Nuanced. - 5. Brett Kentala: Real Estate Agent & Community Leader

Episode Date: July 15, 2020

Brett Kentala was born and raised in Chilliwack, BC. At age 20, he began his journey in real estate. Over the past 5 years, Mr. Kentala has been a realtor specializing in the Fraser Valley area. Mr. Kentala has an amazing fiance, named Sarah. He is a father of two beautiful children named Mattias and Mayleigh who are ages four and two. In this conversation you see how important decisions you make in your early 20s can be, and how determination can be the key to success!Mr. Kentala hopes to share information and educate people of all ages on the realities of the real estate market in the lower-mainland.Find them on Facebook or Instagram @thekentalateam or @brettkentala.Check out their website:https://www.discoverchilliwackliving.com/the-kentala-team-1K.Kentala Photography:https://www.kkentalaphotography.ca/Send us a textSupport the shownuancedmedia.ca

Hello, friends, and thank you for supporting the podcast. My guest today is incredibly well-spoken, determined, and has an entrepreneurial family. He works as a realtor for the Kintella team at Century 21, Creekside Realty. He has two wonderful children and a fiancé. He is such a positive person to listen to. A great role model. Please give it up for my guest, Brett Kintella. And we're live. Mr. Kintella, thank you for joining us.

I'm wondering if we could start with a brief summary of your background to give the viewers better idea of who you are. Yeah, for sure. So my name is Brett Kintella. I grew up in Chilowak my whole life. I grew up on Fairfield Island, if you guys know where that is. I had a really, really, really positive upbringing. Definitely shaped me to the man I am today.

a little bit about myself. I'm a realtor, a father of two kids, one two-year-old and one four-year-old. I got into real estate about five years ago, two years prior to that drywall experience, which definitely also shaped a bit of who I am today and my hard work ethic and stuff like that. And I'm a big advocate for Chilliwack. I mean, I love the place. Super happy that I'm fortunate enough to call this place my home and that I was being able to been raised here and that I still get to like work hard here and put people into homes in

Chiluac because I really believe in the place and you know I I'm really happy that people also have huge love for it. Well, that's great because you have two children so you're already a role model whether you like it or not. Exactly, exactly. Would you feel comfortable telling us a bit about them? Yeah, for sure. So my four-year-old Matthias is actually not my biological son. So when I met my now fiance, he was one years old when I met him. So I mean, he's only known me as dad and still to this day knows me as dad. And we will have that conversation down the road of, you know, who you're real that is, who's not a part of his life right now. But, you know, I've been there. I'm his dad. So, you know, that is kind of its own story alone to, you know, being a stepdad kind of thing.

Yeah, let's get into that. That sounds immensely interesting. Yeah. So in the beginning. So I guess I'll start pretty early with how I met Sarah, my fiancé. It's actually a funny story, kind of. So I was, I've been single for a long time, and I was looking for like a, you know, something more serious. And so I went, like every person does, and they're, you know,

teenage, 19, 20 years old, they go on Tinder. So downloaded the Tinder. Definitely didn't work out. Had a lot of bad dates and stuff like that. And then I got, um, if you're familiar with Tinder, I'm not saying you are, but if you get

super liked, that means that right away you get popped up on your phone that someone super liked you. So I was like, what the heck is this? And Sarah came up and then she DM'd me right away. And yeah, we, we, I like to just like meet them in person right away. I don't like to text you know, too much. Yeah. And so we met up at Cultus Lake. And I mean, I knew way prior that she had a son. So, and I was totally cool with that. My brother had a son. And so I was like Uncle Brett. So I loved little kids. Like, I always have really loved little kids. And like, yeah, I've just been. And then so funny, the funny part about that is that she told me at the end that Matias, her one-year-old son, super liked it. So he actually liked me on Tinder. So I like to say

that God set us up through Matthias, which is crazy. And then, yeah, I fell in love with her, fell in love with Matthias. And yeah, that's kind of the history there. That's so cool. he's super like he did yeah oh my gosh yeah she's like yeah she had his her phone and then she got her phone back and was like who the heck is this and then she messaged me and was like hey and i didn't know until like a couple months ago actually because we brought that story up and she told me that oh my gosh and so what was it like meeting matias for the first time it was very intimidating in a way because i wanted to be as like professional as possible and i knew that if i was getting myself involved with a woman, I needed, there was another party involved. There was

another human child. So it was like, I had to be sure that I wasn't wasting anyone's time. I wasn't going to come into this kid's life and then quickly exit. You know, so me and Sarah waited a little bit, like quite a while before I really met Matthias. And then at that point, we were fully dating and, you know, it was something that I saw future. And so did she. So we thought it'd be a good time. And then, yeah, ever since then, the kids been in love with me. And, you know, couple, it would have been like a year. So he was two. And then he started calling me dad. Yes. You know, all the other kids had dads. And he, I mean, being one years old, he doesn't have those memories. So he's only known me to always be there. And so, of course, to him, I was just dad.

So that's so cool. What was that transition like to go into the dad role? It was, it was weird, man. Like, it was no responsibilities to you're fully responsible for another human. And that to me was like, holy crow. Like, that's, it's going from one life to another life. And you learn a lot really quickly. You learn a lot of patience really quickly. I thought I was patient before. You're not patient until you have a kid.

That's for sure. Like, there's no doubt about it. Going forward, then, you know, two more years down the road, we had our daughter, Maley, there was this different type of love where Maly was born and I immediately loved her like she was my kid. Whereas when I met Matias, it was like Sarah loved him like a kid and I wasn't there yet because I didn't know him. So it's like being a stepdad is so challenging because you love them like they're your own kid, but you also have to work on that love like any other kind of relationship. Whereas when Maly was born, I didn't matter, I just loved her to death no matter what.

And I would die for her right then. And now, Matthias is the same way right now. Obviously, he is going to be forever because I'm his dad and, you know, I treat him just like my son, just like if he was my blood son. But initially, like in the beginning, you don't have that. You also don't know if the relationship is like 100%. You're getting there. Exactly, exactly. So you're getting there and you have all these challenges with a toddler. You just have to have all this patience. So being a stepdad is for sure challenging, but it's so rewarding too because now we're at such an amazing spot between son and father and we have such a strong bond that it's crazy to think that I'm not as biological father. But to me, I've raised him and I've taught him everything I know. and to me he is my biological son because he doesn't know different and I feel like he is so that's awesome yeah i went through a bit of that because my i don't know if you know this but my mom has she was a part of the 60 scoop okay so what that meant was she was in cocaleta hospital

here in chilaac and the nurse that was taking care of her ended up adopting her and she had two biological sons. Yeah. And one of them ended up being like an uncle part father figure. Yeah. Almost my whole life. Yeah. And I always looked at him as a father. And we've always had that relationship. But it's, it's so unique because you know that they're choosing it. And there is part of that choice there, which is also somewhat fulfilling in the sense of, you know, they're not just another person. Like when you have your parents, you know they're going to be there. Yeah. Or it's a bit different when you know somebody's choosing to be there. Exactly. So moving from there you have a daughter. Yeah. Great names, by the way. Maley and Matias, thank you. Yes,

very good names. Did the relationship with Matthias change at all? Because it seems like it might have gotten a bit stronger through learning more about the beginning phases of. For sure. So, because I wasn't really there for him when he was one years old, I missed that time. So even in the beginning, I was like that nervous dad about everything. And like, I wouldn't let Maley like go anywhere. I wouldn't let many people hold her and stuff. Like, I was, like, pretty paranoid and stuff. But, um, I don't, it definitely taught me a lot. Like I said, the patience, like, it taught me a lot about patience.

