When did you begin your real estate journey?

I started in this field over ten years ago now. My mom was a real estate broker and did it as a profession for retirement. I also owned and operated several businesses during my career path including frame stores that I decided to sell because people started buying picture frames directly from China instead of the small local shopkeepers like mine. I have always been an entrepreneur and I guess it is part of my DNA as well! I started at a young age to work in the restaurants and bars business at the same time as I studied at the University of Montreal in marketing. I have always been interested in marketing and sales especially for fashion businesses but was less excited about the future possibilities for young entrepreneurs. At some point, my mom suggested I take the three month real estate brokerage course and told me she thought I was going to be the family broker. Before that, I had no interest in real estate. Then I jumped and did the course at the same time I was completing my studies and working at the restaurant.

I finally passed my brokerage exam and got my license. The first year I continued to work in the restaurant business but with the goal at that time to open a restaurant with the revenues that would come from real estate transactions. Finally, the story took a different turn, I got ‘’caught up in it’’ particulary because it touched me a lot to work with people and help them with their life project. I found that real estate touches a certain sensitivity in people. I work with investors, families, first buyers, etc. they all have a different vision that is close to their hearts. What people probably don’t know is that real estate brokers give clients a lot of support both emotionally and psychologically. I must be a businesswoman and a psychologist at the same time! It is really this human side that made me fall in love with this job and I realized that even without having the network that I have today, I made a very interesting turnover because people gave me confidence. It was very rewarding as a woman coming out of the restaurant business. I started this profession in my early thirties and have been a real estate broker for thirteen years now. They have become the best years of my professional life.

What real estate do you actively work in?

I have the qualification, knowledge and ability to work in very different fields: residential and commercial.  In Quebec, as soon as you sell a building that has more than five appartments, it is considered a ‘’commercial transaction’’. Today brokers have to do a separate course to be able to do both which was not the case in my time. I really appreciate both sides of the business and I’m fortunate enough to not have to choose. I specialize in downtown and southwest Montreal. These are really my two main playing fields, but I follow my clients almost anywhere. Also, with my team I now have the availability to extend my sectors. I operate the only RE/MAX office in the city center (Montreal Ville-Marie Centre). 

My partner Roby is an engineer by trade, but he used to manage an industrial and commercial real estate portfolio for a multinational company so as doing risk management and special projects financing. He saw that I was always busy when we first met but also getting busier and busier with years. We talked to each other, looked at some figures and numbers, and I told him to maybe do his class. I was worried about having someone in my company because I had worked almost a decade on my own. In the end, everything worked out for the best. The office has really grown in the last couple of years and then my partner, Roby became an amazing business partner. People find it really sweet that we are a couple and we are in business together; presentation is really good.