Why do I love working with those making the jump to relocate to PEI?

We just had a closing on a house with another buyer who is making the move to PEI. They are in the process of setting up their life here and it really made me think about how much I love working with clients like this.

When you work in real estate, there are many different types of clients that you can work with, and that I have worked with.

First time homebuyers (also a favourite of mine - it’s the teacher in me)

Move up buyers

Downsizers

Investors

First time investors (also a favourite of mine as that is how we started our real estate journey)

and

Transplants.

For those looking to make the move to PEI, they can often be met with a good amount of hate, especially if you ask any questions about making the move to PEI on the Facebook group “Ask PEI.” If you happen to make that mistake, you will be answered with a couple of good answers, and a whole lot of sarcastic answers about needing a doctor, there being no housing, the influx of new Canadian’s, the lack of working opportunities and also, so much traffic. It can seem that PEI has lost so much of the spirit that many of us are drawn to. So why am I going against this trend and looking to welcome as many new islanders as want to join us on our sandbar? Because I am a transplant myself.

In 2009, I made my first move to PEI. I had been coming here since before I was born and I will tell everyone that I am not an islander. (By definition, you must have been born on on PEI to be consider a TRUE islander, and I wasn’t. It doesn’t matter that both of my parents were born in Charlottetown, that I still have 3 grandparents living in Charlottetown, that my husband and 2 of my children were born in Charlottetown. I was not and I am perfectly happy with that.). I made the move in 2009 to attend UPEI and completed my Bachelor of Education. After I was done with that degree, I packed up my vehicle and moved to northern Alberta to start my teaching career. Well, that position sucked and it was only a matter of a few months before I was moving back to PEI.

I stayed on PEI for a number of years before deciding to head abroad to teach in England. While I was over there for 14 months, my relationship with a lovely island boy started up and in 2014 we both made the move “home” to PEI to start our life together.

In 2019, for a new position for my husband, we then moved our family to NS where we lived until fall 2022 when we have made the most recent move home.

When the opportunity presented itself, we have always decided that PEI is home to us. It is where we have friends and family that we want to be near. But it is also the place where:

The kids can go to park up the street without us having to worry

The kids can ride their bikes around the neighbourhood

On a rainy Saturday, we will head to Home Depot to get some project supplies and give the kiddos the change to get some energy out (yes we are that family)

Where the neighbours will call to ask if we have a couple of extra eggs because they ran out

Where, on Halloween, we chatted with parents in our front yard while the kids Trick or Treated our immediate neighbours without us.

Where we can let our kids be kids

Where I can volunteer at the kids school with ease and the teachers there will know me.

I love working with transplants because we have a very basic common ground to start from - we are both choosing the Island for our home. So what is drawing you to the Island? What are you dreaming of building when you make the move? The island is waiting for you to start living your island life and it will continue to be here when the time is right for you to make the move.