My wife and I had always envisioned living in our home until we were old enough for a retirement or nursing home, but plans changed once we realised that for health reasons we needed to move to something on one level and something small enough for us to care for. We knew that saying goodbye to the lovely century home where we'd raised our children was going to be hard. We didn't, however, grasp the complexity of the process of prepping our home, updating it for sale, downsizing our enormous collection of stuff, listing the property, waiting for offers, and all while finding our next home.

 

This is where Liz and her team really shone. During this whole long process, Liz just felt very present in our lives. It really felt like a cooperative effort with Liz's experience and instincts guiding our journey as first-time home-sellers, answering questions effectively and helpfully, offering experience-based suggestions to put us in the best position possible, and calming our nerves when we expressed concern that the process was going to somehow derail. As context, we listed our home just a week or two before the market took its sharp downward turn in the spring of 2025, and we were like many others at that time in that we were selling our home in what was suddenly a strong buyers' market.

 

Once we reached the stage of putting up the listing and waiting for offers, we felt confident that we were in a strong position to sell our home. Liz's team - Roberto, Annette, and Sarah - had spent weeks thoughtfully and professionally getting our house into the best shape possible for potential buyers. The patching and painting was done with remarkable speed and incredible skill; the help downsizing was as thoughtful as it was efficient, acknowledging that our belongings are a part of our lives while also helping us set priorities as we prepared to move to a much smaller space; and the staging of the home was done with a light touch, creating a space that still felt like our home but open and flexible enough that other couples could easily envision what they would do with it. Liz coordinated all this work diligently, tracking her team's progress and keeping us updated on timelines as this work proceeded.

 

We all occasionally engage in large financial transactions - buying a car, making financial investments, or buying a house - and in each case we require the help of someone whose job is facilitating these transactions. Stories of trust being misplaced in car sales reps, financial advisors, and real estate agents are common. Throughout our long process of prepping, listing, and selling our home, plus buying our new home, there were many points when we looked to Liz for advice on matters we really knew nothing about. What do we list at? Do we lower the price, do we not lower it, do we wait it out? What do we offer on the home we want, how do we respond to their counter-offer, how do we counter an offer on our home? We literally had no idea how to answer these questions and at the same time because of the sums involved, plus the huge emotional component to the whole process, it always felt like getting something wrong was going to have huge consequences. At each of these points, we trusted Liz completely. We trusted her because of her long experience in the Hamilton real estate market - spanning many ups and downs - and because of her blend of knowledge and instinct when it comes to how real estate transactions play out not only on the macro market level but on the ground when it's a matter of real people making very human decisions about their lives. Also, we trusted her completely because it's obvious from working with her that Liz has a deeply ethical approach to the world and to her fellow humans, and seems genuinely to love helping people find a place to be at home.

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Jeff Tessier

Hamilton, Ontario

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