The buyer: Murtaza Agha
What he wanted: A three-bedroom home with two bathrooms on the second floor, a backyard with space for a vegetable garden, and a “functioning basement.”
A marital breakup last year left Agha needing a new home for him and his daughter Leyla, who’s just turned 12. They loved the Richmond Hill neighbourhood where they’d lived in the family’s semi-detached house since 2017. So, ideally, Agha wanted to stay in the area, close to his daughter’s school and her mother, with whom his daughter lives half the time.
“The goal was that this would be our next home for five to seven years at least,” explains Agha, a senior manager at a major bank. It also had to be a freehold property, not a condo, with good resale potential.
The search: With the family home listed in April, 2024, Agha began prep work for his next purchase by monitoring the market, looking at listings online and getting his financial ducks in a row.
During the six months it took for the semi to sell, Boodhoo showed him a few properties to hone his knowledge and fine-tune his checklist.
Once the house sold, the search hit high gear with Agha seeing more than two dozen properties, including a few outside his preferred location.
He made low offers or was tempted on a couple of properties around the $1.1-million mark, but “they were priced to get people in the door,” he says. “It was a bit daunting. You had to really look at the property and not be seduced by the (list) price.”
What he bought: Things moved quickly when Agha found the right place in late November. He looked at the two-storey, three-bedroom townhouse at 5 p.m., went back for a second visit at 7:30 p.m. and had an offer on the table by 9.
This is where “Michelle’s astuteness kicked in,” he says of his agent’s guidance and negotiating skills.
Listed for $1,077,000, the renovated, well-maintained townhouse became dad and daughter’s new home for $1,060,000.
While the price, location and floor plan hit all the right notes, the “stunning, well-built deck” was the clincher, he says. It overlooked a spacious backyard with garden beds already in place for herbs, tomatoes and vegetables.
The house also had the finished basement they wanted for recreational space.
“Everything put together, it was the best package we saw,” he remarks, adding his daughter had a say in the decision.
What his agent says: With sale and purchase prices of $1,080,000 and $1,060,000, respectively, Agha “did exceptionally well, considering the competitive market, location and type of home he wanted,” says Boodhoo. His new home, in a desirable area, offered “great value for the price.”
She describes her role as providing strategic guidance and expertise in a fluctuating market, along with insights into pricing trends and property evaluations. With interest rates dropping 0.5 per cent in late October, she “highlighted the urgency to act before prices began to rise” and more buyers entered the market.
The strong inventory of homes at the time gave Agha the advantage of “ample choices,” Boodhoo says.
As he caught on to market trends and strategies, she began doing a “deeper dive into pricing analysis” before showings to ensure he was well-positioned to make strong, competitive offers, she explains.
By collaborating with his mortgage broker, Agha also gained a clear understanding of his financial commitments, Boodhoo adds.
Ultimately the realtor-and-client team achieved the goal of finding “a property he loved and negotiating a deal that worked within his budget.”
With his logical approach, financial expertise and willingness to learn, Agha was the “ideal client,” she says.
The verdict: Following the purchase, Agha says he “may have spent one sleepless night wondering,” but, in the end, “the home felt right” to both him and his daughter. “I felt good about it.”
Since their move in mid-January, they’ve settled right in. He can go downstairs to his “man cave” where he can “blast it” on the guitar he’s learning to play. And his daughter has added her touch to their shared space with her prized Taylor Swift posters on the walls.