44 - CanadianSME I May 2021
While growing up in Trinidad and Tobago, Keisha came to appreciate homes and design when her grandmother completed a home renovation and her mother bought land and built a beautiful family home. After graduating from the University of Greenwich in London, United Kingdom, with a master’s degree in Construction Project Management, Keisha managed a portfolio of social housing developments. In 2012, Keisha immigrated to Canada, where she attained Canadian credentials in Construction Project Management and a Real Estate Broker license. Keisha has served many clients including first-time buyers, people looking to upsize to a bigger home, and those wanting to downsize. While she loves working with all types of clients, she’s especially drawn to downsizers seeking to reinvent themselves with a lifestyle change. Keisha understands the benefits of downsizing through personal experience. She knows first-hand how good it feels to sell a home and put its equity toward serving a new goal. Keisha maintains active relationships with a vast network of developers, construction professionals, retirement coaches, mortgage specialists, financial advisors, home inspectors, professional organizers, movers, and more. When Keisha is not helping you transform your life, you might find her cycling, hiking, or getting her hands dirty on a do-it-yourself project. She also loves traveling because it helps her learn about different cultures, try new delicacies and make new friends
How is Transitions Realty aiming to help baby boomers navigate the downsizing experience by redefining the entire experience? The traditional model for real estate is based on a transactional approach. Boomers have redefined every phase of life, and downsizing is no different. In our experience, the traditional transactional approach does not work for them. There is more to downsizing than just selling a family home and moving to a new, perhaps smaller home. This is a major life transition. We find many boomers do not take the time to figure out what this next stage of their life will look like nor how to get there. That’s why, we have designed our process to not only help boomers navigate their downsizing journey, but we educate and empower them to make decisions that are right for them now and in the future. We also work closely with a network of advisors, coaches, and designers, whom we can pair our clients with when needed.
At Transitions, we deliver the transitional experience that boomers are seeking, because this is an emotional journey with many moving parts and we believe being fully prepared is the first step of a successful life transition. Our motto is, “You’re not a transaction, you are going through a transition.”
How to navigate real-estate entrepreneurship in an unprecedented market? As we were on the verge of launching our business model, the pandemic hit and the economy was shut down. We considered pivoting, but after reflection, we realized if we did pivot, the transactional cycle would continue. So, we decided to team up with other professionals whom our clients will need for their downsizing journey and start educational webinars. We also implemented a public relations campaign to let boomers know they have options. For example, we are in a hot real estate market and it might be tempting to jump onboard and sell now. But we advise that before taking this step to sell their family 2 home, they prepare themselves for this major transition. We have seen and heard stories of too many people regretting their choice to downsize because they’ve made the wrong decision and have to go through the process of moving again. So, if done right you should only have to do this once