And, um, yeah, definitely pulled us closer together. I'm very family oriented. We do everything together. Matias is the funniest, most charismatic personality. Like, I don't even know who he learned that from, but the kid is like, kind of sounds like you learned it from me, me, me, maybe. I don't even know. But yeah, yeah, we have a great relationship now since Maley was born.

It was tough at the beginning. I mean, when you do have two children and the first born loses the attention, they get a little bit like they act out. So there was some acting out for like a couple months, maybe even a year after Maly was born. Just, yeah, she got all the attention. Like even when we go to family events, like all the eyes would be on the babies. So I think as a toddler, when you're used to being given everything and given all the attention, and then it's even lessened a little bit, it definitely affects them. So for him, he grew a lot independently.

Like now my son, Matthias, is so independent. Like, he's so good at playing with himself and, like, he can pour himself drinks. And, like, he does these things that I'm like, what four-year-old would even want to do that and do that stuff? He's a little, little independent human. It's crazy. Just taking on more and more responsibility. Yeah. That's awesome.

Yeah, it's awesome. And so the family part is really interesting because your family, they just seem to be very entrepreneurial. You're all involved in something and you've all got your own gigs working hard at them. What is that like? Yeah, so the entrepreneurial part in my family has been like that since I can even, like, since I was born. So when I was born, my mom used to own a company, a business, I should say, called

Friend of a Friend. It would have been in the early 90s. It was a business where you would go to her and she would interview you, and then she would interview 50 other people. And then she would take those folders and match people together, like a dating service. And there's people today who come up to her. And they're like, oh my God, Tracy, we've been happily married for 25 years and you set us up. and it's crazy.

And that's kind of where it started with the entrepreneurial thing. Like she started that whole company by herself. And then she ran it for about five years, got out. And then she got into the car industry, hence the sales. So I learned from a young age about salesmanship,

hospitality. And then my grandpa owned a video store when I was a young kid. And then so really, if I want to get down to it, it's my mom's, father, my grandpa, who was the entrepreneur, he started, I think it was three video, uh, video stores back in the day, video stations when they were big, not like Netflix today, which was like

killed them all. Yeah. But, um, and then he started a, um, a nice little, I don't know what it would be like a, a, not a, I don't know what it would explain. It's like a hobby store. It was called McKenzie Lane and it was on Vetter and it was in the mall there. And my grandpa actually used to own that mall on Vedder, the one by McDonald's and now E&W. So there's that whole strip mall. Yes. So he had his McKenzie Lane in there. Okay. Yeah. And then he ended up opening another one in Agassi. And then now he's working at a car dealership as a salesman. But in essence, we have a long line of entrepreneurs in the family and sales. And so yeah, that's where it all comes from, really. Because you had that back in the Dairy Queen days, you were always very friendly. I don't think anyone could

ever say anything bad about you without bursting into flames other than maybe brian from my not so great work habits but nobody was focused on that who's an employee yeah no exactly it was very clean brings me back a lot of good memories i made a lot of good relationships there that gave me a big backbone and confidence i think that i needed to talk with random people like when people come in to order food, you know, you actually get to know them, you know, you, you learn what they like, like, and then you also are just friendly with them. And, you know, that gives you the confidence to be able to speak, you know, sternly and strong and have all that that you need. Yeah, that's so true. And then at 20, you go into real estate. Yeah. What was, what was that like? It was

crazy. It was really crazy. I was at this point in my life that I was like, okay, Brett, what are you gonna do like you know you're two years out of high school i was drywalling i was making really really good money but it was at that point where i was kind of starting to get trapped and i was like okay if i move out and i stay drywalling making this good money you know i'm probably never going to stop i'm never going to leave yeah the guys i drywalled with you know i was always really personable super talkative i was like making my way up the ranks in my drywall company you know getting to that point where I was going to be a foreman and kind of be in charge of a couple other people. I thought, do I really want to be, you know, doing this for the rest of my life, hurting my back?

Like, I was putting up 10 foot sheets. I don't know if you know what drywall, half inch, super heavy stuff above your head and, you know, drilling. It is so hard on the body. I was 19 years old and I could like barely sleep because my back was so messed up. And I was like, okay, this is not good. Like, I'm taking a lot of, you know, Advil every day. And it's like, man, this is not, I got to work smarter, not harder. So I was like, what can I do?

So I asked my mom what she thought I could do. And she's like, well, you could get into car sales, you'll work at the bank. Or you could start selling real estate. And I was like, real estate. I didn't really thought about it. So I went to Sutton because my mom used to sell cars for the Mathisans. And the Mathisans owned Sutton. So I went there.

I was like, hey, I'm Breckintella. I'd love to maybe think about selling real estate, and I sat down with him for maybe a half hour, and he was like, yeah, you've got to sell real estate. He was like, I can tell you're going to do really good, go get your license, and then we'll go from there. So right away, got my license. From when I started, it was six months, I think, and then I was fully licensed. Took my test, passed at the first try.

At that time, you needed 65% to pass, and now you need 70. And you also need, like, a English, I think, university degree, or you need to take your English 101 or something. Okay. If you didn't take English 12, which I did, so it was all good. I got 66 on my exam, so passed by 1%. Just perfect, eh? Just studied the right amount, I like to say. And then, yeah, the rest is history, man.

Right away, I started hitting the pavement, like, listed my first property with a buddy, went with another buddy, bought a house on Coltis Lake. So right away, I started getting business from my core sphere of influence. So when you're starting, it's called using your sphere of influence, which is like the main people in your life. Kind of like your family, your really close friends. And then you're supposed to stem out to them and say, hey, I'm getting into real estate. Do you guys know anybody? Do you guys have any friends in your sphere of influence who are looking to buy or sell?

And that's kind of how you get started. How I got started was I just hustled my ass off. Like, there was not a day that I wasn't on the pavement, handing out flyers or knocking on doors. I mean, back then, it wasn't COVID, so that was really, like, promoted. Yeah. I would do anything, man. Like, I went into listing presentations, and I'd be, like, I will mow your lawn. I will do your, trim your hedges.

Like, I'll pull all your weeds. I will clean your house. Like, back then, I was going up against the serotopes, the Russ Baileys of, you know. The establishment. The established, the huge players in real estate. And when you're going up against them and you're a 19, 20 year old kid who has never even bought in a house himself and you're trying to gain the trust of someone on their biggest investment of their life, you know, it's not easy. It's definitely not easy. So what I would say to you or to anyone who is wanting to get into real estate might think I'm too young, you know, I can't go up against those big players.

I would say, just tell them how hard you're going to work. That's what I did. I was like, listen, I know those people are great realtors and they sell a lot of stuff, but they got a lot of clients, okay? You're all I got. Like, you're it. So I'm putting 100% of my effort into you. And, like, that's what I can guarantee them.

