Destiny brought me a mentor

Daniel Smyth

March 2012

The first time I met Danielle Parent was in the fall of 2006, on the day I quit my job.

I was living in Montreal, didn’t know any French and wondered what I was going to do. Who was going to hire me? Friends invited me for dinner and drinks to help ease my mind, and Danielle Parent dropped in. She was a real-estate broker and owner her own company, Groupe Sutton-Danou Inc.

I asked for her help renting my condo because I planned to go back to Ottawa, where most of my family lived. I didn’t know it then, but she was going to be a huge influence in my life.

She introduced me to Christophe Folla, president of Sutton Quebec, the agency for which I now work. She introduced me to other brokers, including her sister, brother-in-law and many of her friends.

She helped me find the best school for real-estate agents and to study for exams. She provided me with educational material to enhance the material that I learned in the classroom, which would give me an edge over my colleagues once we all graduated. Working with Danielle, who at the time had been a broker for 25 years, made me more knowledgeable, confident and effective. I learned that it is easy to get a bad reputation but difficult to earn a good one. I learned to incorporate her negotiation skills with my own, making me more effective in getting the bottom line for my clients. I learned the importance of fairness, transparency and communication when working with other brokers and to always give half of the commission to a collaborating broker.

The importance of this last issue for the seller is so paramount, that it eventually became necessary for a listing broker to declare in writing to the seller what percentage of the commission would be given to a collaborating broker.

I will never forget how nervous I was during my first real-estate transaction. Danielle put me at ease and helped me write the offer. Her sister represented the seller; I the buyer. The transaction was smooth like silk.

Danielle taught me about the different markets, residential and commercial. Like her, my qualifications enable me to sell any type of property in Quebec.

Call it fate or destiny that I met Danielle at a time in my life when I was lost and alone, not knowing which direction to turn. I owe her a huge debt of gratitude.