I lived in the same house for 33 years – most of my adult life. It represented security, familiarity and deep at-home comfort. I was so convinced that I would stay in this house for my lifetime.

Following a period of health issues, I realized that staying in my beloved home was not going to be a practical, easy way forward. I couldn’t believe having these thoughts! It was like a betrayal to my sweet little Oak Bay home. But I realized it was only a matter of time before I would find the layout of a home with stairs, inside and out, wasn’t the greatest choice. I was already depending upon the help of friends and neighbours for bigger house and garden jobs, as well as contractors for the major fixes like gutters and fixing fences. And I was starting to resent my home owning me – upkeep demands. The click of the garden gate no longer symbolized rest and ease – it was more like “Shoot, these back steps are rotting! The sprinkler heads need replacing – so soon!” and “I need to paint the basement window frames – again”.

That’s when I met with Julie Rust. It was nerve wracking to think I was making this step – I was full of “I can’t believe I’m doing it, its so scary!” but Julie was calm, listened and was empathetic to my insecurities of making such a massive change. Somehow, I knew that I had to make the jump, put my trust in her and loosen my grip on the picture of what I thought my home life would look like.

At first, I looked around with her and her business partner, Greg Phillips, at condos and townhomes. That process brought me closer to understanding what I liked and what didn’t like – and made me realize after a time that if we found something, you needed to move quickly, money in hand. So, the next deep dive was listing the house and being prepared to have strangers walk through your home. That process was a further “letting go” and symbolic of extracting myself at a deeper level – I was coached in a genuine way by Julie around the concept of trusting the process and was able to feel secure in her knowledge at every level around selling my property and finding my new home.

Sure enough, my home sold and Julie said, “let’s go shopping!” which was kind of fun! We had a list of at least 6 places to see on a sunny Saturday morning. I seem to recall it was about the 4th place we went to that simply felt different. I walked in and felt thrilled – it ticked the big boxes of what I was looking for.

Within the next day Julie had put the offer together – she and Greg were incredible at providing the very best advise and managing all the details.

All along the way I had the very best support and guidance. So grateful for it all.

Julie made our house purchase easy and fun.  We found the house of our dreams 24 hours after hiring Julie.  Julie helped us to reflect on whether the house ticked all the boxes on the list we had given her the day before.  She then helped us navigate through a bidding war against 4 other offers and we got the house!  Julie is calm under pressure and the ease with which she negotiates her way through any difficulties is awesome! I will recommend Julie to all my friends.

Buying a home is a huge and anxiety provoking step. When we started looking for our first home, Julie was the one who took the time to help us hone in on what we really wanted and needed. Her patience, professionalism, and expertise allowed us to find our forever house, steering us away from lurking disasters, and negotiating a fair and successful offer. Finding the right home is a complex process. Location, timing, personalities, competing interests, and tactics all come into play. Julie not only anticipated each obstacle, she dealt with each one with calm and graceful assurance. Through the highs and lows, she gave us the confidence that it would all work out in the end, and we are so pleased that not only did we find the home we love, but feel as though we made a genuine friend in the process. Thank you so much for the consistent and reliable support all the way through!

We recently listed oRt home with Julie Rust and were exceedingly impressed with her knowledge of the market, her professionalism, her work ethic as well as her organizational skills. We found Julie to be genuinely interested in us as clients and she kept us actively involved in the sale of our home throughout the process. She listened to what our needs were and we felt that she always made herself available. Julie is not only excellent at what she does, but she is an amazingly kind person who gives back to the community – she donated a significant portion of her commission to a charity that we were actively involved with at the time of the sale of our home. It was a pleasure working with Julie and we would not hesitate to recommend her to anyone looking for a real estate agent in Victoria!

We were very fortunate to have Julie Rust help us sell our home. She succeeded where other realtors did not. Her professionalism, hard work and enthusiasm were wonderful. She also assisted us in finding us a new home that had everything we were looking for and more. We would highly recommend Julie and know that she will do as wonderful a job for her new clients as she did for us.

I have moved many times and have, therefore, worked with many realtors over the years. Julie Rust is the best agent I have worked with by far. Her encouragement and understanding of what I was looking for in a condo, along with her exceptional service in selling my home, were so appreciated. She took the time to really understand my needs, was ethical every step of the way, dealt with my very difficult tenants in the sale with tact and professionalism, and always got back to me straight away (a wonderful quality with a stressed-out client!). In sum, I give Julie my highest recommendation!

