Wendy Forrest

Wendy Forres's name belies her proud Portuguese heritage. However, she didn't learn to speak the language until she was an adult. The daughter of Toronto's first Portuguese speaking female REALTOR®, she worked part-time in her mother's brokerage as a teenager, getting exposure to the "real estate" life in much more challenging times than today. After a whirlwind vacation tour of Europe, she decided to finish her French studies in France. Upon her return home (and after recovering from culture shock!), she worked with the Federal Government at the Canadian Human Rights Commission before moving on to Ontario's public broadcaster, TVO and TFO for about 10 years.Then in 1995, at a time when the industry was downsizing over threats of privatization and because her mother had, the year prior, opened another nationally known brokerage, Wendy decided to make a career change. While working behind the desk at the office and finishing up contracts at TFO, she obtained her real estate license in the spring of 1996. The timing for this could not have been better as the market was finding its way out of a recession. She started from scratch, building her business through advertising and a website. Despite obtaining her Broker's Licence, Wendy decided against taking over her mother brokerage as she enjoyed the freedom of working with clients rather than looking after an office and its agents. Today, Wendy gets most of her sales from her sphere of influence, repeat business and referrals. After about 20 years in the business, she still goes extra mile for her clients, many of whom have become good friends and are like family. It is her casual, direct, experienced and often opinionated approach that keeps her clients coming back and referring their friends to her. Wendy's philosophy is that you get back from life what you put into it and in giving back to the world good things come to her.