Having been personally involved in nearly $1 billion in real estate transactions throughout his career, Kevin Crigger has had the great privilege of working with a vast array of clients; from students searching for their first rental apartment to developers purchasing sites or selling multi-unit condo projects, to entrepreneurs and executives purchasing multi-million dollar estates, and everything in between. He has built a business in one of North America’s most competitive real estate markets with more than 90% of his annual sales volume coming from existing clients and their referrals to family, friends, and colleagues.
Kevin has proven himself an award-winning Realtor, since 2018 he has been the #1 Broker in unit sales at Johnston & Daniel, A Division of Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage. Kevin has also been awarded the Chairman’s Lifetime Achievement Award after only 10 years in real estate! This award has only been conferred 9 times in Johnston & Daniel’s more than 70 year history.
Here, he talks with Haute Residence about his greatest success and where he sees the Toronto real estate market going in 2023.
905 Queen St W, Toronto, ON M6J 1G5, Canada
Haute Residence: Tell us a little bit about your story and why you chose real estate.
Kevin Crigger: I’ve always worked in a sales or advisory capacity and generally worked in the luxury hotel sector with a focus on design. I have also always had an interest in working with people and building relationships that are meaningful and impactful. All that background certainly translated well into real estate. I don’t think there is anything more important than your home, which is at the center of all our lives. I think having the ability to help people determine what that is and get them into a space that becomes their haven, or their sanctuary, is very rewarding personally and professionally.
HR: What was your journey to where you are today?
KC: My business has been based almost exclusively on repeat business from past clients and their referrals. A lot of my early clients were friends, friends of friends, and friends of former business associates. Building relationships has always been the primary focus of my business which has allowed it to really grow organically.
I honestly believe that if you focus on quality service and harness a strong client relationship, success will follow, and I think my career now, twelve years in, is proof-positive of that. I represent clients from all spectrums of the industry from tenants looking for their first apartment all the way to some of the most expensive properties in our marketplace. Certainly, leveraging my team and having the ability to service clients all over Ontario has been key.
HR: What would you say is your biggest success story?
KC: Several years ago, I was referred a client who had immigrated with his son to Canada five or six years before. They’d been saving for years and sponsored the balance of their family to come, and they were just below what they would really need to quickly and easily find something. However, we did not give up, we found their perfect home and seeing that family in the years following, and what they had been able to do by owning their own home, was amazing! They helped several friends and people get on their feet when they immigrated to Canada by staying with them on their property, and a number of them became clients of mine as well.
HR: What makes your market of Toronto unique?
KC: One of the unique elements of Toronto is the actual configuration of the city, it is quite different from many others and in terms of livability, it’s an incredibly livable city. It’s really easy to get around centrally in the core, but also very much a city of neighborhoods. You can live in a home with a sizable backyard that is within walking distance to any one of our neighborhood hubs, and a very short commute to downtown. There is also a lot of high-density living offered in some really incredible condo projects throughout the City.
HR: What trends do you see for your market throughout 2023?
KC: I think 2023 is very obviously a period of adjustment. I think the pace of inflation and the interest rate tightening cycle that we’ve seen in terms of lending policy certainly will have an impact. I think we’ll see fewer transactions through 2023, versus 2022 which was already a period where transactions were much less than in the previous two years. But I think one of the key elements of Toronto that sort of fields the pace of the 2020 and 2021 markets really is the limited amount of supply that exists in our marketplace. With substantial changes in the mortgage rates and a slower pace of sales, I think long-term Toronto presents an incredible opportunity in the real estate sector both as investments and as a place to live.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock
For more information, please contact Kevin Crigger at 416-837-3296 or kevin@kevincrigger.com.
Kevin Crigger is one of the exclusive agents representing the Toronto real estate market as a member of the Haute Residence Real Estate Network. View all of his listings here.
