The Feel Good Happy Real Estate Story of Marshall Eriksen and Lily Aldrin

A (relatively) true story

When I met Marshall and a 7-month pregnant Lily back in 2012, they lived in a 700 square foot condo in Dowisetrepla with their two-year-old son Marvin.  They had come to the realization that they would need something bigger than a 1+den as Lily had an Eriksen the size of a 15 pound turkey growing inside of her.

On the verge the last minute, they asked for my help — sell the condo and buy a house to move into before the turkey-baby arrives in the midst of the city’s definite Seller’s Market. There were a few stipulations from the Mortgage Lender on top, the condo must be sold first. So, there is always the risk that they may be homeless if they don’t find a house before the closing date of the condo. Well, that’s a great idea for a sitcom right there, and not stressful at all.  Of course, this story has a few miraculous twists. The first one being that in Dowisetrepla (not exactly down wind of the sewage treatment plant, but maybe not the greatest neighbourhood the city has to offer) where condos might take 2-3 weeks to sell, we sold theirs in just 2 days, with 3 offers and $5,000 over asking made for a record breaking sale in the building.

Yes, all the powers of the Greek Gods combined to help us win that night.

It was the next stage of our journey that kept me up every night.  What if Lily gives birth… and they are… homeless.

And we saw houses. Many houses. We even saw a house with a stove in bathroom, a “stoveinkerator” as Lily called it. It was a combination of a stove, oven, sink and refrigerator. Every house we saw sold for thousands of dollars over asking, but the house with the stoveinkerator sold for a hundred thousand dollars over asking.  Where many teams might have quit, Team Lilymarshmanna trekked on when alas, another miracle! Like placing a bet on a racehorse named Slowpoke, we took a chance on a home that had lingered on the market for half a year. Many teams may have come to the conclusion that something bad must have happened in this home for it not to sell in a definite Seller’s Market, like a gruesome murder-suicide or five generations of chain smokers. But nay! Looks do deceive! Slowpoke is the fastest horse in the Kentucky Derby! And this house was a clear winner. While Marshall and Lily rejoiced in song and dance, I was on the phone with the Sellers, two brothers, Barney and Ted. Barney was the Realtor and Ted was the architect-designer, and for a reason still unknown to this day, they managed to screw up the sale of a perfectly good property. 

The two of them were in the flip and sell business, they were good at the flipping part, bad at the selling part. If I could out-negotiate a pair of half-wits (haha, because only half of them could do their job), then we were at the finish line of our house hunt. But all I remember from that evening was demanding over the phone they meet in half an hour or we take our offer and walk, then sitting in their office with their Mercedes key chains sparkling under the compact fluorescent light bulbs, and blinding me every time I glanced over there. Oh shoot, they drive fancy cars, if I were going to get these papers signed I would need the Greek Gods to come together again, in particular Caduceus, the Greek God of Negotiating. Under his guidance, the right words were exchanged and the papers were signed!

A week after the closing on their new house (yes, only one week), Lily and Marshall welcomed their second child, a baby girl they named Daisy. And they all lived happily ever after.

Well, life did throw them a curveball in 2014. Lily was an amateur painter and her lifelong dream was to sell art in Rome. When the opportunity to move to Rome and become an artist came about, they were on the first flight (or 31^st flight) out. Does it get any happier than that? Why, yes. Yes it does! We can end the story with our last final miracle. The Seller’s Market only became more and more aggressive in the past couple of years. A market that brought so much grief and anxiety now brought us joy and delight. For sale sign on the lawn, Buyers lined up, the house sold for $100,000 more than it sold for two years ago! Team Lilymarshmanna rejoice again!

If this isn’t a feel good happy real estate story, then I don’t know what is.

Thank you Marshall, Lily, Marvin and Daisy for the good times… you know who you are 😉

Disclaimer: The preceding commentary is the opinion of Hanna MacDonald and does not represent the interests or opinions of Right at Home Realty Inc., Brokerage or the Toronto Real Estate Board. Therefore, Right at Home Realty will not be held responsible and/or liable for any of the opinions herein.