She makes it her ‘mission in life’ to satisfy her client’s needs. She provides service with the highest professional standards and her ‘personal touch’ is what sets her apart from other real estate agents.

Karen Nie, an immigrant from Hunan Province in China came to Canada in 1993 with her university degree in literature and field practice experience in journalism. Now, she is an established Real Estate Agent and Broker with Century 21 and a mother of two, a 13-year old daughter and 10-year-old son. "GTA this Month" is pleased to feature Karen as she shares her struggles and triumphs as an immigrant in Canada.

“Location, location, location”, as Karen says, is still the primary consideration in buying a house. There are several areas in Toronto that are good locations, but to her, location would depend on the needs of the buyer. Most importantly, you need to find a good real estate agent, and that’s what she is.  She makes it her ‘mission in life’ to satisfy her client’s needs.  She provides service with the highest professional standards and her ‘personal touch’ is what sets her apart from other real estate agents. This is a service that you don’t usually get when you’re dealing with a team of agents. She is after ‘quality’ rather than ‘quantity’ as she does not take on too many clients just to have a higher production. She would rather have few clients that she can provide with the best possible service, guaranteed with her full and personal attention.  Ultimately, Karen’s goal is to make sure that her buyers get the house they really want at the right price and location, and on the sellers’ side, the sale of their property meets their full satisfaction.

Looking back, Karen has gone a long way from when she started as a ‘bus girl’ working part-time in Chinese restaurants and going to school at Seneca College to get an accounting diploma. Back then, although she read and wrote English perfectly, she did not speak it very well, but her outgoing and friendly personality helped a lot in her learning to speak English better. While in school, she was not shy and just went ahead socializing with other people so she could practice speaking the language better. She never felt discriminated because of her lack of English speaking skills.  Nothing stopped this young Chinese immigrant from wanting to learn the language more because she knew that it would pave the way for her to establish her career in Canada. With her ‘go-getter’ attitude, she did not only learn English better but she also learned a new dialect, Cantonese, as she only knew Mandarin. She said at that time, most prominent Chinese families spoke only Cantonese. She watched Cantonese TV shows, read Cantonese newspapers and pretty soon, she was hired as a private tutor by two Cantonese speaking families to teach Mandarin dialect to their Canadian-born children.

Two of the family’s parents she tutored were involved in real estate and that’s when her interest in the business actually sparked.

Being in real estate was just the right career move for Karen. In 1998, she had her second child and had to quit her office job to take care of the baby. Studying the real estate courses at home and at her own pace gave her the flexibility she needed to start a new career. She got her license in 2000 and after taking more courses, she got her broker’s license in 2003. She continued to take real estate courses as required by the licensing board. Within two years they are required to take 24 credits to enhance their knowledge and continue to be updated on all aspects of the business. As long as you are a real estate agent, you have to continue taking credit courses until you quit. Indeed, she considers it a tough business to be in and not all are meant to be in this field. You need to have the patience, perseverance, passion and enjoy what you do.  She says the courses are tough, but the clients are even tougher, and this is what she considers as her biggest challenge.  However, putting her client’s needs with primary importance, coupled with the patience, dedication and enthusiasm she puts in every deal makes her overcome the challenge. She ends up keeping her clients happy and satisfied.  Her clients are a mix from different cultures but she does have more from the Chinese community. As she recalls, when she first started, she advertised herself by sending out flyers, advertising in newspapers and doing a lot of networking. After many years of providing excellent service, it has paid off and most of Karen’s clients now are referrals from previous satisfied clients.  She has now made a name for herself and continues to grow her clientele based on referrals.

“Challenges are more difficult to handle when you are by yourself. Especially in Canada everything is new and different, but if you are together as family, it will help the transition better.” 

Karen owes her success to her mother who is always there to support her. Her mother flies in from China every year during real estate’s peak season. Her mother stays with her family for six months at a time so she can go about her business without having to worry about her children. Of course, her husband has always been there for her as well. He divides his time between work and family especially during times when Karen has to deal with clients after hours and during weekends. After all, you would expect this kind of support from her husband, as he was the only reason why Karen came to Canada back then when he was her fiancé. Quite a selfless and romantic reason, if you think about it. True enough, Karen considers relationships very important, especially family relationships. If she could speak to intending Chinese immigrants, she would advice them to come to Canada as a whole family. Otherwise, it destroys the family structure. She thinks that problems arise when families are separated. Challenges are more difficult to handle when you are by yourself. Especially in Canada everything is new and different, but if you are together as family, it will help the transition better. She also said that if you come to Canada without a lot of money, you should learn to adjust and not be lazy because in Canada, if you’re not lazy, you will not go hungry. You also have to adjust your way of thinking, in the sense that even if you are a professional in China, you should not be too proud to start from somewhere even if it is at the bottom. With a lot of hard work, patience and determination, you can always work your way up the ladder of success. Very well said, coming from someone who did just that and is now reaping the fruits of her hard work and enjoying the taste of success.

Visit Karen’s website at http://www.housingintoronto.com/file1.asp or call her at 416-318-1800, for your real estate needs and experience her ‘personal touch’.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

‘Profile of the Month’ is a regular feature of immigrants from different ethnic backgrounds who share their stories about their struggles and successes as they establish their lives in Canada. Through this feature, readers can relate with their own experiences, learn from their stories and hopefully, inspire those still struggling to make it in Canada. How about you? Do you have a story to tell or know someone who does? Send an email to leah.espineda@gtathismonth.com and share your story.