Joanne Chen Reviews

It was a pleasure working with Joanne! She made possible for us to buy a wonderful home! I would highly recommend her to anyone looking for a realtor.

Joanne was great at helping my partner and I - first time homebuyers - narrow down our criteria and showed us a range of properties to give us an idea of what was out there. We trusted her enough based on the other properties she brought us to that she could go to some open houses without us and give us a thumbs up to check it out or not. She guided us through the whole process and we felt like we were really working alongside someone who cared about our purchase on a personal level.

I can’t say enough about the clean competence of Joanne Chen, and the huge difference her work made for my wife and I in our lives here in Canada. Buying a house for us was a long process, but for the most part a painless one, one which would certainly never have been so painless, indeed would likely never have been completed at all, without Joanne’s impeccable professional help at each stage of the process. The first stage of the process was our landing jobs and moving here. After doing that and touring a few houses, Joanne helped direct us toward an application for permanent residency rather than buying a house immediately, avoiding the significant taxes on non-resident homebuyers in Vancouver. That process took over a year for us, during which time Joanne never once hassled us, only gently, and wisely, advised. Once we achieved permanent residency, Joanne didn’t suggest we shop for a house until she knew exactly what we wanted. Then, she showed us only that- and it took only a couple days’ worth of additional home visits for us to find our hearts’ desire, a fantastic little on-campus place, with about the exact amount of space we wanted- only this house had 200,000 knocked off the price. So we decided to make a bid. And once again, Joanne stepped up- the only thing our house lacked was a downstairs bathroom. So, for our bid, I was content, already with 200,000 already off the asking price, to be happy and not push our luck. Joanne almost scared me when she suggested otherwise—and haggled the seller down another 20k, about the cost of our downstairs bathroom. Sweet, friendly, and funny as she is, when it was go-time for us, she fought like a badger (to lower her own commission, it is worth noting!), and won us a free bathroom for my in-laws to enjoy when they visit. Truthfully, with the cost of home ownership in Vancouver, especially in the neighborhood where we live and work, my wife and I were quite content to continue to pay high rents, in apartments we were only marginally satisfied with. My expectation of owning a house here had been slim to start, and zero before Joanne started her work. Now, instead of an apartment we grumble about, we have a home we love, and instead of lighting a pile of money on fire every month, we take a significantly smaller pile of money, and build equity with it. You can imagine the difference this has made in our happiness, and in our peace of mind.