Thomas and Sally Cook - Profile

1969 After attending Carleton University, Thomas starts the first skydiving equipment business in eastern Canada - operates 21 sewing machines.
1974 Thomas is a member of the St. Andre Ten-Pins skydiving team that wins the Canadian National Parachuting Championships in Abbotsford, B.C.
1980 Moves to Toronto from Montreal and graduated in September from the Ryerson real estate school to become a Realtor.
1981 Becomes a member of the A.E. LePage President's Club after only 5 months of real estate sales.
1983 Thomas joins RE/MAX Hallmark in June because his clients appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit embodied in the culture at RE/MAX.
1985 Becomes a member of the RE/MAX 100% Club.
1988 Thomas is graduated from the OMBA mortgage broker's course and uses his knowledge to assist families to obtain financing (from "5% down" all the way to "poor credit" creative lending)... soon meets Sally at a lender function.
1991 Sally founds her own successful mortgage company ( FFC Mortgage Consultants) after being in the banking and mortgage industry for several years.
1991 After assisting more than 275 families with their real estate transactions, Thomas is inducted into the prestigious RE/MAX International Hall of Fame for consistent, quality service to his real estate clientele.
1992 Thomas and Sally become the happy parents of a healthy baby boy, Rylie Fraser Cook, born on July 18th!!
1994 Sally obtains her real estate license and in November begins assisting Thomas with client service and marketing responsibilities. Thomas obtains his Registered Relocation Specialist ( RRS) designation and is recognized as being in the Top 100 of Canadian RE/MAX agents. He also becomes a charter member of the RE/MAX Platinum Club -- this is Thomas' best year ever in the real estate service business.
1997 Thomas & Sally learn how to set up a telephone system to attract literally hundreds of buyers for their listings. They call it the Knowledge Hotline and set up a local number, (416) 693-2468, to take the calls and provide information to vendors and purchasers alike. It keeps getting better. This is the best ever year to date for Thomas & Sally with almost 70% of their business coming from referrals!
1998 The "information highway" starts to get heavy traffic. By spring, Thomas & Sally reserve more than 12 domain names to promote their listings and attract buyers on the Internet. The login counter at www.TorontoRealEstate.ca starts at zero May 1st and they pass the 12,000 mark by December 3rd

Thomas hears a two-minute conversation at one of the training sessions in Scottsdale, AZ in August about paying down mortgages faster and a tremendous concept is born! The Mortgage Terminator Program™ teaches anyone how to pay off their mortgage in TEN years or less without making ANY lump sum principal pre-payments!

Another record year... Thomas & Sally Cook assist almost 90 clients with the purchase or sale of a house or condominium... thanks mainly to referrals and the Knowledge Hotline!
1999 Another record year! Business grows so much, in fact, that they become: Thomas & Sally Cook + Associates. The addition of fully licensed real estate agents, called Buyer Specialists, to their team allows them to provide even better service to their existing and new clients. The team ranks 10th in Ontario and 16th in Canada for RE/MAX agents.
2000 Thomas & Sally Cook + Associates break their weekly sales record in April, only to break it again in June... keep those referrals coming in please! The team ranks #14 for RE/MAX teams across Canada. Once again, this is the team's best year ever and the centre helps to move 111 families.

They also add several new websites to their eReal Estate Network. www.TorontoHomeOwners.ca focuses on the needs of current home owners, www.HomeBuyerWorkshop.ca and www.BuyerWorkshop.com appeal to home buyers who want to attend a Home Buyer Workshop to increase their knowledge before venturing out to purchase a house or condo. www.NewTorontoHomes.com is aimed at buyers seeking new construction, and www.RetirementRealEstate.ca focuses on retirees. Thomas & Sally are now the owners of 290 domain names with website projects planned for mortgage financing, Toronto neighbourhoods and a country home referral network.

The RE/MAX Real Estate Knowledge Centre Team adds a new buyer program called HomeWatch, a free, computerized system that automatically emails new home listings to subscribing buyers.

The Home Buyer Knowledge Workshops prove so popular that Thomas & Sally now hold three a month in three different locations: Yonge & Eglinton, Bay & Front and the Scarborough Town Centre. By the end of 2000, about 1,000 home buyers have "graduated" from our RE/MAX Real Estate Knowledge Centre workshops.
2001 Thomas receives the prestigious RE/MAX International Lifetime Achievement Award for helping more than 1,000 families meet their real estate needs.

Intrigued by the possibilities of www.RetirementRealEstate.ca, Thomas gets his SRES designation (Seniors Real Estate Specialist) which teaches Realtors how to better serve the retirement and seniors community with their specific real estate needs and concerns.

Sally obtains her ABR designation (Accredited Buyer Representative) to further add to her knowledge of expert buyer representation.