My wife and I never thought a chance meeting with Julie at a Sunday open house would have such a positive effect on us. it was very clear after meeting and chatting with Julie that we shared many common viewpoints especially as it related to real estate. Julie acted both as our buying and selling agent and we couldn’t’ be more satisfied. Not only did she meet our (high) expectations, she exceeded them by providing excellent advice and timely service. We credit Julie’s energy, determination, astute negotiating skills and knowledge of the market for enabling us to buy one home while selling another during a “lukewarm” real estate market. We are thrilled with the outcome of both transactions. Julie was energetic, accessible and helpful and throughout the transaction process. her integrity, professionalism and infectious personality are among her many attributes and we would have no hesitation in recommending her as a real estate agent.

Throughout our first-ever downsizing Julie worked diligently to guide us through what could have otherwise been a very stressful process. Julie’s knowledge, patience, optimism and delightful demeanor resulted in the successful sale of a unique property and the acquisition of a replacement home that both met our criteria and personal satisfaction needs. A more suitable realtor would be hard to find.’ Ann and Hugh Porte

Julie, thank you for helping me find the perfect home. It was a pleasure working with you, and your help made the whole process a positive one.

Julie Rust did an exceptional job working as our Realtor this past fall. With respect to selling our home she set forth a very positive approach to all key sales attributes and targeted a strong price. We were able to have an accepted offer on our home for our targeted amount in under 2 weeks. As a buying agent Julie was patient and prudent in assisting my wife and I in looking for our next home. We had a very picky criteria and Julie worked so well with us to wait for the right place to come available, and when she did she moved quickly on our behalf. Overall, Julie is an incredibly hard-working and hungry real estate agent who works tirelessly to get the sale and close the deal. I’ve bought and sold 5 homes in the last 12 years and Julie has been not only the best realtor I’ve worked with but also the most pleasant to deal with!

It is very important for us to recognize the outstanding work of Julie Rust and her tireless efforts to find us a perfect home. When we first met Julie, her professionalism and knowledge providing encouragement, expert advice, skilled negotiation and effective navigation and management through the transaction of the real estate market was very impressive and we felt assured that we would be well represented by her. Our opinion of Julie’s skill as an agent grew quickly, with her remarkable ability to discover potential properties and her tenacity to ensure that we would have an early opportunity to view the properties. Julie was exceptionally pleasant and patient with us, showing us approximately 50 homes during a very challenging real estate market. Julie always had our best interest in mind, We will be forever grateful for Julie’s guidance, help and friendship. Without question, Julie Rust is the best realtor we have ever worked with and as such, we are eager to recommend her to others that have real estate needs.

In my work as a lawyer for the past 12 years, I have had an opportunity to deal with many realtors. I only learned of Greg in the fall of 2007 and I have to say that Greg stands out significantly compared to the many realtors I have dealt with in the past. I was dealing with an estate matter and what I thought would be a very difficult sale. Although I was planning to hire another realtor, I learned that Greg still had the listing for the property. Despite him having a contractual right to the contract, Greg immediately offered to step aside and allow me to hire who I wanted to despite his contract. Because of Greg’s generosity and what I felt to be a very high standard of ethics, I decided to hire Greg. He had the house sold within weeks through no lack of hard work on his part. Greg demonstrates continuous professionalism, availability, and sound advice. He is knowledgeable about the market. I would not hesitate to and I do not hesitate to recommend his services to my clients, staff, and friends.

Greg Phillips acted as my Realtor in finding us an investment home in Victoria in May 2007. As a Realtor myself from Calgary and having been in the business for over 20 years it was very difficult for me to enlistthe services of a fellow Realtor as I had many preconceived notions as to how I wanted to conduct my own search and negotiations. I met and communicated with a number of Realtors and was very particular as to who I would feel comfortable with. I met Greg at one of his listings and immediately liked his non aggressive style. Furthermore his knowledge of the many different neighbourhoods really impressed me. He listened to what I was trying to find and in a very short time had zeroed in on a property that perfectly fit all our criteria. His professionalism in all aspects of our real estate experience was greatly appreciated, and I will readily admit that I am not an easy individual to deal with especially as this was an all business transaction as opposed to an emotional one. I highly recommend Greg as an exceptional Realtor who clearly gave it his all in trying to provide us with the ultimate in professional service, thank you Greg.

In 2007 Greg helped us in the sale and purchase of our homes. His guidance and support were much appreciated at what can be a stressful time. His advice helped us ensure that we bought the home that best suited us. His calm strategic negotiation style aided us in getting the best price on our sale as well. In short, Greg was a pleasure to work with and we would not hesitate to recommend him to anyone.