Like, that's why I was taking my dad's lawn equipment and mowing people's lawns, because that's the only way I was getting business was basically just saying, I'm going to work my ass off. You're going to see me work my ass off. And I'm going to get your place sold. And that's what I did. Well, that's like round two or three now of you being able to look forward. And with Matthias, you knew that you needed to do this properly and have a certain approach long term if you wanted it to work. Then you move into real estate. You knew that you needed to have a certain approach in order to succeed. And you're willing to do the grinding work. Think outside the box and consider how can I make this sale more interesting to the person. How can I? And thinking of the lawn mowing, the bringing a bottle of water, that's so rare now. Yeah. If you think about how often we tip people and they don't do anything. And we have a different relationship with work ethic now. So it's really cool to hear that you're willing to do those things and put in that grind. And it was probably nice moving away from hard labor to mowing a lawn and saying that that was the hard work. And that and they probably appreciated it

so much. And you're like, well, this is easier than drywalling. It was funny because back at my real estate brokerage, all the realtors would laugh at me and say, you're crazy. I would never do that. Like, they would say all this stuff. And I'd be like, you know what? From where I'm coming from, this is easy. Like, you guys are barely working for your business.

And I'm working my ass off here. So to me, I never thought of it as like something funny. I thought of it as like, you guys keep doing your thing. And you just wait. You just wait. Because one day, you know, I'm going to be sitting in a position where, like, now, where I don't have to do those things to get the business, but I still do those things. I still do those things just because I can and because that's how I keep the business.

So I might not necessarily go and do a bunch of weed whacking like I did, you know, back five years ago when I was just getting started. But we do a lot of stuff for our clients. We will pay to have their house staged. I've dealt with a lot of people with like borderline hoarding issues, okay? And when you're trying to sell a hoarder's house and they've been. got stuff everywhere, like a medical condition, you know, you got to know how to handle that because you got to think they need to move. There's no question. They need to get into

downsizing. They got to get rid of their stairs. Their hips are bad. They're old. And they are not capable of cleaning their house up enough to get it to the point where someone's going to buy it. So that's where I come in and I'm like, I need to facilitate this transaction. I need to get them from where they need to, from where they are, for where they need to go. They need to get into an old age home, whatever, whatever the case may be. So many different circumstances when I'm dealing with the public, obviously, there's tons of different circumstances. But my job is now to, I get a company, I come in, that comes in, they completely clean

the house, they put all their stuff into like a metal container, obviously with the permission of the seller, because I'm, you know, people, some people are like, no, keep it the way it is, it'll sell. It'll sell like that. It doesn't ever sell. But I help them get there. And a lot of a lot of the time, they don't know how to do it. They don't have the resources. They don't have the contacts, which I have, which is at the end of the day, I just need to get them from where they are in a not great position to where they need to be. And I do that as smoothly and as stress-free as possible. That's really cool because one of the things I've seen a lot is new advertisements of do you need a realtor, those kind of, and obviously the commercials I think are

advertising that you do need a realtor, but that's a real service. You're providing someone with assistance in getting through the process that might not otherwise be able to. And that's so important for people to be able to lean on someone else who can see the bigger picture than the relationship they have with their home, the relationship they have with their items, and get it to a place where it's a win-win for them. And you're willing to, do the dirty work of making sure that all of those little details are taking care of. Yeah, 100%. It is strange how people have this innate connection to their belongings, certain people.

So you'll come across the type of person who they really want to move, okay, but they can't let go of their things and they can't let go of the house and the memories. So, you know, being a realtor is so much more than putting a sign in the ground and saying, come buy this house like there's so much more to it when you're dealing with people because the real job is answering those phone calls when when the seller goes red i don't want to sell my house anymore like i know we haven't accepted offer and i i have so many memories here that's where the mediation needs to come in and as as a realtor now i put on like my mediator hat kind of thing and i'm just like have to explain to them okay

why did you want to sell in the first place? Well, because the stairs are killing me, blah, blah, they'll give me the reason why they called me in the first place. And I need to hammer into them that that's why. I know you have all these memories, so-and-so, but we're going to make amazing memories where we're going to go. So you really need to give them empathy. You really need to, like, understand.

Real estate is all about understanding your client. And they're going through it. They're saying goodbye to the last 50 years that they've, you know, experienced in that home. And that is like a deep connection that we can't even understand. So you have to deal with them so delicately and just be like, I understand. You know, you just have to tell them you understand and that, you know, this is what's best for you. You know, you can't do the stairs anymore. You know, you're going to need a hip surgery in a year.

You got to get into a nice rancher. so you got to hammer home what's most important to them and then you also have to reassure them that what they're doing is the right move because they're always second guessing every step they do so it's my job to say listen you're making the right move you're getting an amazing dollar for your house you're buying at a good time and you're going to make amazing memories and you know it's okay you just have to be understanding that's awesome because you obviously have that experience of going through those difficult moments, as we've already talked about, you've made the big decision from going from construction to real estate. You've made the steps of

developing a relationship and becoming a stepdad. Or a dad is, I think, is more aptly put. Yeah. But you've gone through those moments and you've made those memories and you've made the tough decisions of saying, I'm going to take on a lot of responsibility here and this is how I'm going to approach it. So you're a trusted, you're authentic in the fact that you deal with these things in your personal life as well. Yeah. And that's so important for people to feel that connection and feel heard and not, no, it's fine. Like, just we're selling your house.

It's all, it's already done. There's nothing you can do now. Yeah, there's so many realtors. And I say this because I've personally heard so many horror stories. You know, I've met people who won't shake my hand because they hate realtors. I'm not even kidding. I've gone door to door. People shut the door in my face because they've had such bad experiences with people who genuinely,

who genuinely don't care about them, but they care about the transaction and the money in between. And when you're dealing with realtors like that, that's what gives us the bad rap, bad name. Because at the end of the day, trust is the number one important thing. I don't care what anyone says about real estate. If your clients can't trust you,

there's no point of going forward because your clients need to 100% give all their trust into you that you know what you're doing and that you're going to make the right decision for them on their behalf. Yeah, because they're basically putting a lot of different things in your hand, 25-year relationship with their house, all those memories made, money's involved. There's so many different aspects of the transaction that's so deeply personal to people that the least you could do is offer some empathy when they're right at the end and petrified

of actually leaving the house and putting the keys down and walking out the door. 100%. Yeah, that's so important. Moving forward, you've developed a really good relationship with a lot of your clients, and obviously with your family, what is that like to be able to operate in a world where everything's a bit more solid? Because there's a lot of people out there who don't have great relationships with their family. A lot of people who don't have reliable friends. That's usually what you see on social media is these complaints of nobody's really real.

