A tribute to Allen Fayad

Husband, father, grandfather and unmitigated professional. Reflecting on the passing of a real estate icon

By Marcus Plowright, partner, A Team London Real Estate Brokerage

REAL ESTATE IS a profession. In most cases it involves the largest and most significant transactions a family or business will experience. When you hire a “professional” to guide and assist you in the journey of buying or selling a property, you want to benefit from their experience and the measure of confidence they can provide based on their past. In this age of social media, reels, posts, drones and ChatGPT, we yearn for wisdom and the power of relationship.

On Valentine’s Day, this past Friday, we lost the real estate professional who was the definition of “old school” integrity, hard work and ethical leadership. Mr. Allen Fayad passed away suddenly. For those who had the pleasure of meeting him, you’ll always remember him. There are hundreds of realtors in this city who were guided by this experienced professional, and for 42 years he looked after families ― grandparents, parents, kids and grandkids.

The knowledge he gained over his career was invaluable. He learned from completing over 1,000 transactions on his own for the bulk of his career. He then expanded his impact by founding the A Team Real Estate Brokerage. He convinced me at age 50 to become licenced and work alongside him. I gained a mentor, friend and partner ― I won the Al Fayad lottery. In the last eight years together another dozen real estate professionals joined us in a unique structure, sharing every transaction and benefitting from Al’s guidance on every sale, to the benefit of our clients. We accelerated Al’s influence, and he has now touched over 3,000 transactions, ensuring ethical, compliant and professional service to our clients, other agents and to the industry at large.

Al was a force of nature.  He defined “live every day as if it were your last”.  He was the consummate host and organizer. He had a half dozen standing golf games at The Oaks Golf Club here and Innisbrook Golf Resort in Florida. His presence at London Squash will be missed ― mostly for his propensity to buy the beer. His office family have lost their guiding light and the man who always knew the answer to the difficult questions ― not the easy answer, or the self-serving answer, but the one that served our clients’ best interests at the expense of all else.

Al leaves behind his beautiful wife, three children and three grandchildren. He leaves his mother and two sisters. He leaves his beloved AMC Javelin he’s owned for some 45 years. He leaves partners, clients, peers, golf buddies, squash opponents, friends, acquaintances, waiters and waitresses ― everyone impacted by the tsunami of his energy. Significantly, he leaves a real estate industry in better shape because of his professionalism, his ethical guidance, his commitment to the work and his protection of the trade. He touched so many through example.

We take a moment to reflect on the passing of an icon. He showed us the way a life should be lived, and for that, we are all eternally grateful.