After living apart for six years, couple decided enough was enough

The buyers David Rubel and Hanna Levy
What they wanted A well-built, three-bedroom detached house, maximum $2.2 million
Rubel and Levy have lived apart for most of their six-year marriage while she attends med school and trains to become an anesthesiologist. He lived in their renovated two-storey house in East York. She rented an apartment in Hamilton, making the long drive home on weekends for precious time together.
Enough is enough, the couple decided, facing two more years of this difficult lifestyle. They put their home on the market in the spring and Rubel, a realtor, shifted his focus to personal house-hunting.
The search Etobicoke was their smartest choice for location. With easy access to Hamilton, it’s also the area where Rubel went to school and has friends, family and clients. And it’s close to other areas of Toronto where they spend time.
The couple’s must-haves for their new home included a quiet street, good-quality construction, and a modern esthetic with open-concept main floor, high ceilings and ample natural light. They also wanted at least three bedrooms to provide a study room for her and a home office for him.
The market last May was starting to slow, without a lot of inventory or competition, as people waited to see what interest rates would do, according to Rubel.
There weren’t many options in Etobicoke in the $1.9 million-to-$2.5-million range. Many of the newer homes “seemed poorly built,” recalls Rubel, citing drywall, framing and flooring issues.
From a shortlist of six showings, they saw one home that was “so perfect and beautiful,” but nixed it due to its proximity to a main street. Another one “checked all the boxes, but didn’t feel right,” he says.
What they bought They honed in on a brick two-storey house with three bedrooms and four bathrooms, close to main thoroughfares but located in a quiet neighbourhood in south Etobicoke.
Listed for $1.93 million, it had been on the market for a while, so Rubel was able to negotiate a “great price” of $1.7 million.
Although it’s only 11 years old, the house was given a full makeover before the couple moved in late September. They weren’t keen on the esthetics, which were “a little dated for our age group,” he points out.
The re-do included bigger windows, a floating staircase, kitchen facelift, lighting, painting — and new floors of seven-inch white oak … to match their golden retriever Steven, he jokes. The $200,000-project was financed with the money they saved on the purchase price.
“It was a bit more work, but it just felt better,” says Rubel.
The inside advantage Being a real estate agent and “knowing the market really well” was a definite advantage, says Rubel. He could analyze a property’s long-term potential and broker the best price, having done extra training in negotiations.
Rubel also knew the folly of falling for a place that might end in buyer’s remorse, such as the house they ruled out due to location.
The system that he uses with clients identifies “needs, wants and dreams” in their next home. Different for everyone, those items can range from parking and commuting distance to number of bedrooms and outdoor amenities, he says.
The right place should fulfil five realistic “needs,” two or three “wants” and maybe one “dream,” he explains. If you’re swayed by things that aren’t priorities, you’ll likely regret the purchase, cautions Rubel, who does educational videos for buyers and sellers on his Instagram account. 
The verdict Levy says their years apart with only phone calls connecting them on weekdays were “tough.” And she had the added stress and “cognitive load” of living in two places.
Now she can make the trip between home and Hamilton, where she’s doing her three-year medical residency, in just 35 minutes.
“I’m really excited and relieved to feel settled … and to start the rest of our lives together,” Levy says.
Her husband is “extremely happy and grateful” for the way everything worked out, including the “amazing job” done by Turbo Reno. “At the end of the day, we got the house we wanted, with a big backyard for Steven, and we get to live together.”