August: All about the team
Why My Teaching Roots Matter When You Buy or Sell a Home
I’m Nick Fundytus: a former Grade-3 teacher who swapped report cards for market reports. The skills I honed wrangling energetic classrooms in Kingston and Macau now power every buyer and seller game plan I build. Here’s how that educator’s toolkit informs our time working together.
From Brock University to Downtown Kingston
I earned my Bachelor of Education at Brock University in 2004 and moved to Ontario to be closer to my (future) wife, Gillian, while she wrapped up her degree at Queen’s. My very first supply-teaching day with the Limestone District School Board was trial by fire: a frazzled Grade 1 class whose regular teacher had gone on stress leave. Within hours, a chair took flight in the lunchroom and the kids chanted for the teacher they missed. That chaotic start forged the patience, crisis-management skills, and sense of humour I lean on every single day in real estate.
Six Incredible Years in Macau
In 2006 Gill and I followed opportunity (and curiosity) to the International School of Macau, an Alberta-curriculum school in one of the world’s most densely populated cities. I taught Grade 1 first, then settled into Grade 3 and eventually became the school’s inaugural Athletics Director. My students wrote CAT and PAT exams, which pushed me to master clear explanations and scaffold learning for the variety of languages, abilities and experiences that my students brought into the classroom.
Macau itself is an amazing place! Centuries-old Portuguese cobblestones are next door to billion-dollar casino resorts – casinos that generate more revenue than the Las Vegas Strip. Living there meant weaving through neon waterfronts by night and colonial alleyways by day, and weekend junk-boat trips with colleagues who later became lifelong friends. We’ve become great friends with our elementary school principal and her family (hi Maurene and Tony!), since they’re also here in Ottawa and I’ve had the pleasure of working with them in their move as well as one of our school’s students who relocated to Ottawa (hi Alex)! I can’t recommend the international experience enough for any teachers considering it, and have great memories with friends from around the world.
Coming Home and Swapping Lesson Plans for Listing Sheets
We moved home in 2011 for family and (hopefully) Canadian teaching jobs. Gill, who’s fluently bilingual, slid right into the OCDSB; I sold furniture while hammering through real-estate courses “just in case.” One year later my backup plan turned full-time calling. Growing a business from “friends of Gill’s family” to today’s community of buyers, sellers, and repeat clients felt a lot like walking into that Kingston class, only now the chairs stay on the floor. It’s daunting to start, but I’m proud of the relationships my team and I have built with you, our clients, our community and each other.
Where Teaching Shows Up in Your Real-Estate Journey
I was never one to be comfortable with a “sales-y” approach, and that’s one of the things that you hear our clients say that they love about me and our team. From the beginning, I decided to work in a way that was educational and gives our clients the tools to make the right decisions when making a move.
| Classroom Skill | How it Helps You | Real-Life Example |
|---|---|---|
| Lesson-planning | A clear, step-by-step roadmap from first coffee chat to closing day | Custom checklists for buyers & sellers so nothing falls through the cracks |
| Differentiated instruction | I tailor communication to your learning style—visual, verbal, data-driven | Market snapshots for the numbers-people; neighbourhood walk-throughs for the hands-on learners |
| Formative assessment | Constant pulse-checks to adjust strategy fast | Weekly “progress reports” on showings, feedback and market shifts |
| Classroom management | Keeping lots of moving parts calm and on-task | Coordinating stagers, photographers, inspectors and lawyers so you can breathe |
| Parent-teacher conferencing | Skilled at tough conversations with empathy and facts | Navigating low-ball offers without burning bridges—or your nerves |
| Athletics coaching | Team-building and goal-setting under pressure | Rallying our in-house team (and trusted pros) so you feel surrounded by all-stars |
| Lifelong learning mindset | Staying ahead of curricula—now called market data and policy changes | Ongoing training with OREB plus share-worthy explainer videos for clients |
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