Photo: Contributed
(L to R): Maggie Demers, Stephanie Ostash, TJ Dumonceaux and Jessie Evans.
There are many ways one can measure a Realtor’s success.
TJ & Steph Real Estate Group feel grateful to be dominating the one they feel matters most; Stephanie Ostash has been voted Kelowna’s No. 1 Realtor on Rate-My-Agent.com for the third consecutive year.
“What really means the most is when we have those clients that we truly get to help,” Ostash says. “For most, buying and selling real estate isn’t just a transaction. It comes along with a whole host of different emotions that can be really hard to navigate.
“And the real estate industry can often become so much about how many deals you’re doing, how many awards you’re winning, and all of these sorts of things that are really centred around volume and income. For us, the real focus is on how we’re truly helping people—how we’re having a positive impact on their lives as we help them through different stages and chapters.
“That’s why Rate-My-Agent is so important to us, because it doesn’t have anything to do with whether you’re selling luxury homes or starter homes. It has nothing to do with your income. It has nothing to do with these awards. It’s how happy is your client? How loved did your client feel at the end of that experience?”
There is plenty of evidence the company’s clients are extremely happy at their end of their real estate experiences with TJ & Steph Real Estate Group.
“Stephanie was a very thorough, realistic agent who priced our property at a competitive price and helped us sell in record time,” Greta Oakes wrote on Rate-My-Agent.com. “I only wish we’d found her earlier.”
“Amazing experience dealing with Steph,” Alex Franklin wrote. “Very transparent when it comes down to business, and this made the transaction smooth. It was a pleasure dealing with this level of professionalism on every level. Great connections with other services needed to finish the sale on time. Always worked around my schedule She puts her clients first. I highly recommend using Stephanie for buying and selling.”
Those glowing testimonials happen because the term “Don’t sweat the small stuff” is not allowed in the company’s growing office. The paint colour matters. The listing price matters. The verbiage chosen to use in a writeup or a negotiation matters. TJ and Steph do sweat the small stuff, and sometimes they even literally sweat.
A recent client of theirs was out of town for an extended period, and he hired TJ & Steph to sell his home. When the perfect weather was projected to hit for exterior lake view photos they needed to jump on it right away, but it was too short notice to find someone to shovel the driveway. Dumonceaux got up well before the crack of dawn and headed over to do the job himself.
“The driveway had not been shovelled in quite some time,” Ostash says. “TJ went over there five in the morning—AirPods in—with his shovel, his snowblower and his ice pick, because under that snow was a good couple inches of ice. TJ joked that he should have brought his ice skates with him. He even went back later and salted it to ensure it was picture perfect.
“We truly treat each client as if they’re family. That is something you would do for your mom.”
TJ & Steph’s success is why it continues to grow. The company has added a rising star Realtor in Maggie Demers, who has a special skill set working with people relocating to the Okanagan area, and former assistant Jessie Evans has also now gotten her real estate licence. She serves a unique purpose as the team’s transaction co-ordinator and due diligence specialist.
“Our client experience is twice as good as what it used to be,” Ostash says, “because we’re now even more efficient on the administrative side, allowing us even more time spent face to face with and getting to know our amazing clients.”
Ostash and Dumonceaux do not dominate only Rate-My-Agent.com. Dumonceaux has been honoured with Royal Lepage’s top 35 under 35 designation for two years in a row. The team also captured an Executive Circle Award for being nationally ranked among the top 2% of Royal Lepage teams in sales in both 2020 and 2021.
The company also gives back to the community by donating a large sum every financial quarter to worthy causes, including Mamas for Mamas, COSAR and SPCA. Team members also donate their time to organizations like Kelowna’s Gospel Mission.
Learn more about TJ & Steph Real Estate Group on its website.
This article is written by or on behalf of the sponsoring client and does not necessarily reflect the views of Okanagan Edge.
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