This year I am celebrating 21 years in the real estate business. Wow, what a ride and what an example of that old cliché "time flies when you’re having fun". Real Estate has given me so much to be thankful for. I truly feel like I was fortunate to find my calling early in life and it all happened by chance. 

I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life as a baby-faced 24 year old and thought, "why not give real estate a whirl? What’s the worst that can happen? If I hate it, I’ll just quit and find something else." So, I signed up for the course with my dad Max, who had taken early retirement in early 2000 and wanted to keep busy while helping my mother as her business was expanding. That’s where my real estate journey began. 

I attended classes four days a week and every second weekend for months in Brossard at the Collège Immobilier with my dad. Looking back, I can’t express how lucky I was to have spent that much quality time with him. Shortly after graduation, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease which began a slow decline for him that ended 16 years later with his death. I will always remember those days stuck in traffic on the way to school and studying together for our exams. We even got a motel room in Brossard so we could cram until the wee hours of the night before our big final. We got to reconnect and it was really special. 

On August 4th 2000, I got the news that I had passed my exams to become a licensed realtor. I’ll never forget it. I had just turned 25 and my brother, Scott, was getting married the next day. I was over the moon to be going to my first wedding as well as embarking on a new and exciting challenge. I had no idea what to expect, but man was I pumped!

I’ve been with the same Royal LePage office since I started in the business 21 years ago. I walked in there on day one wearing the only crappy hand-me-down blazer that I owned. It was 2 sizes too big and I didn’t own a tie. I was 25 but looked about 17. I felt like I had zero business training and my only sales experience was limited to selling beer at the local Depanneur. I was scared, nervous and intimidated to be the young rookie in an office full of wily veterans. The fact that I was joining as my Mom’s assistant didn’t exactly lend any street cred to my rookie year but, I was fortunate to be surrounded by helpful and kind people who were all ready to lend a hand whenever I needed it. It was a very special time. 

I was also very lucky to have such a great mentor, my mother, Libby, was a very successful solo agent and was kind enough to take me under her wing. She showed me the ropes while having me do her gopher work in exchange for a small salary and I was presented with a great opportunity to listen and learn. I had a successful first year and never looked back. It was also the beginning of a wonderful partnership with my mom that lasted for 19 years. 
A lot has changed since then. We no longer have pagers and fax machines, and real estate teams are now becoming the way of the future. I’ve since gotten married myself and branched out from the family business in 2019 to start the next chapter in my career. A new team and a new approach. It was as scary as my first day 21 years ago but, just like the rest of my career, I have no regrets and no plans to look back. 

I’m now lucky enough to work with my amazing wife Kim, my beautiful daughter Megan, my older brother Scott, Mark Rossi, the latest addition to the BW Group family, as well as our amazing client care specialist Amanda and transaction coordinator Juliet. We are building something new and exciting, having a ton of fun doing it and I just can’t wait to see what the future has in store for us.

-Sean