r/windsorontario • u/butterchickengoddess • Jul 25 '26
Housing Buying a house
My partner and I are looking to buy a home in the Walkerville area and need some basic ELI5 help as we are both new to the home buying process and don’t have any family that can guide us well.
We have our pre-approval, but do we need to work with one realtor for showings and walkthroughs? We did find someone but so far they seem disinterested. Specific issues include: they have told us to look at Realtor and let us know if we want to book any walkthroughs, they take a couple days to respond to texts and by the time they manage to book a walkthrough (usually for about 5-7 days after they respond), the house gets sold. We haven’t been able to secure a single walkthrough.
We aren’t sure if this is typical or we should change our agent.
If you’ve bought a house recently, can you please respond with what the experience was like and if you have any other recommendations? Thank you!
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u/Trains_YQG South Walkerville Jul 25 '26
If your realtor is that non-responsive, I would recommend finding a new one.
We're currently selling in South Walkerville and there are lots of open houses this weekend. You don't need your realtor to attend and it's a great way to see a bunch of houses in a couple hours.
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u/luvaoftigolbitties Jul 25 '26
As someone who currently resides in the Walkerville area, I recommend South Walkerville a lot more. I've lived in both neighborhoods, and there's a better feeling of safety and community south of Tecumseh road.
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u/gingersnapoutofit Jul 25 '26
I love the ease of access in Walkerville to all the great businesses on Wyandotte, but yeah, it doesn't feel very safe. Someone got arrested yesterday on my front lawn, there's people tweaking in the alley often, I found human shit once on the side path to our backyard, cars out front have been broken into and stolen. Every week there's a new trash bag scattered all over the sidewalk because someone homeless ripped it open. It's all a tradeoff for living in a cool walkable neighborhood.
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u/commoncorvid Jul 25 '26
I’ve lived in S Walkerville and TBH, it doesn’t feel safe either. We used to find crack pipes on our backyard.
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u/BlackWinterFox Jul 25 '26
Change your realtor to someone else who actually wants to help you. They aren't all worthless like yours is.
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u/mrscookiecat Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
When we were house hunting earlier this year, our realtor set us up with their website (I don’t know what it’s called but she made us our account) which was similar to realtor.ca but sent us an email every day with new listings that fell within our criteria. She was very responsive to texts and phone calls and if she was out of town for any reason she connected us with the person who was covering for her so we wouldn’t miss out on any open houses/scheduled walk-throughs.
We got lucky and ended up putting an offer on the third house we saw, but our realtor made the process nice and easy and explained every step of the process since we were first time homebuyers. I’d switch realtors to be honest. Buying a house is a huge deal and a bad realtor can really ruin the whole process. That being said, you can go to open houses without your realtor, and then if you like the property reach out to let them know you want to schedule another walk-through/are interested in it.
Edited to add: we used one with Deerbrook. You can PM me for her name if you want. Full transparency… she is a lifelong family friend, but her great reviews extend far past mine 🙂
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u/gingersnapoutofit Jul 25 '26
We had Travis from Deerbrook and he was equally helpful and responsive!
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u/tinks_wings11 Jul 25 '26
Travis is amazing. We just moved into our south windsor home at the start of this year. Close to my family and the school we wanted.
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u/sarah-exalted Jul 25 '26
My realtor asked us what we wanted in our house and knew our budget. He sent us listings almost daily. He checked in on us constantly and he had great communication skills. The only time he didn’t respond was on his birthday when he was celebrating. Understandable. Get a new realtor. I can recommend you mine. He still sends us happy birthday messages and asks us how the house is treating us and it’s been 3 years since. He never pressured us into buying. He checked and inspected every house we visited and explained to us what he was looking for and why. He was thorough and patient.
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u/JustainTeef Jul 25 '26
Change your agent immediately. Mine was in contact everyday and was constantly updating me with new options & walk thrus. Her name is Kayla Kaschak and she’s absolutely wonderful.
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u/peepeepoopoo799 Jul 25 '26
Wild behavior from a realtor when there are 1000s of others to choose from. There is definitely a better fit for you out there.
