You have no doubt heard stories from friends who have had a bad experience with the real estate industry. Perhaps their salesperson neglected to tell them about the adjustments they had to pay on closing, such as land transfer tax, or their salesperson was too busy to return telephone calls.

At Martin & Meredith we take customer service very seriously. We believe that our service should be personal, perceptive and professional in all respects.

We Listen

When you are a Martin & Meredith client, you have specific needs and expectations of the home buying or selling experience. We want to know what they are. Think of us as your personal consultants, who will ask relevant questions, discuss alternative approaches, and offer you advice and guidance based on our years of experience. We do more than just dispense information about listings; we analyze, distill, and present the information that is most pertinent to your needs.

We Care

Our clients tell us that we are different from other real estate companies because we work as a team and support each other in our professional lives. In other words, we care about each other, but more importantly, we care about you, our clients.

What does that mean?

• We respond promptly to calls and emails - our goal is to return them within two hours;
• We make ourselves available to suit your time schedule;
• We anticipate your questions;
• We explain the buying and selling process from beginning to end;
• We explain our working relationship with you, whether as a customer or a client;
• We show you the results of our research, including sales on your street;
• We follow up after the transaction has closed to make sure you were satisfied;

We specialize in central Toronto, but we also go further to find the right location for you.

When you are buying, we are sensitive to your specific desires and goals for neighbourhood location and amenities, house style, as well as its features and upgrades. We do use an automatic email system to inform you about new listings, but we recognize that the MLS system does not discriminate as to your individual finely-tuned criteria. Any automatic system has its advantages and drawbacks. For example, the system cannot pick out nuances of physical location or physical layout of rooms.

That is where we step in. We review the search results you have received, we inspect the ones we think would be most suited to you, and we follow up with our own feedback on those properties. We can report back to you that the house is located two doors west of a busy street corner with a bus stop, that the layout of the principal rooms is awkward for the type of entertaining you want to enjoy, that the condition of the property is such that it will require substantial updating, or that the next door neighbour's addition blocks the natural daylight coming into the rooms at the rear of the house.

We Give Advice

When you are selling, we give candid advice on the course of action to take, whether on preparing your home for the market, the list price for current market conditions, timing, offer strategies, or our view of future market trends. We may also give advice that you may not want to hear, but that you will ultimately appreciate hearing. For example, we will tell you objectively about the condition of your home and its competitiveness in the marketplace, the demand for your style of house or condominium, your expectations as to value, or the likely buyer for your home. Although setting the list price is your decision, we want you to be well informed before you make that decision. In addition, we will warn you that the buyer might be a builder, or that your two-bedroom house is in softer demand compared to the typical three-bedroom houses in the area.

If you are buying, we can advise on the strength of your options, both in terms of your price range and the availability of homes in the location you desire. We know the up-and-coming neighbourhoods, and we won't hesitate to tell you if we do not have confidence in a particular location.

We Have Resources

Whether you are moving up or down, you may not have had recent experience with today's marketplace. We have a list of people whom we can recommend to you that are involved in the process of buying, selling or renovating. Our contacts have been recommended by other clients, so you can rely on their opinion of the level of customer service they provide. We know mortgage brokers, lawyers, building inspectors, home stagers, home insurance brokers, surveyors, window cleaners, house cleaners, architects, builders, contractors, property managers, furnished rental apartments, home security specialists, title insurance providers, and more.

We also know about government programs and regulations, and we have information on insurance issues pertaining to aluminum wiring, carbon monoxide, lead paint, mould, oil tanks, termites, and urea formaldehyde foam insulation.

Of course, everyone's needs are different. Depending on the situation, we may offer services above and beyond what is normally practiced by real estate salespeople. All you have to do is tell us what you seek from us to make the buying or selling process go smoothly for you.

We exercise our unique judgment in finding exactly the right home that best fits your needs by screening properties that we feel would most meet your expectations. In other words, we aren't interested in just making a sale for the sake of selling - we want you to be happy in your new home for the next 10, 20 or 40 years! If we have done our job well, you may never need our services again!

We want to exceed your expectations of a real estate agent, but we know that we are only as good as you, our clients and customers, perceive us to be.