Pesa was a bulldog of a buyer. When sellers would laugh at his outrageously low offers, he would counter with a lower figure. He would dig up information on comparable, but less expensive, houses to buttress his point and learned as much about the pricing and movements in the market as the brokers showing homes knew.

An architect with a master's in business administration, Pesa developed a detailed spreadsheet of possible homes that charted costs and various financial scenarios. He and his wife researched communities, collecting test scores on the local schools and timing likely commuting routes.

The result, after almost three years of research and shopping, was a house in Halifax that they bought at the end of summer for $81,000 below the seller's original price.

One thing above all worked in Pesa's favor: discipline.