As we were new to the Island, Greg took the time to help us get to know all of the neighborhoods and find the one that was best for our family. Working with Greg was easily the best Real Estate experience we have ever had. We liked that Greg was not pushy, he sat back and let us make our own assessments and he paid attention to our needs. Greg was aggressive when we needed him to be, negotiating like a true professional and making sure we did not pay more than we should. Greg’s calm confidence, sense of humour and easy going nature was very calming and even made the entire process enjoyable.

Every good realtor must be part mathematical wizard, part logistics expert, part investment advisor, and, probably most important, part responsive psychiatrist. Greg Phillips is all those things and more. We just had the opportunity to assess Greg’s skills when he sold us a Beach Drive condominium and he passed every test with flying colours. He was able to answer all our questions; he returned phone calls and e-mails almost before we signed off; and he was unfailingly upbeat and enthusiastic. We always felt that we were his highest and most pleasurable priority. It will be our pleasure to recommend Greg not only to our family, but also to our friends.

Greg, it has been almost one year since we sat down around the kitchen table, on the evening of the very first day my house as listing on the market, to choose between 4 offers. We remember how you built up to the final offer and Terry and I actually gasped! And then we went on our next adventure with you to buy a property that turned out to be an “outside-the-box” suggestion of yours that was the perfect choice and we have now had a wonderful year in our new home. Today I was remembering how I came to pick you as our realtor. I had interviewed 3 very good realtors and was finding it difficult to make the choice.  But when I sent you some supplementary questions and you answered so quickly and thoroughly and thoughtfully, we knew you were the guy.  And working with you was all that and more. You gave me my head where I thought I could make a contribution, and then you steered me well when I needed your expertise. You bring intelligence, ethics, diligence and common sense to the table. And we had enough confidence in you the process was actually relaxing, invigoration and tons of fun!

We have been working with Greg Philips for about 8 years.  During that time Greg sold one of our houses in a matter of days and then helped us buy a dream house in one day when we were one of seven offers that came in that day.  Greg instructed us on the winning price to come in at and also the tightest conditions.  Greg is a very hard working agent with lots of experience and great knowledge of the Victoria real estate market and the various rules and regulations.  Greg is very efficient, organized, timely and punctual.  He is also extremely honest about the worth of houses and led us away from many houses which would have been a big headache to own.  We will continue to work with Greg in the future and we have recommended him to our family and friends.

Thank you so much for your lovely and most unexpected gift, I feel like it is us who should be giving you a gift not the other way round! I very much appreciated the calm, friendly and absolutely professional way you guided us through a complicated process, making us feel relaxed and in control. You are a great realtor, and yes, you can quote me on that!

Can’t express enough how appreciative we are for your great help.  Your calm counsel (and patience) is just what we needed to make this terrific move happen.  Thank you.

Thank you very much for your excellent care and skill in assisting my daughter purchase her first home. Liz who recommended you is correct in calling you there best there is in the business. It was very comforting for me to know my daughter was in such good hands. Your patient, positive and informed professional approach was much appreciated and perfect to my daughter along her steep learning curve. We will certainly recommend you to anyone looking for a realtor.

I just wanted to thank you for all your work and advice which secured me such a wonderful new home. I feel so lucky and couldn’t have done it without you. I felt happy and confident during the entire process, which again is thanks to you!

Dear Greg,

Christine and I aren’t much for writing notes, what with our busy schedules and all, but I felt compelled to sit down today to tell you what a fantastic job you did for our family. From the first moment we considered the sale of one residence in favour of a step up to our dream home, you were there with an unbiased and professional approach to the decision making process. There are so many things to consider when buying and selling real estate, and at times it’s tough not to get emotions tied to decisions. From our first meeting with you, you always provided such sound and sensible logic, you never steered us in any specific direction, but always provided a thorough and thoughtful analysis of our real estate aspirations. Beyond our initial decision making process, you went the extra mile when we ultimately decided to sell our old home and purchase our dream home. You did a magnificent job of marketing our old place, the MLS description was fantastic, the website pix were beyond our expectations, and you took the time to provide great exposure to the property. You were always so approachable when it came to potential buyers. As for your assistance with the purchase of our new residence, you really went above and beyond the call of duty. When it looked like that place might be within our grasp, you were always there with important information, and you worked tirelessly for us securing solid terms over what were quite protracted negotiations. You were always so professional and accommodating, we simply can’t thank you enough. We plan on living here until our family leaves the nest, but when we are ready for our next property, we’ll be in touch. We wish you continued success in the real estate business, you did a fantastic job for us and will not hesitate to refer you to our friends and relatives. We know you will stay busy.