But it does sound like you're authentic. You've always been authentic to me. What is that like to be able to rely on people to have people have your back in those moments? I mean, it's really everything. I mean, I would not be where I am today without the people around. me. You got to surround yourself with like-minded people, people that you can put your trust in. My mom and dad, the way they raised me with the amount of love that they gave me, I mean, that definitely made me who I am today and how I can give love and empathy towards other people. My sphere of influence has definitely shaped the man I am. So I would say that having such a solid foundation of friends and family is so pivotal pivotal in my life. And I think that

in everyone's life, like anyone who is alone all the time and has those complaints on social media, it is hard to tell them, hey, go out there and go find those people because they're going to be like, well, where do I start? Where do I find? Where are these people hanging out? Are they at the bar? Where are these people? These awesome like-minded people. And to them, I don't have the answer for you. I don't know, you know, you have to just kind of navigate through life and find these people. I was blessed. I'm privileged. I mean, I, that is the way I am. That is why I am the way I am. My privilege, I like to see someone who's maybe not as privileged as me and doesn't have these connections I have. I want to give them a connection with me so that they

actually can feel what it's like ever since i can remember like i've been the kind of guy that if i see if i saw a kid on the playground playing by himself and he looked lonely or something like i would go up to him include him in uh grade six it was the awards night i was like i'm getting the athletic award i know it i mean i was winning all the races i was out and and then it came up the athletic award and it went to mitchell weirks and cassius claiborne colin's and i was like what what is this and then the next award was the citizenship award and I didn't even I didn't even know what that award was and it was this massive trophy and it went to me and I was like what the heck a citizen and then they started explaining to the whole assembly what being a good citizen is and ever since that it really made a mark on me I was already the way I was but it opened my eyes to being like not everyone is like this not everyone sees an issue and needs to solve it or see someone who is maybe not happy, but I'm happy and I want them to feel the way I feel.

So, yeah, ever since I remember, I would even play with some of the kids after school that they were waiting for their parents or something like that. And I would play with them because I lived pretty close to the school until their parents came for them. Like, I would just do random stuff like that because I don't know why.

I can't explain it. That's so awesome. Because you know the saying, it matters how you play the game, but it doesn't matter if you win. Yeah. People say that all the time. And I think we've lost connection to what that means. But to me, it means that it's way more important to build a relationship, to play fair, to build other people up while you're playing. And if you can win, that's a bonus.

But you're facilitating relationships, even when you're playing soccer or doing races or anything like that, you can either knock everyone else down when you win or you can build everyone up when you're playing. Yeah. And that's what I think we should mean when we can. say it doesn't matter if you win or lose it matters how you play the game for sure because it facilitates now you're in real estate and now you're building relationships with the higher ups and working and competing with the establishment and it's because you're able to play those games and want the best for people and it's hard to lose it's hard to have a bad brand when that's the cornerstone of it what is that like in terms of real estate like what is the brand that you are

trying to put out the the message you're trying to send out to people if they're trying to think of those things. Yeah, the end of the day, the brand I'm trying to get out there is, is family. Like, I want to make my clients feel like family. I want to make them feel like they've got their best interests at heart, and they do. So when we go to a listing presentation, it's not just about what we do. I mean, I can talk about what we do for hours. I mean, to me, that's not really the important part. We dig into, why are you selling your house? Like, what is driving you to give us a call. Why are you interviewing five other realtors?

Like, that's great that you are. I'm glad you're interviewing other realtors because then it's going to be better for you and who's going to be your best fit. I always recommend to other people. Am I the only guy you're interviewing? You should interview some other people. Just because even though I'm a great realtor,

we might not be the best fit. And I think it's in your best interest to seek that. And if I'm still the best guy for you, give me a call back. At the end of the day, the empathy that I show towards people and how I can put myself in their shoes quite easily, I think that's what really separates me maybe from other realtors, is that I genuinely care, and that's why I ask those important questions, like, why are you moving, where are you going?

Because at the stem of the reasoning is why they've called me, you know. And if you can't get down to that, and then you just are selling yourself on how I'm going to sell your house, that's great and all. But then what are you going to do with me? You sold my house and where are you going to put me? Am I going to be homeless? Like a lot of the time people focus so much on the actual sale itself. They don't focus on the person.

Okay, lady, what are you looking for? Okay, let's go find that in the world. And then once you love it, we'll write an offer on it. We'll list your place. We'll put in the subjects to protect you. So subjects, when you're writing an offer, I'll go a little bit about into the nitty gritties of it. so you make an offer and you've got subjects in there okay and you give yourself about two weeks

to fulfill those subjects so I want to buy your house for a hundred thousand bucks you agree to it and my subjects are I want to see the title search I want to see a property disclosure statement I want to do a home inspection I want to make sure I can insure the house yeah if it's a strata property I want to see all the strata documents so once I've fulfilled all those things and I want to make sure I can get a mortgage so once I do it all those things, then I remove the subjects because all good. If I can't get a mortgage, we don't remove the subjects and the deal dies after two weeks. Okay. So you put in subjects to protect your clients. And a lot of the time I hear these horrible stories where the realtors didn't even know

the situation of their client and they didn't put the proper subjects in to protect them. So they bought a house. Well, I couldn't get a mortgage. I can't get a mortgage. Well, what do you? you mean you couldn't get a mortgage well you didn't ask me what do you mean if i assumed so in real estate there is no assuming no if you assume like you know the same it goes in real estate yeah so you you got to ask every question and i go above that i'm like what are your hobbies what do you like what kind of beer do you like because after the deal i go out and i go get them whatever they like because that's important because then that's that sense of connection oh my god brett really listened you know i told him that i was really into golf and he got me a whole you know um golf day

like i i bought him um like a round of golf stuff like that i even ask when's your kids birthdays stuff like that because when their kids have a birthday i send a card and a little gift like something a beanie baby like stuff like that it goes so far because now even the kids remember me when i go see old clients the kids are like brett the real it'ser but like that's the important stuff to me like those connections human to human like the real estate is fun i'm not i'm not gonna lie i'm a shark i like to win like when i'm in negotiating it's like you want me on your side because like i'll go to the end with you like but even more important than that part of it which is a that's a big part like being a strong realtor against

other realtors and trying to work your ass off for your clients to get them the most money possible or to save them the most money possible, there's a big part of that. But the more important part is the relationship between you and your client, that connection. Like that, that to me is the most important part in real estate. Yeah. Well, I'm in law and that happens a lot. A lot of lawyers love the arguing, debating, disagreeing. Yeah. But that is not the cornerstone of the job. It's how do you mediate? It's how do you listen? It's how do you bring two sides to get? It's way more about that. But the thing we remember, and I think the reason people have a bad taste of realtors, is because they see it move too much sometimes towards just about money and about values of housing

and not about the other side, which is this is memories, this is connection, this is family, this is saying goodbye to the family house, those type of things is just as much a part of the conversation. And it's pretty clear that you differentiate yourself by actually worrying about those things, where everybody else seems to be focused on the competition and trying to make the money but that is cool what is it like to negotiate what what mindset do you get into when you're there uh negotiating is a lot of fun i mean basically it's like going into war you're going into war because you want your clients to win you want them to feel like holy crap brat i can't believe you got us at this price like you know you told us you think you could do it and then you

did it like you really executed what you said you were going to do so when you go into negotiations so you know, your house is worth 500,000 and, you know, needs a lot of work. So we thought to offer you 450,000. It's a real lowball offer. Depending on the client, if it's a family and this is a starter home kind of thing, I always send a picture of my clients, okay, with a write-up. Okay, I like to make it personal because in today's day and age, when you're going up in multiple offers, because right now we're in a seller's market. So there's a lot of buyers out there. And, And sometimes you get multiple offer situations, meaning you've got about more than one person wanting to buy a house.

