RE/MAX Realtron Realty

I recently took the plunge and purchased my first home. Yay me!
David Batori was suggested to me by good friends who had used him to purchase their place about a year earlier and who’d received the recommendation from another friend prior to that. Affection for this guy clearly goes deep among my friends. I met him about a year ago when I thought to start looking at the time just before the HST came in (as a side-​bar: total mistake; prices were so inflated in early 2010 I could only afford something where I’d be able to sit on my couch, grab a drink from the fridge, and load my washer at the same time. Convenient perhaps, but not exactly livable) and re-​started my search around the same time this year, for the spring market.
A year ago, David and I met and went over what I was looking for and budget; we saw 15 – 20 places that were not exactly what I was looking for, but were as close to what I wanted on the market in my price range at that time. He also signs all his clients up to get daily emails with new listings; these continued for about a month after I’d decided to give up my search and rent again (this was somewhat annoying, as my phone is set to vibrate when I get an email; daily vibrations on my dresser at 2:30am were not exactly welcomed after I’d realized I can’t afford something with enough space to hang my hat and my coat at the same time). The sad, self-​defeating process took about a month and a half.
This year, Dave and I met again (in the exact same Starbucks! on Good Friday!) to revisit what I was looking for. My budget had increased, which was helpful, but he also let me know that the market was a little less inflated, and that would also be helpful for me. We decided to meet the following week to start seeing options again. This year, the search was pretty non-​existant; I ended up falling in love with and then buying the second place I saw, going from first outing to offer-​accepted in 5 days. He didn’t even have time to sign me up for the email service! And, when I brought my parents on a second visit to my (now) home, he remembered them and was able to chat like he’d seen them last week.
Working with Dave has been great; he is busy and has a lot of clients on the go at once, but does make time for all of them and makes himself as available as possible. He’s also very straight-​forward; I didn’t feel like I was getting played out to increase a commission, or only shown expensive units that were at the top of/​out of my price range. His specialty is the Yonge and Eg/​Forest Hill area (not exactly my scene), but he’s entirely happy to go all over the map, including right downtown for a to-​be Queen West girl like me.
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The search of our first home encompassed a few steps — financial preparation and the actual house search. We went with a mortgage broker and the review of RMA Mortgages can be found here —
. Once we got our financials figured out (seriously this was an intense experience), we were totally prepared to start looking for homes.
We chose David because he was affiliated with our mortgage broker. Since this was our first time, we wanted to make this experience as easy as possible. Having the mortgage broker in contact with the real estate agent and also in contact with the real estate lawyer seemed to simplify everything.
Our initial contact with David was a phone interview. He asked for our preferences on location, type of housing (condo, detached, condo town, freehold town, etc) and whatever else was on our wishlist (fenced yard, 3 bedrooms, 2+ washrooms, no parquet floors, etc). He then took our financials and our preferences and started the search. We received a daily email with homes that fit our criteria. We then sent David the ones we wanted to view and he’d setup the appointments.
Since we were on a tight timeline, we asked David to setup as many viewings as possible in one day. We viewed 9 houses in 1 day. The only downside with David is that he didn’t know our preferred area very well. However, once inside the house, his knowledge and advice guided us in the right direction. He told us what made a property stellar and not-​so stellar. And after a very long day of looking at wtf houses, ok houses and nice houses, house # 9 was the one for us.
David called the mortgage broker (who happens to be his brother) and got all the paperwork ready. We had an offer in a few hours — on a Sunday night to boot! The offer and counter-​offer process went smoothly and before we knew it, we had a house.
Thanks David for all your help, all your patience with our relentless questions and worrying and being there for us on this terrifying and exciting journey.
Next up in the buying a house process — real estate lawyer.