimonial that they were moving into was a nice, newer home in Oshawa. It was in a nice area and had some nice upgrades, but wasn’t anything special. One of the agents on my team at the time, Janette, helped them purchase it at a very good price, compared to some of the homes similar to theirs that the builder was still selling in the area.
When Chris called about 5 years later to say he was ready to move again, I kind of knew what I would see when I walked into the house for the first time and sure enough, it was completely updated and renovated.
It’s a recipe for success when selling a home – a client who listens to the advice his agent is giving him and an agent who uses his/her experience to give the right advice. It didn’t hurt that we had a really nice product too – a nicely updated house! The result was the same as before – a quick sale in a slow market at top price. Chris was again so happy with the service we provided him that he wrote me another testimonial, which you can see below:
Dear Brian Kondo,
I wanted to thank you for the excellent job you did in selling my house in Oshawa. This is the second home that you have sold for me, my first home as you remember being in Ajax.
I know that I received top dollar for my home. The sister-house in my neighbourhood with a much bigger yard and the same appliances was sold by another popular realty firm for several thousand dollars less than my home.
I chose you as a realtor because I know that you are very much respected in the real estate community. Many of the real estate firms respect your name and reputation and I believe that because of your reputation and the Re/max franchise you were the very best person to represent me.
1. You did a comparative market study when you came to my home, showing me a history of the values in my neighbourhood with a book full of MLS printouts so I could see pictures of the homes that were sold as well as their values both past and present. You showed me that you knew exactly what you were doing and your price range for the fair-market value of my home was right on.
2. Your marketing strategies were excellent. Without exaggeration I must have had fifty agents bring their clients through my home to see it as I have a collection of agents cards (from many different brokerage firms, not just Re/max) sitting on my table.
3. You are a motivated seller who took time to answer my questions and you always responded to my pages by phone on the same day.
4. Your willingness to have regular open houses almost every weekend and advertising them in real estate journals attracted a lot of prospective buyers.
I wanted to congratulate you on an excellent job, and I would recommend you highly to anyone I know who is selling their home.
Regards,
CHRIS
Chris was downsizing and this time, Mike was assigned to help him find an affordable home somewhere in Durham Region. Since he’s really handy and doesn’t mind hard work, they saw a lot of what we real estate agents call – Distress Sales or Fixer-Uppers. One home that Mike was showing Chris needed so much work that Mike thought even Chris would want to cut the showing short and go see the next one. Guess what, Chris saw the potential and asked Mike to write up an offer. He got the house and less than a year later, sent me an email updating me on the work he had done and was still doing on it. Long story short, with all the updates and reno’s, Chris probably increased the value of the house by over $150,000 in just one year!
A classic case of buying low and selling high, although Chris emphasized not to expect another call to move anytime soon.
As you have been reading over the past couple weeks, we get the chance to work with some wonderful people, people just like Chris, who we’ve helped buy and sell 4 homes.
Our goal, or Mission Statement is:
The mission of the Brian Kondo Real Estate Team is to provide such outstanding service when assisting our clients with their real estate needs, that they will have no hesitation in using our services again or recommending us to their friends, relatives or acquaintances. In short, we want “A CLIENT FOR LIFE!”
If you are thinking of buying, selling or both this year and would like to find out how the Brian Kondo Real Estate Team can help you like we have helped Chris over the years, please contact us by calling 905-683-7800 (office) or 905-426-7484 (direct) or emailing brian@briankondo.com.
Thanks for reading today's BLOG!
Brian Kondo Sales Representative / Team Leader
The Brian Kondo Real Estate Team
Re/Max Hallmark First Group Realty Ltd.
905-683-7800 office
905-426-7484 direct
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