About Laura And Derek
We LOVE cottaging. It’s a lifestyle. Having grown up with cottages, it’s part of our DNA. We’ve never NOT had a cottage. Through all our house moves and jobs, the one constant has always been The Cottage. A place to relax and unwind with friends and family. To frolic. To reconnect. To be grateful for all the abundance in our lives. With parents as teachers we spent every summer there.
Since we met in 1990, we’ve worked hard to live our ideal lifestyle. We poured our energy into work and enjoyed as much time in Muskoka and traveling the globe as possible. We were almost 40 when our beautiful daughter came along. By then, we were so entrenched in our careers we didn’t have room for the family lifestyle we wanted. We were overworked, overtired and missing out on what we had worked so hard to have. Something had to give.
We spoke a lot about “following our passion”. We struggled to even find it. Like so many Gen Xers, we defined who we were by what we did. We’d done many personal real estate transactions and even custom builds. Real estate was always an interest and a vehicle to build equity but not a career option. But, once Laura started taking real estate courses out of interest so she could act for us, she was hooked!
The three of us sat down for a “family meeting” and talked about promoting our love of cottaging through real estate. Helping families find their “Happy Place” sounded pretty appealing. Our daughter would grow up spending all summer and most weekends at the cottage. There’d be much needed downtime through the winter to travel, volunteer and be a family. The more we thought about it, the more we realized that this could be our ticket to “having it all”.
Laura started selling cottage real estate full-time in 2016 and has been dedicated to introducing families to the cottaging lifestyle ever since. Derek soon decided to get his real estate licence as well. His background is in Accounting and Tax so financial planning and long term strategies are a natural fit.
Together, we sell Muskoka’s cottage country. With our team, you get two brains working for you instead of one. We love learning and take time to sharpen our knowledge and skills so we can provide sage advice to clients. Let us help you live your best life. We’ll help you assess your options and maximize your investment in both real estate AND lifestyle.