88 Russell Hill Rd

The seller came to us with a competing opinion already in hand. Another agent — a respected one, with the comp sheets to back it — had told them $9.5M, sixty days, clean. The argument was not unreasonable: most of the recent sales on the street had cleared at $1,150 per square foot, and an even number with a tight horizon was, on paper, the rational play.

We disagreed, and we told them why in writing. The house was a 2018 build to a single architect's brief — an architect whose name does not appear in print but whose work the right circles can identify in two photographs. The replacement cost alone, accounting for current trade rates and the lot's grade, was inside $9M before any premium for the build itself. The lot is generational; you do not get back to that frontage on Russell Hill at the asking. We thought $10.95M was supportable. We thought patience was the price.

The seller chose us. We controlled access tightly. Eleven private showings before any public exposure — each one accompanied, each one with a buyer we had vetted ourselves. Two pre-emptive offers came in the third week. The buyer who eventually won had been touring Forest Hill for nine months across three brokerages, and recognised something about the house's underwriting that the broader MLS audience would have taken six months and a price reduction to be told.

It closed at $11,200,000. 2.3% over our list, 17.9% over the number the seller had been told to take. We are quietly proud of it. Not because it was a record — it was not — but because it was the right number for the right buyer, found on the right timeline. That is the work.