Christine Hourd

About Christine Hourd – Your Calgary REALTOR Years before becoming a Calgary Realtor, I was 16, living in Anola, a small Manitoba town, and I was bound for New York to be a world famous artist. At that time no where in my mind did I imagine becoming a Calgary real estate agent. No, back then real estate agents had the reputation for swindling home owners out of their hard earned money, right up there with door to door vacuum sales people and ambulance chasing lawyers. Instead of New York, I moved to Winnipeg and successfully secured a diploma in marketing, a more conservative choice back then. Years passed and after many rented apartments and a couple of cities, I planted my feet in Calgary in 1995. It was a great choice since I loved the mountains and the lay back personalities, and this is one city where cowboy boots are an acceptable part of business attire. A couple of years in and I found myself married, and within six years had three amazing boys. During this time we sold our house and moved up to a larger one to accommodate our expanded family. Just as when you have your first child and other mothers pass on their horror stories to you, the same is true for home owners. Although we sold our first house with a real estate agent we decided to go all out for the fully stressful experience of doing it on our own…. yup we purchased “For Sale By Owner” without a real estate professional to support us. After the dust settled, I thought about the many stories from family and friends (and the most willing to share strangers) and how terrible and stressful buying or selling their home was, as well, my own experience. I concluded that this huge investment should be a happy time with little stress, not a painful experience! So I decided this is the career I want to be in – helping people successfully find the best home to match their lifestyle – without pressure and strain of contracts, finances and anything else I heard in those stories. I’ve been a Calgary Realtor since 2009 and I love it! I’m always meeting new people and helping them with a very positive step in their lives. It also makes for a flexible schedule so that I can spend time with my boys, and be an active member at the school and in the community. At the end of the day though, I just like to relax with a glass of wine and enjoy a jigsaw puzzle, digging in the garden, or painting my next world famous piece, among other things!