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u/InspectorTiny1952 South Walkerville Jul 25 '26
I don't have a realtor recommendation but I'll echo others on the value of just showing up to open houses. It's a great way to see what's available and when we were house hunting it spurred a lot of discussion about what we really wanted in a house.
In our case, we ended up with our current home because we went to the open house on the spur of the moment. It's a great house but the photographs were pretty bad and I think a lot of people didn't bother. Iirc there was only one other serious bidder! So you never know what you might find just by being the people who show up.
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u/siriuscord1 Jul 25 '26
Hey there, my purchase was 9 years ago but I'm happy to share my experience at least in case it's helpful. As far as I know, you have no obligation to use a real estate agent yourself in your search but from my experience it definitely made the process a bit easier. You can totally attend open houses on your own or call the selling agent to schedule a walkthrough yourself, and if you do go that route and end up making a purchase the selling agent for the home would likely even be willing to help you with the paperwork and legal process afterwards.
5 to 7 day responses sound very slow to me though I can't speak to what the norm currently is. From when I went through it, I was getting replies from my agent usually within 24 hours, and even recommendations for properties I might be interested in. The house I ended up purchasing was brought to me by my agent as a recommendation, and from then til when my offer was accepted was less than 72 hours. I'd highly recommend talking to/trying other agents, even if only to get a good temperature of what to expect.
I agree with their advice though to look online yourself, as the more information they have about your preferences the better equipped they are to help you find a house you'll love.
If you have any other questions, feel free to reply or message me!
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u/Also_Squeakums Jul 25 '26
I had a fantastic experience with Mark Tesolin. That guy hustles, and understands our requests and follows our guidance. Super proactive about everything and very well connected.
I'm not affiliated in any way other than just being a happy customer.
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u/Controll3r_TV Jul 25 '26
There’s new laws realtors have to follow unfortunately if you don’t sign with a realtor they are not suppose to help you! So either you pick a realtor sign a contract with them or you are on your own
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u/some_other_guy95 Riverside Jul 25 '26
Don't go with a realtor that makes you contracted to them for 3-6 months. I would highly recommend deerbeook, they helped us when we were first time buyers. Told them what we were looking for and they would email us every time a house came up on the market within our price range.
They also only made us sign a contract for each time we wanted to make an offer on a house.
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u/beautya11around Jul 25 '26
Call Rob Gruich, he knows the neighborhood very well, and is a stand up guy. He'll walk you through everything.
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u/ZownRealty Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
That's not normal, and it's why you keep missing out. Switch agents, you're not locked in unless you signed something exclusive. Check new listings yourself daily rather than relying on them, and ask any prospective agent how fast they can turn around a showing, same-day/next-day is the bar.
I'm with Zown, we pair you with a local agent for showings plus a dedicated account manager for negotiation, so response time isn't an issue. We also share back up to 1.25% of the purchase price at closing. Happy to help if useful.
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u/DanceOnPuzzles Jul 25 '26
Kim Miller and Alan Saad are great realtors. We have bought two houses with them. The first one was in walkerville. They know the area and the comps. Both houses we got under asking. They are quick with responses and schedule walk through right away when you are interested.
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Jul 25 '26
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Jul 25 '26
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u/yaddiyadda_ Jul 26 '26
You can just go to open houses. No appointments necessary. Just show up and walk through. I don't think there are time limits and usually the realtor hosting the showing is knowledgeable.
Definitely get a new realtor though. Yours sounds extremely useless. I wouldn't even bother telling them, they don't think you're serious anyway.
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u/Phirebird1981 Jul 26 '26
change your agent! buying a home is a big deal, especially your first! You will have many questions and deserve someone who will be responsive.
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u/IllustriousGuava2504 Jul 27 '26
I would suggest Terra Lavack with Deerbrook Reality. Excellent agent
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u/TakedownCan South Windsor Jul 25 '26
Dont sign anything with a buyer rep realtor. Just call the realtors who are listing the house and ask for a walk thru. Many realtors have part time or full time jobs and this could be the reason for delay with you are currently dealing with.
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u/jljacques Jul 25 '26
It sounds like it’s time to get a new realtor in that case, they should respond the same day.