F i n a l l y !
Now that the physical move and the stress of the sale are behind us, I feel like I can finally sit down to write this blog post to share it with you all.
These past few months have been such a roller coaster (adding to the personal and professional challenges, re: chaos, that 2020 has brought). Our close friends and family have known for a while now that our plan had been to *someday* move back to Montreal–the city in which my heartmate and I met, and called home for the greater part of our lives.
After nearly seven years in Toronto–a city we loveed but in the back of our minds always considered temporary–we had been longing to reunite with our families and lifelong friends back in Montreal. As strange as 2020 has been (for all of us), it oddly brought with it a new normal, one that included 100% flexibility to work remotely. In a nutshell, this gave us the opportunity to move back, and to finally feel at home.
Of course when we first moved into our Toronto home we did everything we could to make it a happy and warm home for both of us. But our surroundings, the neighborhood, the environment, the city were always… foreign–no matter how much time we spent exploring.
The discovery phase when you first move to a new city is always fun. I remember going for long jogs in the early mornings and taking a different route each time, taking mental note of the neighbourhood’s local coffee shops, parks, restaurants, gyms, flower markets, etc. In that regard, moving into our Toronto home was a real joy. Plus, it was the first “house” we bought together after selling our condo. So there were certainly a lot of special “firsts” that we experienced together there, but home was always calling. And I can tell you, there really is no place like home.
So it’s been over a month now since we moved back to Montreal.
We moved all our stuff out of the Toronto house so that we could stage it and have our agent put together a beautiful listing that would have a real impact on potential buyers coming through the door. (AKA: we wanted a quick sale)!
I may be biased, but I truly feel we had the best real estate agent ever. If you’re ever in the market to sell or buy, reach out to me first and I will gladly make this referral! Amanda Beecham was such a pleasure to work with (twice)!
When our house first went up on the market, I couldn’t help but feel nervous.
Were people going to like our home enough to submit an offer?
Was the pending announcement of COVID wave 2 going to deter potential buyers?
Our sales strategy, like many other sellers in Toronto, was to hold for offers, and review the ones that came in on offer day. I’m clearly not an expert in real estate–not my forte, but I had been keeping a close eye on people’s buyers behaviours throughout COVID, and another close eye on the comparable list prices in the area.
By the end of the week we had an offer come in that we were considering accepting–so we did!
Just like that, the house was sold and we felt like we could finally turn the page in our book on the chapter of Toronto.
Toronto was good to us. We loved the friends we made, the experience of working and living downtown for many years, exploring the city, spending time on the islands, hiking the hidden nature walks, and riding our bikes along the beach, but we’re home now–and that feels even better.
We’re excited to be back in Montreal, the city has changed so much in the time that we’ve been away!! Our next chapter will be about finding the next place we’ll call home. We’re exploring a few areas right now and may have an update to share sooner than later! 😉 So let me know if you want me to share more from that journey on the blog and/or on YouTube!
Congratulations! It must have been stressful.