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Tristan Squire-Smith, Johnny Hewerdine were fired for ‘professional differences,’ now with new firm
A pair of real estate agents in London, Ont., who aim to humanize the industry and were fired from a realty firm for taking their advertising campaign, “You could do worse,” to billboards and social media, have doubled down on their mantra.
Tristan Squire-Smith, 42, and Johnny Hewerdine, 43, were fired in December from a real estate business they don’t want to publicly name, but were quickly snapped up by the Realty Firm. CBC News has seen a copy of their termination letter, which cites “professional differences.”
“We might not be for everybody, but the people who like us, really love us.” – Tristan Squire-Smith, real estate agent
“They fired us for excessively using the phrase, ‘You could do worse,'” said Hewerdine, a broker with the Realty Firm who previously worked as an electrician. ‘We just stuck with it and actually doubled down on it, and now it’s just completely taken off.”
The mantra is polarizing, Hewerdine admitted.
“It’s a great sort of self deprecating phrase that means you’re actually not doing too bad,” said Squire-Smith, a registered nurse who retrained as a real estate agent during the pandemic and still works part time in long-term care.
“We might not be for everybody, but the people who like us really love us,” he said.
Randy Pawlowski, past president of the London St. Thomas Association of Realtors, wouldn’t comment directly on the billboard or the slogan, but told CBC that he stands for professionalism in the industry.
‘Zero awards won’
The latest billboard by Squire-Smith and Hewerdine is up on Wharncliffe Road, a busy thoroughfare in London, and features photographs them as teenagers. Squire-Smith has long curly blond hair and Hewerdine is wearing his graduation robes from his Grade 8 portrait. Another one of their billboards proudly proclaims, “Zero awards won! (No fine print required).”
The two men met two decades ago and were on the varsity swim team together at Western University.
“These photos are taken at our most awkward moment of our lives,” said Hewerdine. “I’m a 13-year-old Grade 8 graduate in this photo and I believe Tristan is 15 years old.”
Both say they’re trying to humanize the industry.
“We’re just really focusing on the consumer, opposed to us standing up on a billboard with arms crossed, trying to make us look perfect,” said Hewerdine.
“They’re total professionals,” said Pete Greenwood, who hired Hewerdine to sell his condo earlier this month. It was listed for $389,900 and sold for $400,000 in five days.
“He’s just a good guy to work with, and so’s Tristan,” said Greenwood. “They did a 30-second video of my house and turns out we’re all big Seinfeld fans, so we actually did a Seinfeld-themed video of my house.
“I never laughed so hard in my life,” he said.
Rebecca Zandbergen · CBC News · Posted: Mar 31, 2023
Rebecca Zandbergen is from Ottawa and has worked for CBC Radio across the country for more than 20 years, including stops in Iqaluit, Halifax, Windsor and Kelowna. Contact Rebecca at rebecca.zandbergen@cbc.ca or follow @rebeccazandberg on Twitter.