And I've been in loads of these situations, multiple offers, okay? So I'm presenting my offer with a picture of my family or write up about them, how they fell in love with your house. Mind you, I've kind of given you two scenarios here. I've given you a lowball offer and multiple offers. If you're in multiple offers, you give your best offer forward because you're going up against competition you want to make if you love the house you put your best foot forward you're either asking price or over or obviously if it's a hunk of junk i mean you just do whatever

the max you're willing to pay for it because there's no countering after that in multiple offer situation one offer gets it kind of thing usually but yeah i mean going into negotiation man it's like you know first i talk to you as my client what do you want to do okay you want to you going, you want to go on at 450,000, okay? So then I call the other realtor, hey, here's my offer. I email them, the picture, I do the write-up, and then I call them, okay? Because you got to get on the phone with the realtor because an email says a story, but then you got to give context to your email. And a lot of realtors don't do that. A lot of realtors just send their offer, okay, and they don't give a shit. You got to call the realtor. You got to be like,

here are my buyers. They, they've got two kids. They've got, you got, you got, you got, to give them pertinent information that you got to think a seller would want to hear. I don't really care if that realtor gives two craps about my clients, but I want his seller to know that my buyers are a family, they fell in love with your house because it all comes down to people and connections and memories, okay? So now those sellers are going to say, we bought this house 20 years ago as a young family. We had all these memories. I want that other buyer to experience what I felt, you know,

know like that's what it comes down to a good offer okay that that in my opinion is a good offer not just the price not just the deposit all that stuff's important but giving context as who your buyers are like that's going the extra mile and and that's at the end of the day which separates the good realtors from the great realtors is like someone who can not just sell an offer but sell the family behind the offer because because at the end of the day the sellers they want that they want to sell their house and even more they want to sell it to someone who's going to enjoy it like that that's the goal well and make those memories as well and be able to pass that on to somebody else and if it's a little bit lower but you're giving it to somebody who's actually

going to utilize the space and enjoy it you're going to lean towards giving it to that person instead i'm telling you right now i've got offers accepted five thousand dollars less than another offer because they saw more potential in the enjoyment for my buyers because of those stories that cent yeah it's crazy man because then you have these ecstatic buyers who are like are you kidding me we got it and there was an offer five thousand dollars more than ours yeah there was but you know what your story and your family and what you guys want to do with the place that's what got the house and you know what a lot of the time it is just money you know you kind of you got to know who you're dealing with so that's why i call the realtor tell me about your sellers what are they interested in what

are they motivated by? Why are they selling? If I know that, now I can put my buyers in a better position on their end with how we're going to do this offer. You know, what strings are we going to pull? Are we going to pull that we're a first time home buyer family? Or are we going to pull that where we don't need a mortgage? We're cash. We're only cash and we've got $50,000 down. Like, what is more important for your seller? And knowing that information and getting that and giving it to my buyers, that's everything. What do you do after you celebrate one of these wins? because it sounds like they happen often. You know what?

What we do is I call my clients. Of course, I give them the big congrats because they're over the moon. They just bought a house. Or they're over the moon. They just sold the house and they got five offers and they got them over what they wanted.

So like I said, beforehand, when I meet them for the first time, this is when I ask them what their hobbies are, what do you like to do? What do you drink? This kind of thing. So then I'll go buy them a gift. So upon completion, so when they exchange keys, either they give me keys to give to the new buyers

or I'm giving keys for their new home, I give them a housewarming gift or a departing gift, and yeah, I always like to either go out for lunch or coffee with them, catch up with them after everything, afterwards, see how they're doing, how you like in your new place, so on and so forth. And yeah, that part of it's just as important, the follow-up. Because not only is it that I want to gain their business in the future, it's really important because that relationship, you need to, like, keep up with it. Because you are going to be the realtor that they're going to call

because you've done all these positive things for them and you've really cared about them and you've checked up on them and you've sent them birthday cards and their kids' birthday cards. and, you know, like, I'm always around. Like, after I do business with you, I'm going to be around. You know, if you've got a random question, hey, and you call me, I answer the phone every time. I don't never, I always answer my phone. And if I don't, it's because I'm with clients, you know.

So, yeah, I've made some really great friendships from my business, which I still have to this day. I've had friends from my prior life who now are in my business life, who I'm now selling houses to. I mean, Josh Hay is a mutual friend of ours. I've sold him a house. Yeah, like, cool stuff like that. That is really cool. One of the things that I thought was so interesting about real estate is your face is everywhere. And that's a really unique thing because that doesn't happen very often unless somebody's

running in politics and then those are usually getting destroyed. Yeah. So it puts you in a great position to be one of the voices for Chilliwack because there's not very many people who get to do that who have the funds to be able to advertise themselves in that way. I know Saratoupe has done some things with housing and trying to help the community. What do you see moving forward as some of those things you'd like to do within your ability to put yourself out there and communicate with a large audience immediately? Not even this podcast can get the type of coverage you can get by having your information out there. For sure.

So I've been in real estate for five years and it's always like eating at me. What can I do more? Like what more can I do for the community as a whole, not just for my clients. I mean, I do a lot for my clients. Since COVID, I've gone grocery shopping for some of my elder clients. I've bought flowers and just dropped it off at people's houses. Just because we're in such a doom and gloom time that I just need to bring some happiness to them, to their lives. Now, I don't know what I can do as a whole community, but I definitely want to be more part of it.

I definitely want to start a group or start some kind of an organization or a charity that can go towards the community directly. Yeah, I definitely want to be donating to the people who are helping me get to where I am today. You know, like I want to support the community. I want to make it so that all the low and mid-income housing, you know, they're able to actually enter the market eventually. Like, I want to get there. I want to bring more awareness to what it means to own a home, what it means to, have the right steps to save to put a down payment on their first home like i want to get the knowledge out there when i went through high school i didn't know anything about real estate i didn't know

anything about buying house i didn't know anything about taxes i didn't know anything like when i moved out and bought my first townhouse like that is literally i i learned by error like you make a mistake and you learn from it well i want to be able to like provide education to high schoolers like that is the time where you need to start thinking about saving up for a down payment on a house like those moments that we are so we're being told that you know you've got all this time don't worry about it well times have changed times have changed like the market has changed so much like your parents bought a house for a hundred grand okay and i know it has gone i mean the dollar obviously has gone up in inflation but at the same time that home for a hundred thousand

is now worth $600,000. And I don't care how much inflation has gone up. That's not realistic for anyone as a first-time home buyer. So I feel like in a big way, our generation is kind of screwed out of the market. Like, in essence, and I want to change that. And I can't change that from the market point of view. I can't change the way houses are so expensive. I can't change that.

But I can change the education in what goes into our... our young minds onto what they need to focus on going forward. You know, I'd love to have a course in high school about if you want to be a realtor, if you want to buy a house, if you want to think about investment properties. You know, like, I just know that as a young man, I never was given any of that knowledge until I went out and sought, like, sought it. Like, I went out and got that information for myself. Like, no one's giving it to you.

Yeah. And that's a huge one that always comes to mind for me for people. I have issues with minimum wage, not because I don't think people should make money. But it has removed and kind of stolen something from young people of the feeling it is to walk into a room, sit down with your superior, and say to them, I have been working extra hard. I've been doing those extra things. I've been trying to garden the dairy queen lot. I've been trying to build these positive things. Could we discuss giving me a race?

