A single professional looking to buy her first home in either Mount Pleasant or Grandview, with a budget that doesn’t exceed $500,000.
It’s a scenario that was doable 15 years ago, though most would consider it implausible in the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»of 2025.
But as explains, getting in the trenches, asking the right questions and getting it done is what’s helped position her team among the top 10% of local realtors as part of the Medallion Club for more than a decade.
“We were able to find a motivated seller and get our client into a nice suite in a newer building in her price range – and in Vancouver, that doesn't happen every day,” Cleaver explains. “So that's my current happy feeling, when you feel like you actually won for someone. It’s fantastic.”
Cleaver is the founder of the Mary Cleaver Group, a holistic, all-female team devoted to all things Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»real estate. Hers is a team that prioritizes service, community, transparency and authenticity. They are certified expert negotiators, marketers, stagers and communicators with strong industry relationships and market knowledge in Vancouver.
Having been in the business since 2011, Cleaver has now consolidated that market know-how into her newly released book, . Cleaver’s first literary offering teaches readers what they can do to ensure a more productive, lucrative and seamless experience working with her team or other high quality service providers in the real estate space.
From the Four Ps of marketing, negotiation strategy, product preparation, showing techniques and comparative market analysis, readers learn what they can expect from the best in the real estate sector.
“We're like any other industry: some agents are amazing, some are less so, but if you know a little bit about it, you can find a talented professional and the right fit for you,” Cleaver explains. “You need someone skilled, someone you trust enough to participate fully in all those real estate conversations. Great two way communication and understanding will lead to better decisions and results.”
Cleaver was lucky to find that someone shortly after moving to Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»in the early 2000s. Along with two roommates, Cleaver hummed and hawed over a 735-square foot apartment that was affordable, with beautiful vaulted ceilings and in a prime location.
But what to do about a small footprint for three people?
“The only one I listened to was my realtor, Dale,” Cleaver recalls. “I asked him, ‘Well, what do you think?’ He was just really quiet and said, ‘You can't live in the ceilings, Mary,’ so I did not buy it. I look back at Dale and there's no other human on the planet who has done more for my family’s financial security, and my happy living situation than him.”
With those ideals that Dale instilled in her, Cleaver has made it a point to pay it forward by supporting important causes like food security in the downtown eastside, climate mitigation and sponsoring the performing and musical arts. Cleaver is the title sponsor behind an upcoming production of, which runs Sept. 5 to 20 at
“Our business thrives because we build our community. We help our clients choose their communities, so it just makes sense for us to think about the broader needs of the people we work with beyond just their four walls,” Cleaver says.
To learn more about Mary and the work being done at the Mary Cleaver Group, visit
