Jim Mattice's Profile

I grew up on a dairy farm in Portland, Ontario, about an hour from Ottawa. Cows don't care how your day is going. The work gets done because it has to, nobody claps for you, and you learn early that your word is the whole of your reputation in a small town.

That's most of what you need to know about how I work. The rest is the route: farm, then nearly a decade in professional sports — an environment where results are public, the standard is set by someone else's performance, and nobody is interested in your explanation. It rewires how you think about preparation.

Then years advising small businesses across Eastern Ontario, sitting with owners at the exact point where a decision was about to cost them real money. Sorting out what they actually wanted from what they'd been told to want. Building a plan they could follow on a Tuesday, not just nod along to in a meeting. It turns out to be nearly the same job I do now, with a house in place of a business.

For the last decade, real estate. I built and led a team, then closed it down — not because it failed, but because running it pulled me away from the part that matters to me: sitting across from a client and doing the work myself. If you hire me, I'm the one who shows up. The valuation, the showings, the offer table, the difficult phone call at nine at night.

The other half of that decision was coaching. I mentor other agents on the thing this industry trains worst — how to build a real relationship with a client instead of a transaction. It keeps me honest, and it makes me better on my own files.

I work across Ottawa and the surrounding region: the city, the suburbs, and the small towns and farm country on the edges, where the market behaves completely differently and plenty of agents haven't noticed. Homes, farms, cottages, businesses. Being from out there, and having advised businesses out there, isn't a marketing line. It's why I can price those properties properly.

It also taught me the thing I lean on hardest: working out what actually motivates people, then speaking to them in a way that reaches them. That's what moves a negotiation. Not volume, not charm — understanding what the other side needs, and building something that gets you what you need without stepping on it. The best transaction is the one where everybody walks away feeling like they got what they came for. Those deals close cleanly, stay closed, and don't come back to haunt anyone two years later.

So my approach is education-first. I'd rather you understand every step than rush a decision you'll regret. You get the comparable sales, a written plan with dates on it, the risks spelled out, and a straight answer to every question — including the ones where the honest answer costs me the deal. You hire me to guide your decision, not to sell myself.

The feedback I hear most is that I made the whole thing less stressful, and I think that's because my clients never had to wonder whose side I was on. I treat people the way I'd treat my family, which mostly means telling them the truth earlier than is comfortable. It's built a network of repeat clients and referrals I'd take over any award.

One more thing, and it's the part I'd want you to hold me to. The person you meet on the first call is the person you get at the offer table, on the difficult phone call, and five years after closing when you need the name of a good roofer. I don't have a sales version of myself. When I'm not working — and it still feels strange to call it work — I'm on a softball diamond or watching one of our local teams do something to my blood pressure. That's the whole of me. There's no other one.