Marnie Bennett

Marnie Bennett is a real estate broker, in addition to serving as the team leader and marketing director of Bennett Property Shop Realty. For many years, she has been considered the “go-to gal” for condo and home developers who seek standout marketing strategies. In fact, she has the unofficial title of “Ottawa’s Condo Queen,” which speaks to the lofty reputation she has in Canadian realty and property circles.

Her reputation as a true marketing mastermind is well earned. With each new project she tackles, Marnie Bennett brings forth a multitude of stimulating and ever-evolving ideas. Additionally, her years of experience and her abundant successes allow her to bring together the high-placed connections needed to make her ideas come to life.

In addition to real estate and marketing, she has an abiding interest in politics. She has worked in many political campaigns, and has held positions of campaign chair, Vice President of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, and more. She also enjoys running, biking, hiking, reading, and mentoring young entrepreneurs.

Bennett is also a proud mother and grandmother, and delights in spending time with her loved ones. She was also voted one of the Business Women of the Year in 2008, is a supporter of several local hockey and soccer teams, and has been involved in strong philanthropic work on behalf of local boards and organizations supporting heart health and arthritis research. In addition to all of this, she continues to operate one of the most successful real estate brokerages in Ontario!

It is no exaggeration to say that Marnie Bennett is among the most influential and celebrated marketing minds in all of Ontario’s real estate community. Known as a true dynamo, and as the unofficial Condo Queen of the region, she has amassed a lengthy track record of success, and has also garnered many awards for her groundbreaking work. What truly sets her apart, however, is her passion for mentoring other professionals, and for helping them to achieve their own goals and objectives.

Marnie Bennett has many extraordinary accomplishments to her name. She has been widely recognized both locally and internationally. She has won more than 20 marketing awards for her innovative marketing strategies and creative advertising concepts within the housing industry. In 2008, she was named Ottawa’s Professional Businesswoman of the Year, and in 2010 she was named the #1 Broker Worldwide for Keller Williams Realty International—the first woman to ever earn this high distinction.

Bennett has worked in the real estate business for the vast majority of her professional career, in a variety of positions; she has been a licensed general insurance broker, a real estate broker, and more. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Law and Economics from Carleton University, and has served as a professor of business at Algonquin University, working in the marketing department.

Marnie Bennett has a reputation for innovation—a reputation that is nothing if not well earned. She has always been an out-of-the-box thinker, whether in her capacity as a marketer, a builder, a sales professional, or an investment guru.

One of her greatest claims to fame is the work she has done with the Kanata community. This community has long been of the most under-developed and underserved regions in Ottawa, but she was given a unique opportunity to make a difference there in the early 1990s—and she did just that.

As Executive Vice President of Woodlea Homes, she first began to work toward a new vision for this community. Back then, the now-upscale neighborhood of Kanata Lakes consisted of a single street, yet Bennett was struck by the beauty of the natural rock formations in the area, and thought it had wonderful potential to become a truly pristine neighborhood. Working alongside Genstar Developments, she was instrumental in designing the Kanata Lakes Village community, which is now home to more than 4,000 residents.

In 1994, Marnie Bennett was named Marketing and Sales Director for Kanata Lakes. She recruited each of the builders involved in the master-planned project, among them Domicile, Oak Leaf, Chello, Braebury, Cardel, Richcraft, Tartan and Maple Mountain. Organizing and leading all these builders was no easy feat, but her passion for the project kept her studying the market and “firing on all cylinders.”

Marnie has helped develop a number of other projects, as well, including several in the Kanata Lakes area, such as the Kanata Golf Course. She truly loves the area, and is happy that it plays such a prominent role in her own professional legacy. “It’s been wonderful to have helped this community reach its potential; and it’s so rewarding to help it continue to thrive,” Bennett says today. “I’m terrifically proud of what we’ve accomplished here. When someone tells me that they’re considering a move to Kanata, just try to get me to stop talking about its wonderful features! I love this place, and the people in it.”

Marnie Bennett is also noteworthy for her philanthropic works as well as her community involvement. Over the course of her career, she has given her time to serve on the board of directors for the Ottawa Congress Centre as marketing director; as director of the Ottawa Board of Trade; and as appointee to the mayor’s taskforce on affordable housing. In addition, she has played a major role in supporting local soccer and hockey teams.

Important though all these things are to her, what remains the most vital thing in Bennett’s life is her family; Marnie is passionate about nothing so much as she is her grandchildren and spending time with them!

Marnie Bennett has already accomplished much in her life; she is an award-winning businesswoman, a marketing dynamo, a successful real estate broker, a mother, a grandmother, and a notable philanthropist. What else could the future possibly hold in store for her? That’s impossible to say for sure, but she does have some goals.

Among other things, she hopes to just continue doing what she’s doing. She has an abiding passion for real estate, and as such, she hopes to pursue more real estate opportunities in Canada as well as the United State. She also hopes to continue building upon her passion for helping people however she can.

She also endeavors to spend more and more of her time mentoring others and providing educational services. She aspires to write books and to get involved in motivational speaking. She believes that she would be challenged by the work done by a motivator or coach, and that she could play a formative role in the lives of young professionals everywhere. Marnie Bennett derives much satisfaction from helping others, and wants to make this one of the central focuses of her life over the coming years.

Finally, Bennett does hope to spend more and more time with her family. “My family is gold to me,” she says, and she means it: there is nothing she loves more than spending time with her loved ones, and in particular her grandchildren. One of her hopes is that the entire family can travel together in the years to come, seeing and experiencing different parts of the world.