Welcome, Sarah Brophy-Platts! Coldwell Banker Escarpment Realty Gears Up to Help Serve Halton Hills in the Greater Toronto Area

July 5, 2023 

Sarah Brophy-Platts, the Broker/Owner at the new Coldwell Banker Escarpment Realty office in Acton, Ont., politely paused the interview over Zoom to take a call from her local automobile mechanic.  

“$78.50 for a light bulb?!!!” she asked, slightly exasperated.  

It was mostly labour, she was told. The light bulb in question was in a difficult place to get to, she was told.  “Okay, okay, approved, go ahead, I get it,” she said. “Aaargghh.” 

Brophy-Platts knows her way around real estate brokerages—and automobiles, too. She knew she wasn’t being sold on unnecessary work. Systems are complex these days.  

“The light bulb is in a tricky spot, he’s right,” she said. “So is the oil filter. It’s right up against a coolant pipe. You’ve got to know what you’re doing working in there.”  

 

 

Escarpment Realty Broker/Owner runs on knowledge 

Sarah Brophy-Platts admitted that she has “a need for knowledge and a need for understanding how things work, no matter what it is.” 

Some credit for that trait goes to her father, John. A young Sarah Brophy was allowed to drive the 1991 Buick Regal when she knew the basics of how the car worked and how to keep it running.  

“I grew up changing my own oil and changing the tires,” she said. “I did ball joints. I did tie rod ends. I did brakes. I did the windshield washer pump.”  

On one occasion, suspecting the car had a faulty water pump, John took the device apart.  

“And it was completely apart,” she said. “There was nothing I could do except figure out how to put it all back together. That was a difficult one, but I got it done.”  

 

 

Brokerage converts to Coldwell Banker 

Sarah Brophy-Platts has carried that desire for knowledge and that skill for keeping things running into her business and into her community.  

In 2010, after college, she got her real estate license and started on a team with RE/MAX, having left behind a previous gig as a video game marketer on big projects that included the launch of Playstation’s PS3.  

“We helped sell the actual games in the cases, the actual disks,” she said, “but then everybody started downloading them. The industry had changed, so, I did, too.”  

A few years later, she moved to Royal LePage as an agent, became a Broker of Record, then Partner, and then she bought the business outright in 2021.  

Brophy-Platts now brings her agents and her knowledge of the business to Coldwell Banker Canada.  

“Coldwell Banker Canada has made me feel comfortable from the beginning,” she said. “They’ve provided support and encouragement. I like the way that they do business. We’re a small town in Acton and we’re a small-town brokerage. We’re not massive. They support that. I like that idea.” 

Paul Abbott is a Vice-President of Franchise Development at Coldwell Banker Canada.  

 

 

Abbott said the arrival of Coldwell Banker Escarpment Realty means clients in Halton Hills have another experienced team led by a knowledgeable and innovative Broker/Owner. 

“That brokerage exemplifies what it means to be a Coldwell Banker franchise,” said Abbott. 

“They know their community, they know their business, they have strong technology and training,” he said. “They and the clients they serve are now part of the national and international Coldwell Banker network.” 

Escarpment Realty joins Suzanne Clark, Broker/Owner of Coldwell Banker Fieldstone Realty in Georgetown, Ont., in serving customers in the area.  

 

Community commitment 

Brophy-Platts also brings to Coldwell Banker her commitment to the community of Acton (pop. 9,377) where she grew up. The affection for home goes both ways. In 2022, the Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce voted her Hometown Hero.  

“I was so surprised,” she said. “It’s so nice to be recognized for things you don’t expect recognition for.”  

 

 

In 2015, Brophy-Platts founded the Pumpkin Giveaway and, in 2020, in the throes of COVID isolation, co-founded and co-organized the Pumpkin Promenade.  