By year's end, the Thomas & Sally Cook + Associates Team has helped 181 singles, couples and families with their real estate goals and dreams. It's our best year ever and it is recognized by RE/MAX! Our Team is now ranked #3 in Toronto, #10 in Ontario, #14 in Canada and in the Top 125 Worldwide out of over 68,000 RE/MAX agents in 38 countries.
2002 Our Team grows to six licensed agents backed up by our support staff of Client Care Manager and Client Service Co-ordinators. Thomas and our entire Buyer Specialist Team obtain their ABR designations too… making ours the only Team in Toronto with this important training! Thomas obtains his ABRM designation (Accredited Buyer Agent Manager) and attends a Broker Management course to further his skills of managing the Team, and a Listing course designed by the Council of Residential Specialists entitled "Listing Strategies For The Residential Specialist". With 217 sales in 2002, our Team becomes the #1 ranked RE/MAX Team in Toronto, #4 in Ontario, #5 in Canada and #33 in the world out of over 83,000 RE/MAX agents in 43 countries..
2003 The Thomas & Sally Cook Team has its best month ever in March with 48 sales! Our home buyer workshops (for 1st Time and Move-Up Buyers) expand to six locations across the GTA. See www.HomeBuyerWorkshop.com for details. In October, Sally flies to Dallas, TX, and obtains her Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist designation. We've now earned the right to call ourselves a "Miracle" Team—every Team member contributes a portion of each commission to support the CMN ( Children's Miracle Network) which provides funding to the Sick Kids Hospital here in Toronto. Our professional buyer specialist Team grows to 11 licensed Realtors plus Sally and Thomas with a Client Care support staff of six on and off-site people.
2004 We’re really having fun. Our Team ended the year by helping 350 singles and families with their purchase or sale and we’re still the #1 Team for RE/MAX in Toronto and #5 in Canada.

Sally and I bought a 2-bedroom cottage in July on Stony Lake (north of Lakefield/Peterborough) and closed in mid-August. We had a flurry of activity for the first two weeks with all sorts of renos… new laminate flooring, new fireplace, new wiring, new year-round water line out to the lake with a filtration system, new docks, new roof on the Bunkie for Rylie… whew !!! It cost a little more than we anticipated… about par for a renovation. We’ve really been enjoying it though and I’ve created a web site to show photos, etc. Click on www.EscapeToSerenityCottage.com and check it out.

It’s been a ‘best year ever’ also for contributions to the Children’s Miracle Network. Our Team contributed over $14,000 in 2004 and our goal is to bring that to $16,000 for 2005.

Referrals and repeat business clients made up a larger part of our 2004 sales… for Sally and I almost 67% over the year which is our highest ever. Please keep those referrals coming… we love them!

EXPERIENCES

The “Unperfect” Perfect Home

Hi Everyone,

Tricia & Cameron were referred to me by two clients who had already purchased their home with me. In our first conversation we decided that attending one of our Home Buyer Workshops would be a good start in their home buying process. After the workshop, Tricia & Cam decided they were not quite ready to buy a home just yet so the next logical step was to set them up on our automated MLS listing search program called HomeWatch.

After six months of receiving all the listings from the areas they wanted to live in, they had a good idea of what they wanted and where. I knew at the time of the consultation that we were going to have fun looking for a home for Cam & Tricia.

On the third trip out to see properties we found the “unperfect” home. We had seen some lovely homes which for the most part were fixed up really nicely, but something was missing...character!!

We knew almost immediately that this “unperfect” house could be made perfect with some imagination, hard work and yes some extra money. Even though this house didn’t show that well, we had a feeling it might go into multiple offers so we prepared ourselves (we had a few days before the seller was taking offers)

To prepare, we made sure that their financing was in place, and we did a home inspection in advance. We planned out what the costs of the renovations would be and did the research in the area to see what the value of this property was at present. Our offer had to be better than the competition. The pricing and closing date all had to be strategically planned out and we went in with no conditions.

Armed for battle, we sent in our offer by fax late on the Thursday evening (sellers were out of town). I am sure Tricia and Cam had a restless night waiting for the sellers to make their decision the next morning.

By 11:00 am we still hadn’t heard anything and the suspense was killing us, so I called the listing agent to find out what was happening. I was thrilled to hear the sellers were going to work with our offer and called Tricia and Cam with the good news. Cam was so shocked all he kept saying was “ You’re not messing with me are you?”.

This “unperfect,” perfect home was exactly what Tricia and Cam were NOT looking for to start with. Now they are not only planning the arrival of their first child but they are excitedly planning the creation of their new “Perfect Home”

Looking at homes with an open mind and working with an agent who has lots of skills in various areas will help you to purchase your home with a lot less stress involved.

Your Real Estate Consultants For Life,

Thomas & Sally Cook
Seller and Buyer Specialists

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" Thanks to that advice, I did not “settle ... ”

We recently helped a client with the sale of his downtown condo and with the purchase of new suite in the first phase at CityPlace near the Skydome.

Calvin had been receiving our eLiving In Toronto email newsletter for over a year when he called and asked for an appraisal of their home.