And that does something for the person as well when the other person is on the other side, saying, you know what, you have been going the extra mile. You have been trying really hard. And I see that and you've brought in more revenue because of that. So yes, we can absolutely talk about a raise with removing that and people giving automatic quarterly raises and that conversation not happening, that person, doesn't have the same encouragement to say, I'm going to go the extra mile. I'm going to try and do this thing and nobody else is doing that, but I'm willing to try. And that's exactly what you

did when you were starting in real estate is you said, how do I differentiate myself? How do I make the money? And you find these things by asking yourself, what can I do more? And I 100% agree. We have not educated people on how to invest in the stock market, how to communicate with an employer, how to buy a house, these major milestones in people's life. So let's take this opportunity to talk about it and try and get some of the viewers educated on what a young person should know about going into the real estate market trying to buy a house. 100%. So firstly, I would say that if you're a young person and you want to get into the market in the next five years,

your first step is probably to find a mortgage broker, okay? And a good one. Someone who, like myself, has your best interests at heart. You can go to a bank, but the problem with going to a bank is they need to fit within the box, okay? When you go to a mortgage broker, they can work outside the box. They can get you a mortgage, even if your credit's not great. Like, a lot of people hit walls and they go, I can't buy a house, I have such bad credit. or I've got I got like barely any money down when in reality if you were to connect yourself

with someone with your best interests at heart like a good mortgage broker they they you send them everything you send them all your financials all your pay stubs all your credit everything that they ask and then they now start making steps okay johnny we're going to pay that car off in the next year and after that we're going to pay your credit card off And after that, we're going to do this. They help you nail down the steps that you need to do that you don't know you need to do. A lot of people don't know how to build good credit. A lot of people don't know how to save money.

And everyone can do it. Everyone can do it. If you're paying rent right now, you can save to buy a house. You can. You just got to know the right steps to get there. And so putting yourself in the position where someone can educate you on that, like a mortgage broker, That's what you need. That's your first step.

Second step is to get a realtor like myself who now has a relationship with your mortgage broker. You tell them who your mortgage broker is. I call them. Okay? Tell me the situation. What are we looking at? For number wise. How's Johnny looking?

Well, you know, in about five months' time, I think he'll be good to go for about $250,000. Great. So then I talk to Johnny. Okay, Johnny, you're pretty much good for $250,000. what do you think what do you think you you know location where would you want to be you know that's important you know where in chila chila it's a big place 250,000 dollars well that's probably not going to yield you a place in sardis because that's on the higher end of the price but there's a lot of places in downtown there's a lot of places you know um there you know

yeah agacy there's a lot of places like once you get into the market now you're building equity so instead of paying rent don't get me wrong there's nothing wrong with paying rent like you there's a lot of reasons why people rent like there's a lot of good reasons why people rent and and and sometimes the circumstances where I say I think you should keep renting until you're at a position where you can buy in where you're happy I never forced people to enter into the market well I don't I don't want to buy downtown on that street and that not so good location that's fine you don't have to have to you know um keep renting wait until you know a year down the road you've got a little bit

more down to put down and oh now you're in the townhouse market well now that broadens our horizons of what we can look for so definitely i would say your first step is to hook up with a mortgage broker you're who's got your interest at you know top um and there's a lot of good mortgage brokers out there i'll shout out a couple um scott lily let's let's let's let's let's got a couple of, let me, let me get a couple here so I can give them some shout out. Yeah, that's so incredibly important to be able to find the correct people to be working with, where you can actually rely on the information they're giving you. And again, with real estate brokers and with realtors, you need a relationship.

You need to have confidence in who you're talking to. And you want somebody who you're working with who's actually passionate about the work they're doing. And you obviously are. Mm-hmm. Another couple good ones, Lisa Klee, Nathan Jansen. The guys who I work with on a daily basis, like Scott Lilly is right down the office for me. So when we're working with a client together, I can just go right up to him and say, hey, how are we looking on this file? Are we ready to remove subjects? Like, I have very close relationships with certain mortgage brokers, and that goes a long ways when I'm dealing with you, the client, who is a relationship with both of us, and we all have. the same goal, which is to get you where you want to go and hit your goals. Yeah, exactly. Because when you're going in there, you're not just paying for Brett Contella. You're paying for your resources.

You're paying for your connections and your recommendations because somebody doesn't have to take Scott Lilly, but it certainly will help smooth the process. And if you're saying this person is similar to my mindset, it's like, perfect. I want that mindset to be working with me. And more minds like that, the better. For sure. Yeah. 100%.

Let's get into, I know some of our viewers aren't from Chilliwack, but let's just describe some of the landscape of the different areas of Chilliwack and what you're kind of expecting or what you're describing if you say something like Ryder Lake, which is very, very rural. I don't think it has cell reception very often. What is that person like in, what is the landscape like in your mind? Okay. Chilwaukee, like I said, is massive. So I'll go a bit over of like the jurisdictions of like little. inner municipalities within Chiluowac. So you've got like Rosedale, Chiloac, Sardis. I would even throw Yarrow in there, Agassie Harrison.

Yeah, Rider Lake, promontory. Rider Lake is definitely more of the rule. Like, I see Rider Lake as the next promontory. Like, I see that there's a lot of land that is not being developed over there. So I see a lot of services getting put up there in the next 10 years. and I see it being the next promontory. There's going to be stores, all that kind of stuff. I would imagine going there.

The next one to really boom, I would say, is between Yarrow and Rosedale. Yarrow right now is like the weirdest, hottest market ever, okay? A listing, like, for example, two weeks ago, I had a buyer, wanted to write on this $1.2 million property. It got 12 offers. They got 12 offers when they, we're presenting offers. So that's 12 individual parties trying to buy a $1.2 million parcel in Yarrow.

So to give you a bigger idea there, that is so much interest into one parcel of land that high in money. Like that's a lot of high-end buyers that are just ready to pull the trigger. So if you're living in Yarrow right now and you've got an acre, get it on the market because there's a lot of buyers out there right now looking for that land. But yeah, I mean, I love Chilliwack. I love how there's so diverse areas, how you can drive for six minutes and you're in a rural area. You drive six more minutes and you're downtown.

Like, it's so broad and it offers so much. There's so much to do. Anyone who talks shit on Chilowack and says, like, literally, like, that is my biggest pet peeve. When people talk shit about Chilowak, like, it makes me so frustrated because there's so much to do in Chilowak. there's so many amazing people there's there's so many groups there's so many activities like chiluac has to offer everything and for anyone to like talk crap about it it's like okay well obviously you're not living your life the way that you want to be living it because if you were you wouldn't have these complaints because chilac offers everything yeah so if you want to go live

in the city you want to pay higher taxes if you want to do those things that's fine it's right there it's about a 30 minute drive up up the highway so you know there's a place for them too which is which is super true because they it is like not very far to get into an area that's completely different than ours and rebecca and i do those trips all the time we go into yarrow we check at majuba hill marble hill there's so many different communities all throughout chiluac that are so diverse because just to give people an idea rider lake is a community where if you drive through it you're not driving fast you're driving you're driving like 40 kilometers an hour and the person walking down the road with their dog is absolutely