Imagine more than 500 pumpkins carved into jack-o’-lanterns lit from the inside by little electric lights (the dollar-store variety, not the Volkswagen engine variety J ) and placed a-glow along the Town Hall Centre streets. That’s the Pumpkin Promenade. 

“It’s just beautiful,” said Brophy-Platts.  

“And it’s outdoors,” she added. “At the beginning, in Covid, it brought people out who were reluctant to be with each other inside, and it kept us all together. It has just kept growing.” 

Brophy-Platts does these things to help keep community life humming.  

“I do these things in the community because I enjoy them and my kid enjoys them, and I want to see my kid grow up in a town where we have sports and programs and fall fairs and all the rest that are worth going to—and staying for.”  

 

 

Brokerage expertise 

Keeping a close eye on all the moving parts of a real estate brokerage is second nature for Brophy-Platts.  

There’s the law and the regulations and a code of ethics that the Brokers/Owner must know inside-out. The offer must be constructed on a solid understanding of rights and obligations. There’s the need for a deep knowledge of what buyers and sellers want and need. Market trends must be mastered. IT acumen is required. Emergencies call for calm navigation through, and opportunities need a creative eye to take advantage of. Agents require the latest in Coldwell Banker training and mentoring. 

“I do love my job,” Brophy-Platts said.  

“In real estate, I want to know how things work so that I can help guide the agents and help deliver the best experience possible for our clients who trust Coldwell Banker with the most important investment in their lives,” she said. “That’s important work.” 

 

 

Putting a deal back together   

It can be painstaking work, too.  

Brophy-Platts remembered being the selling agent for a property in what became an ordeal for everyone involved. In the mix were a tenant, a couple looking to buy their first property and the law.  

“I felt bad for the buyers,” Brophy-Platts said. “It was eight straight months of trying to get the house closed. It wasn’t about me, it wasn’t about them, it was about the law and how things had to be written. They had no way out other than walking away from their deposit.”  

Name-calling ensued. “They called me names. It was not pleasant.” The deal was in pieces. Like she did in the water pump episode, Brophy-Platts faced it and helped put it back together. “I accepted their anger and put it aside.” The deal closed. Foes became friends.  

“We celebrated,” Brophy-Platts said. “Those buyers are wonderful people. We’re friends now. We stay in touch. We play baseball together.”  

The takeaway for Brophy-Platts was that stress alters people temporarily.  

“When people are under extreme stress, they are not the people who they actually are,” she said. “That is a good lesson for all of us to remember for life.” 

 

What’s that sound? 

Handling, diverting or defusing stress is the job of the Broker/Owner in modern real estate.  

“Knowing preventative measures, knowing what to do when things don’t quite go as planned, that’s part of the job, too,” Brophy-Platts said. 

Having those skills in a friend is invaluable. Recently, Brophy-Platts took a phone call from one such friend.  

“She’s driving along and she’s like, Sarah, my car is going guh-guh-guh-guh-gug-guh-guh-guh. I was, like, your lug nuts are loose. Pull over.” 

The friend thought she could make it the 20 minutes home. The realtor said pull over. The friend kept driving. They negotiated. The realtor convinced the friend. She pulled over. Good thing. 

“I walked her through it, she tightened up the lug nuts, they were finger loose,” said Brophy-Platts. 

 

Grand re-opening 

Coldwell Banker Escarpment Realty’s grand re-opening happens July 14 from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. at 2 Mill Street East in Acton. It’s an opportunity for Brophy-Platts to say thank you to the people who have meant the most to her along the road—her parents John and Min, husband Kris, son Gray, along with the professionals she works with and those who work for her.  

Friends, colleagues, clients past and present, Pumpkin Promenaders, everyone from Acton, Georgetown, Limehouse, Rockwood, Guelph and beyond are welcome.  

“Bring your questions about real estate or the market or just come by to say hello,” said Brophy-Platts. “We want people to see the knowledge at Coldwell Banker Escarpment Realty that is ready to be put to use to serve them.” 

 

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