Andrew In 856 Words
If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve found me online somehow and you’re curious about who I am. You might also be wondering how I can assist you with your real estate needs.
I’m Andrew Shackleton, a real estate broker with over a decade in the business, servicing Waterloo Region and the Guelph area. I’ve spent almost all of my life living in Kitchener Waterloo and know the place like the back of my hand. In 2015 I hung my shingle at RLP Wolle Realty and haven’t looked back.
I’ve sold 71 homes so far, amounting to just under 45 million dollars in transaction volume. I’ve won three Master Sales awards over the years and earned Royal LePage’s President’s Gold for 2021, 2024, and 2025, representing the top 20% of agents in the province.
Interestingly enough, I got into real estate because of a random conversation about flipping houses back in the fall of 2013. The subject of real estate agents came up and, as they say, the rest is history. It might be a coincidence that my family was in sales too. My dad was a stock broker and my mom worked in admin when Canada Trust had a real estate division.
I knew I’d be good at this right from the start. I’m smart, capable, a life long learner. Going to real estate college at 50 was a challenge, but I did exceptionally well nevertheless. A sharp eye for detail, honed by years of wrenching on vehicles, working on my house, and some time in the building trades has also proved invaluable.
The hardest part of the business is getting clients. I remember very well sitting in my office in 2015 wondering how I’d get that elusive first sale. While I’m a very friendly guy I’m not a social butterfly, and didn’t have a huge network of people I could randomly call up.
Instead, I worked open houses for other agents, often Saturdays and Sundays, and got a first hand introduction to the inventory. Including showings with my clients over the last decade, I’ve visited well over a thousand homes. For 3 months straight, I did the door knocking thing too, honing my real estate chops in the process.
The first couple of years were tough and I was fortunate to have another job to fall back on while I built my real estate business. Things eventually picked up and I went full time in 2017. I was getting the bulk of my leads and sales from referrals, open houses and expensive but high quality paid leads out of Toronto.
But there was one thing I really didn’t like about this approach, the selling! Most of the people coming through an open house don’t want to be bothered by an agent. This is even more so when you are banging on someone’s front door. And I certainly wasn’t going to spend 2 or 3 hours a day working with an auto-dialer and the ‘do not call’ list!
There had to be a better way, and luckily I was already on it. By the time 2018 came and went I was on my 2nd WordPress website. It had lots of really great content but graphically wasn’t very good, especially on mobile. This was a real challenge to rectify. I have a degree in Classics not CS, so web development is not something innate to me.
Hard coding a website is difficult even for seasoned developers so it was fortunate that I stumbled upon Elementor page builder software one evening. I built this version in 7 weeks in early 2019, working 5 or 6 hours a day. Since then, there have been many additions, tweaks, and most importantly, a complete colour palette make over. I can code a bit, but basically still at the toddler level!
Concurrently with the web development I was also posting regularly on YouTube, getting a little better with every video I made. In 2020 I started my KW neighbourhoods series, shooting all 59 hoods. The entire process took me several years to finish. I began writing neighbourhoods pages on my website to complement the videos.
My efforts really took off in 2022. Google was liking what I was putting out and my website traffic quadrupled seemingly overnight. If you want, Google ‘Kitchener neighbourhoods’ and see who comes up on the first page! I now get 75% of my business from the internet, with the balance being referrals or past clients. It’s a nice way to get business that’s for sure.
With regard to the actual business of buying and selling, I pride myself on providing exceptional service to my clients, by actively listening to their needs and wants and then delivering, going the extra mile with the attention to detail they deserve. I love protecting people from bad deals and financial damage. I take great satisfaction in providing guidance to my clients and ensuring that their best interests are always front and centre.
If you’re looking for a knowledgeable and dedicated real estate broker in the Kitchener Waterloo area, I am confident that I can provide the exceptional service you deserve.