100% going to wave at you and if you had your windows down probably wish you to have a good day yeah which is a completely different environment in which I grew up in which is downtown chilaac where it has always been pretty rough and if somebody's saying hey to you it could be to start a fight or or cause those type of disturbances and I'm not saying that that's everyone in downtown I'm just saying that there is way more of a risk of that in downtown than there is up in Yarrow or Ryder Lake and in those types of communities, what are you seeing as some of the trends in terms of overall purchases in a community like Chiluac, which is so diverse with very populated downtown to communities like Ryder Lake,

are you seeing more interest in rural or a bigger boom in the city life? I would say where the bigger boom is most definitely would be the city life. I mean, first-time home buyers right now, what they can. can't afford and you know what they're looking for is like a townhouse that's like your basic first-time homebuyers request is kind of like i'm looking for either townhouse or like a you know good-sized condo preferably and sardis garrison you know like those areas are bar none the most sought out for like rivers edge the garrison crossing webster all those place on peach road like that whole vicinity of sardis is probably the most expensive

and most sought out for real estate in Chiluac but I would say that the Rosedales and the Rider Lakes and the Yarrowes like they're the diamond in the rough like they're the properties that

they're going to be going up in value I think more significantly over the next two decades decade. I feel as we get more density as the old homes are being torn down and the townhouse complexes are popping up

the higher the density um yeah i mean i think there's always going to be big lots and stuff like that in rosdale and yarrow you know it's not going to be like houses everywhere forever so i think that you buy a big lot in rosdale now there's going to be so there's going to be such less inventory in the future for big lots that that's going to be in a con like a hot commodity at the time so i think that for future bigger lots um yeah they're going to be rare They're not really going to be the norm. Like when we grew up, you know, Fairfield Island area, yeah, big lots, big houses. Big backyards.

Big backyards. Yeah. You know, now we're seeing every street, at least, you go down. There's been a house torn down and there's been two side-by-side houses gone up. Everyone's seen it. Yeah. So Chilwack, you know, because I'm in real estate and because I help people subdivide properties and build houses and then I sell them and I'm very familiar with whole subdividing process, which is a whole other conversation for another day, but there's

a lot of information for buying a big house, tearing it down, subdividing at the cost that goes, it's about $60,000, if anyone's actually interested, to actually cut a lot in half and service the other side. But yeah, going forward, I think that the potential in Chilliwack is immense. I think that we've got the room for the more population. I mean, if you look at base 10, that's being built, there's going to be over 300 homes going in there. BC government, I think, has put in over 5,400 homes from mid to low income housing in the last year. And they've put about $1.9 billion into getting 14,000 homes in the next decade in BC.

So BC does have big dreams for getting low-to-mid-income housing into homes. I'm sure you've seen that apartment building rate near Midtown there. It's a low-income building. It's about a year, maybe two years old. They only pay 30% of the something like that. Something like that, yeah. So buildings like that, I think, are really important for our community. I think that we need more buildings like that.

I don't know if you knew this. but the old paramount is being turned into a low-income housing building. Do you know this? Yes, and they're putting up the sign again. And they're putting up the old sign. Yeah. It is going to be badass. And I'm super, super excited for it.

And I'm so happy that Chilliwack is bringing back the sign and giving it a whole new life. And that we're going to drive by and have those paramount memories. And yet there's going to be people who. are in a position that they might not have been before that now they have their own place to live in and they've got the resources on the bottom floor and you know like stuff like that is really going to revitalize Chilliwack that's awesome you know my relationship with the paramount I do I do know yeah I have it up behind me yeah I have like the colors all set up because that was that was my childhood was going to that theater and having that sense of

community I really wish they'd put a theater downtown I know I agree I agree I that was a big part of my community. I grew up on Berkeley Avenue, which is downtown Chilliwack. So, yeah, I'm very familiar with the downtown and the way it's been and walking around and as a kid and, you know, what it was like. I think I was grade two with my friend Cassius walking behind the Hope River slew behind my house with my dog. And a guy pulled a knife on us, like a grown man. And, And he, my dog was barking at him. And that's when he flipped his switchblade out and was like, I'm going to kill your dog if you don't shut him up. And I'm in grade two with my grade one best friend Cassius.

And we just are like, oh my God, what do we do? So we just freeze up. Luckily, we're like five minutes, you know, down the road from home. We get home, call the police. But that's, that's, you know, I'm not, I don't think that today it is. Merely as bad as it was, maybe 10, 12, 15 years ago where the crime was. Obviously, you're not going to get away from crime. Obviously, there's lots of crime everywhere you go and Chiloax no different.

I don't know if you follow that guy on YouTube. I think his name's John A or something. I forget his name, but you should follow him on YouTube. He lives on CSS. Oh, yes. And he posts videos from his video camera. Yeah, yeah. So he gets some gnarly clips of like,

sketchy people you know and yeah we we we have that but i think that going forward how do we help the situation is by getting endorsements from like bc government giving us money to do house to build to build the infrastructure to have housing for you know i i want to get that person who is maybe drug addict homeless i want to get them when they're not there like when they're 13, 14, and they're making those pivotal decisions to get where they are now, and I want to help them not make those decisions. Give them a comfortable home to live in. Take them out of the environment they're in now and try and give them an environment where it's going to better them

and give them those inner circles. Yeah, absolutely. That is a growing theme that we're trying to actually address the housing market and try and rebuild people's lives into a position where they can start to look at buying a house again because one of the only issues with having those subsidized housings where they only pay 30% is they're not working towards ownership. No. And that's so tough for people that they don't even get to ponder those things.

And I absolutely agree. I wish there was more opportunities to have real estate explained to middle school and high schoolers. So they just have a little bit more of an understanding of where they need to go and how to get there. Exactly. Here's another interesting question for you. What do you think of the politics of real estate in Chilliwack? Because we do have quite a few city council members who do sell real estate, which I'm more curious as to what your interpretation of that is because they do get to impact zoning. They do get to help guide Chilliwack in that way.

What are your thoughts on that? Okay. Hmm. Okay. I will tread lightly. It's definitely an advantage when you can create legislation that is going to help you and your clients reach their goals that they would not have been able to reach prior to. So there have been disputes in the past before I was actually a realtor, well before, that without naming any names, there was some mayor that he had a brother in real estate, okay?

Some realtor tried to get this huge farm in Sardis at the time rezoned to be developed into residential property. and this realtor couldn't get it done with the city and he tried and he threw thousands of dollars at it tried to get it done it couldn't get it done and so the mayor's brother tried to do it and he got it done well of course he did because he's got the strings and he's got the connections and and what i'll say on this is what it comes down to is that at the end of the day relationships are the most key in any kind of profession If you have relationships with people who can help you get what you want done done, I mean, there's no question that I think that's an advantage to that person. Is it frowned upon that they can do those certain things and me and you can't? Yeah.

But it depends what they're doing. Are they trying to better our community? Like, are they doing it selfishly? Are they just doing it to make money? Like, I like to just zoom out and be like, okay, yes, I can't do that. And he can do it because he's got the city connections. I mean, there's no doubt about it. People with connections with the city get things done.

It's not even like up for debate. Like people who can't get a rezoning done because the city says, no, there's already one on that street or no, the OCP being the official community plan. They don't allow it. So the OCP is like what the future holds. So, you know, if you look on a map and you see Fairfield Islands, OCP, they want higher density. So the future calls for more townhomes. So, you know, expect in the future when all these homes are old and dilapidated, they're going to get torn down and townhomes are going to go up because the city wants higher density. So you got to think these people who have more of a.

say with the city because they have the years of connections and they've done work together and you know people who don't have those connections haven't yeah they get things done that other people can't and yes it's unfair but at the same time um we have to keep moving forward you know we have to keep developing our city we can't just stay stagnant and let you know our properties dilapidate and then we're you know like i'm not saying hope is like that but you You know, there's pockets and hope that, you know, they need to be revitalized. They need money put into them. And in Chilwaukee here, we've got some people who are willing to do it.

