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Paying taxes and living in fear. Unprecedented times.

None of us supposed this day would be here. Canada, so steadfast and careful, is weathering a stormy attack by its closest allies, the US. There is an overwhelming feeling that I am hearing from a lot of my friends, colleagues, and clients…Just exhaustion from covid and the economy and right/left wing anger, Israel and Gaza and the Ukraine. Pure, utter exhaustion.

I am not a political creature. I am just a real estate agent living in the East end of Toronto carving out a nice little career selling and buying homes with people. I love the business. I love the challenge. I love fixing problems and helping people find a sweet, sweet place to lay their heads. That being said, I am finding recently that uncertainty in the market and the world and employment is changing the way people think and react. It affects everything about what we are doing and how we do it in the real estate world.

We have become realtors who predict and gauge reaction to world crises. We are listeners and responders. We are morphing into drivers that can reroute like Google Maps or WAZE.

The more the business changes and adapts to the new way of our world with AI and trade wars and social media, the more we need to change and adapt. A lot of my clients benefitted from soaring home prices in the median days of Covid. The price of homes has changed since then. It is really hard for people to adapt to the new. It is for me as well.

BUT WE HAVE TO.

WE HAVE NO CHOICE.

Adapt.

Change.

There are plenty of beautiful moments left when we band together.

We can mark these new times by our ability and willingness to adapt, but also now we are seeing Canada come together. This may be the most important change of all. There is an old Latin saying, (I just made a reference to an old Latin saying):

E PLURIBUS UNUM.

This means, “All for the good of the one.” When we talk about the one, we don’t mean an individual, we mean the one as a whole. Canada is doing this right now. All the Premiers are fighting together against the real threat of tariffs from Donald Trump. Sometimes the individual, whether in politics or real estate or daily life, has to take a back seat to the good of the whole. In Canada, we want to see our beautiful country, diverse and inclusionary, survive the globalist phenomena that is sweeping the world. If ever there is a place to do that, it is here. We have a great nation made up of many cultures and ethnicities and beliefs. We live together, all for the good of the one, the whole. We make economic decisions based on what is good not just for the billionaires but also for those of modest means who have so much to add to our fabric of society and how our country runs.

Yesterday, I met with a couple from Bangladesh who moved to Canada from Abu Dhabi and bought a condo three years ago. They are seeing their investment come to fruition this July. Their investment was difficult for them but they want to have a place for their children to call home. I couldn’t have been more thrilled last year to help a young couple come together, one from Mexico and the other from Quebec with their newborn baby. She sold her condo and together, they bought their first home. So many of my clients are selling their family homes and making their lives more manageable in a condo with less room and less overhead.

There are hard choices; family homes sold, partnerships dissolved, lives affected by disagreement and job losses and sickness. These things are also true. My way forward as a realtor and a person will be to try and hear what my clients, and often friends, need. What will make their lives easier? Which place will be happily livable for your family of 1 or 2 or 5?

I am for equity and choice and inclusion and change where needed. My change now will be to listen more and speak less. I will be available and listening. Tell me how I can help you and If I can, I will. I have no choice. I am living in the middle of this wild universe made up of swirling stars and galaxies paying taxes and living in fear. One of those things I can change. So…I choose. I will not live in fear. That one choice alone, gives me the ability to walk through walls. Let me help you do it too.