Subsequently we listed their condo on Lombard, did our usual marketing on the internet and with our full-colour feature sheets.

In their words ... "And a million thanks to Sally for reminding me not to compromise and that if something is meant to be it will be. Thanks to that advice, I did not “settle” and instead in less than 48 hours, the exact unit I was looking for in the building that I wanted was available and in less than 12 hours the viewing was done and the offer submitted. So we sold for more than we had hoped for and purchased exactly what we wanted at the price we wanted.”

Thanks to both Calvin and Arnel for their confidence in our expertise and much good luck to them in their new home!

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" When you see the right home, you know it’s the one."

I first met Phil and Tessa some four years ago when they came to talk with us about buying their first home. Back then we had just started doing our buyer workshops. Phil and Tessa were new to the home-buying business and needed some help navigating through the real estate waters. After the workshop they met with Tom and I for a consultation, and I showed them some interesting resale properties. But they’d done extensive research on the new condo buildings popping up downtown and decided that new construction was the way they wanted to go. In the end, they purchased a newly constructed condo on King St. East.

Still, Phil and Tessa were happy with our services and referred their friends, Joe and Nelly, to us. They were looking to buy a resale condo downtown - and we found the perfect match for them. Joe and Nelly purchased their first home down in the St. Lawrence market neighbourhood, and moved in just a few months before they got married. They were so thrilled with our service that they raved on to Tessa and Phil.

This past spring, Phil and Tessa decided their condo was just a bit too small for them (and their new cats!) and they were in the market for a larger home. They didn’t hesitate to contact us about selling their condo and finding them a perfect house.

The first day, we set out to see two houses they thought might be interesting. But the homes were not quite what Phil and Tessa were looking for (the back wall was caving in on one!) and they were quite shocked to see how much people were asking for these small, not-so-nice houses. That said, just a few days later they found themselves falling instantly in love with a beautiful Victorian reno on Beaconsfield. Unfortunately, five other people also fell in love with the place and we found ourselves in a bidding war.

The good news is WE WON and Tessa and Phil got their darling Victorian home. They are very happy and excited about moving into a very special house.

But our work wasn’t done - we still had to sell Phil and Tessa’s condo. One day after they bought the house on Beaconsfield, we listed their condo. It sold instantly - What a rush! But the buyer backed out, so we put the condo back on the market again (for $5,000 more) and guess what? It sold within a few days for full price.

After the dust had settled from a fast paced, adrenaline rush-filled week, Phil said he and Tessa could not believe everything had happened so fast. “There’s absolutely no way this could have worked out better,” he told us. “Some people say we must be incredibly lucky, but really we chalk it up to your hard work. There’s no way we could have found our house - and sold our condo - without you.”

When Phil and Tessa bought their first condo, they spent months researching every building and builder in the downtown core and became experts. This spring they made the largest purchase in their lives after seeing just three homes.

But as I always say, people buy on emotion. When you see the right home, you know it’s the one.

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"Sally Had A Bit Of A Scare Last Year"
Spring, 2003

Both Tom and I have been blessed with a very successful business. At the forefront of our business philosophy is to provide World Class service to our clients. The hope is that you will be so happy with our service that you will refer your friends and family to us. It is wonderful to work with great people who then refer super people like themselves to us.

It has bothered me over the past few years that maybe we don’t get back in touch with our clients as often as we would like because it is so easy to get caught up in the ‘day-to-day’ stuff. The thrill and excitement of assisting our clients find their new homes or sell their existing ones becomes almost addicting.

I find many things in my life sometimes take second place to our business. Things like exercising daily, eating well, time for family, time to be a wife and lover and time to enjoy daily the small things we take for granted. Things like a walk in the sunshine, sitting down to eat a meal or lying on the couch reading a book to Rylie (now 10 years old... can you believe it?).

November 2002 brought me news that I had a lump in my breast and that I would need surgery. Even though I really believed deep in my soul that I was going to be fine, it shook me up enough to stop and think about what I was doing, why I was doing it and was it worth it!!
The surgery turned out well (a little uncomfortable for a while) but I decided right then that my life had to change and there was a need to prioritize the things I do in my life.

What I now realize, after setting these goals for the new year, is that the need to live at the frantic pace is often quite fulfilling, and that trying to slow the pace down sometimes feels really uncomfortable.

I have spoken to many people now about this and find out I am not alone. So many of us are taking on so much in the quest to achieve, that we are missing much of the journey of life because we are focused on the destination and results.

Rather than punish myself for my failure to live up to my goal, I just have to keep reminding myself of why I need to change and one of the ways is to devote more of my time to looking after our referral business... people who come to us via the recommendations of their friends or family.

Hopefully the end result of my slowing my pace will be I not only get to spend more time with my family, but also with you, the wonderful people who come into my life for such a short time!

http://www.BLOGTorontoRealEstate.ca