Jim Emilson’s personal track record
Two listings in fourteen years didn’t sell — including one in this market. We’d rather tell you than hide it.
In 2016, we were already flying drones over listings.
While most agents were still figuring out Facebook, Jim was shooting drone footage and Matterport 3D tours — among Toronto’s early adopters of both.
The receipt: a 2016 listing video for 589 Runnymede Avenue, a five-bedroom detached in the Junction. It pulled 23,595 views, 30 shares, and 36 comments. One viewer asked why the house wasn’t on the MLS — the video had created a buyer out of thin air.
Early on drones, early on lifestyle video, early on everything since — that’s what taught us the real lesson: what works today isn’t what worked yesterday, and what works tomorrow may not work next month.
In 2020, we cast a movie for a listing.
Why a movie for this house? The neighbourhood had seen similar properties — but none with a swimming pool. And in 2020, with everyone cooped up at home, a pool commanded a genuine premium. The strategy wrote itself: make the pool the star.
So for 33 Noce Way in Vaughan, we didn’t shoot a house tour. We ran a full-day cinematic lifestyle production — professional actors including a Miss Hong Kong titleholder, two of Canada’s top-rated ballroom dancers, and a well-known Montreal film personality — with an original song written and performed by a professional recording artist. Two more days of pre- and post-production.
A production like this isn’t for every listing. It was right for this one — and it contributed to a fantastic selling price for our clients.
The cameras were never the point. The eyeballs were: we make the market notice.
A decade of testing means you don’t pay for experiments. We already ran them — the film, the drone epics, the walkthroughs — and the authentic walkthrough beats the polished film on social, every time.
665 posts teaching the market. Free. Since 2015.
Market takes. Buyer and seller advice. Cautionary tales from real deals. Published free for eleven years — earning around 25,000 likes and comments along the way, most of it on video.
Before you ever meet us, you can scroll a decade of our thinking: our market calls, our mistakes, our lessons. All on the record — on Instagram and YouTube.
No agent with something to hide teaches in public for eleven years.
The best marketing can’t save a badly presented home.
01 — Staging direction
A staging partnership going back to the very start of Jim’s career. One of Toronto’s finest firms, on speed dial for every listing.
02 — Photography
Fanatical about the highest quality, with photographer partnerships built over years. No phone snapshots. Ever.
03 — The Dutch Clean
Our immaculate, first-impression standard — applied before a camera ever comes out. Buyers feel it in the first ten seconds.
So we never ask marketing to do presentation’s job. It does its own.
Every listing gets the machine.
Dedicated property website
Your home gets its own website — not a line item buried in a portal.
Personal video walkthrough
A real person walking through your home on camera — authentic beats polished on social, every time.
Coming Soon pre-marketing
A waitlist that captures demand before the listing even goes live.
Print booklet & QR signage
A take-home booklet and scannable signage at the property.
Neighbourhood guides
Content that sells the lifestyle around the house — not just the house.
WhatsApp-first inquiry capture
Every inquiry lands instantly. No lead ever waits on hold.
The brochure buyers keep.
Seven pages, printed and digital — the photography, the story of the home, the track record. And the part most agents don’t have: QR codes that put the entire listing in a buyer’s phone in one scan — every photo, the video walkthrough, the floor plans.
This is the actual brochure from 52 Morna Avenue. Sold.
1. The brochure carries the code. Printed on the page and on the sign.
2. They scan. One snap opens the full listing.
3. Floor plans land in their phone. Every photo, the video walkthrough, measurements — instantly.
This isn’t the premium package. It’s the only package.
Real eyeballs. The right ones.
@jimemilson reels earn 2.2 to 3.7 times the engagement of the average Instagram account — a 1.1% median across the last 30 reels, as of September 2026, versus published benchmarks of 0.3 to 0.5% (Rival IQ, 2026; Socialinsider, 2025). Nearly half the reach lands beyond existing followers.
Three-quarters of the audience is 35 to 64, concentrated in Toronto and the GTA. These aren’t vanity metrics. They’re your buyer pool.
We don’t buy listings.
Here’s a trick of the trade: some agents agree to list at a price they know the market will never pay — then spend the listing grinding the seller down to reality.
You get our honest number up front — the range we truly expect your home to sell for. And if you need a price we can’t defend, we’ll happily refer you to another agent.
Client words
The marketing speaks for itself.
5.0 · 35 Google reviewsThe effort Jim and his team put into selling my condo at the best price was unparalleled. From staging, to marketing, to guiding me through all of the negotiations and red tape, there was no cutting corners and I really felt like I was in expert hands.
Thanks to Jim and his team’s hard work and dedication, selling our home was a smooth, stress-free experience, and it sold in a relatively short time.
He was honest, told us the high end and low end for our unit, and showed us comparables. Jim sold our place before we got to offer day.
When it came time to sell, Jim made the entire process seamless … It sold quickly and for a great price.
Questions sellers ask
How the marketing works.
One launch system, refined over more than a decade, applied to every listing: staging direction, professional photography, a personal video walkthrough, a dedicated property website, Coming Soon pre-marketing, a print booklet with QR-coded signage, and WhatsApp-first inquiry capture — distributed across the MLS, Instagram, YouTube and our buyer channels. Drone imagery and a Matterport 3D tour join the package wherever they serve the listing, and airspace allows.
Staging direction with our staging partner, professional photography, a personal video walkthrough, a dedicated property website, Coming Soon pre-marketing with a waitlist, a print + digital feature booklet with QR-coded signage, and WhatsApp-first inquiry capture. No tiers, no add-ons. Drone imagery and Matterport 3D tours are added wherever they serve the listing.
Most listings get photos and a portal upload. We’ve spent over a decade testing what actually moves buyers — drone video since 2016, cinematic productions, and now the authentic walkthroughs that outperform polished films on social. You don’t pay for our experiments; you get the results.
You’ll see it in the video views, the brochure scans and the showing activity — and every inquiry reaches us instantly, so no buyer ever waits. We keep you posted from launch day on. And the track record behind the system: 97% of our listings sold since 2012.
Considering a move?
Selling? Let’s launch it.
Start with a free, human valuation of your home — then we’ll show you exactly what the machine would do with it.
Better Properties Real Estate Group — Jim Emilson & Joseph De Souza · over $150M in combined team sales across Toronto & the GTA.