And just because they might be on council or because they've got the relationships with the city, I'm not going to crap on them. You know, I'm happy that they're making a difference in the community. I'm happy that they're trying to develop, trying to get things done. But for your question, what do I think about it? I think it's necessary. It's like a necessary evil.

It's like those people are in a position that they can do it. And people who can't do it need to put themselves in a position where they have connections at the city. I go into the city all the time. Okay? I work for people who need to do a subdivision, who, who are. are thinking about doing a townhouse development. They ask me, go talk to the city, make sure this property can be rezoned, make sure we can do it.

So I go down to the city, I book an appointment with the city planners, we sit down and we say, here's the property, here's what we want to do, here's what the OCP's asking, you know, had I not done that, had I just done an email, they'll just smack it down. No, we're not doing that. But I went in there and I talked to them and I said, this is going to be. make the city better? Are we not trying to better the city? Is that not what we're trying to do here? At the end of the day, you know, that's all we're looking for is to better ourselves, better our city, you know, make housing more affordable, you know, more density, you know, yeah,

take that house away and put four town homes up. That's going to put four more families into that property, you know, like all these things actually do better our community. And so is it it's definitely not the best situation how those things are getting done. It's definitely an old boys club. It's definitely certain people are getting things done. But until it's even hard to say is the system going to change. I don't really see it changing because these people that are getting developments done are the same people. So unless a whole bunch of people start putting money into the city and trying to get these things done, you know, you're going to have the same people who are on council who are you know have these tight relationships with the cities

getting things done they're going to be the same people yeah yeah yeah i absolutely agree and i think that that's important for these conversations to occur because neither of us are saying it's good or bad but it's occurring and we need people who are way more educated on real estate and what's going on to be on a platform that they can explain to us hey this is what your city counselors are doing you should develop your own opinion on what's going on and what you think the way forward is because if we hear from you and you say, well, they just did this huge deal

and it's not right for our city and here are 150 reasons why then there is a conversation going on because I often hear about how I can't believe there's real estate agents on city council and it's like, but they know about what's going on in Chilliwai. Like you know way more about Chilawak and all the hidden spots and all the backyards

and all those things way better than I. do because I'm not in all those people's homes. So it's not right for me to make a judgment call and say, this is bad and no relator should ever be on city council because I have no idea what's going on in the city of Chilawak in terms of zoning, in terms of development and in terms of sales. So they might be making great decisions and I don't know it. And they could be making terrible decisions and I don't know it. Well, exactly. I think it really comes down to what you're saying is those people who are working day in and day out of the real estate market. market they they're professionals they know so for them to be on council and to educate the rest of

the council of what's happening i mean not everyone's got all the time in the day to be researching on what's happening with the housing market where the price is going where the buyers are going you know all the trends that are happening in micro markets within chiloac and i think that having that knowledge is very important for chiloac and i think that if they don't have any realtors on council i think it's almost a disservice to the public because now The council is lacking that information. And all that information is very pertinent. And I think that going forward, I think that they need to stay on council.

And they also need to not use their power to get things done necessarily. I think that providing information is key for everyone, a part of the council. I think that I don't think too many strings are being pulled behind the scenes, you know, but obviously things are being done. But at the same time, it's necessary. Things need to happen. You know, we need to grow our city. We need to develop.

You know, all these things do need to happen. That absolutely makes sense. I completely agree. So pivoting a bit, what is it like working with your mother and sister-in-law? And what is that team dynamic like? What can people expect if they were to work with you? For sure. It's fun.

I'll start that. Start with that. It's really fun. So I've moved out of my mom's house about four years ago. So it was really nice that after three years in real estate, I was like, my mom was in the car industry. She was not expressing happiness. And I was like, you know what? I'm doing really good right now in the real estate market.

It's actually picking up. You know, you should think about getting your license and joining me. And she was like, okay, yeah. So she got her license. And yeah, it was a learning. right away. It was like, okay, that we're partners now. So what is mine is yours. So your business is now mine and mine is now yours. So 50-50, it was like basically cutting my business into half kind of thing. But now I've got a partner who can help offset the workload, which was much more

important to me than any money that I was losing at the time. So in the beginning, it was tough. I mean, she's my mom and we're trying to be as professional as possible. there's a line that's like your mom and then there's your business partner so I usually call her Tracy when I'm working with her just because it's too I just don't like being like hey mom like pass the pen

when I'm signing papers is too embarrassing for me so like Tracy but no it's great like we we play off each other really well back and forth if we both don't agree on something we'll be like kind of back and forth in front of our clients and they love Like, they love that they can feel like our relationship is being shown.

So we definitely still keep the mother-son relationship. It's, I see her a lot now because we see each other every day for work. So it's really nice because I don't live with her. I still get to see a good amount of her. But at the same time, it's like you don't want to see too much of your mom, you know? So at times it's like, oh my gosh, girl, like, I've seen you so much. It's crazy. But no, we've definitely given each other's space that we need, and, you know, we've adapted so much from where we started.

So when we started, we were just trying to figure out what it's like being in a partnership in real estate and how to navigate that whole situation. Now we're more like a machine where we have roles that we play and we're much more greased up. Like we're moving. Well-oiled machine. We're a well-oiled machine, exactly. So, you know, she's got her parts, I've got my parts, she's got her strengths, I've got my strength. So, yeah, we make a really great team. And then just this last year, Christina, who's a nurse and a photographer, so she's quite the jack of all

trades, had voiced to us that maybe she wasn't really happy nursing anymore and had thought about maybe trying a new career out. So she got into photography and she loved it and started doing her social, media branding, which she's become very talented at. She's very good at social media and how to get your brand out there and awareness. So I convinced her that it would be a good idea to join our team. And she was, you know, enthusiastic about it. She got her license. And yeah, now we're a full team of three. What did she get? 70%. Yeah. I mean, she killed me. So she's, she's good. Over 70. You need 70.

now so yeah i don't know and tracy i think it took her a couple tries to do the test it is like if you haven't taken the test it is one of the hardest tests you will ever take like it is no joke what is it about it's um it's it's it's an array of mortgage math questions so you you fully need to know how to do a mortgage to become a realtor you need you need to know the information don't ask me how to do it now because i don't know because legally i always say like I'm not a mortgage broker. Don't go ask your mortgage broker because I never want to give, even though I know information, you never want to give information that's not coming from the direct source

like a mortgage broker, just like I don't give property management advice on strata's because I'm not a property manager, I'm a realtor. Yeah. And I would say go talk to a lawyer. Yeah. So, well-oiled machine. Well-o-o-machine. So, yeah, once she got her license, it was like hit the ground running.

She has been running our social media, which she's been doing an amazing job. She's been learning lots. She comes to all of our listing presentations. She listens to us on the phone. I mean, she's been learning from me for the last five years. She's my brother's wife. So she's been watching me on how I work. So, yeah, she's doing an amazing job.

What is a listing? Presentation. Yes. Listing presentation is someone calls you or gets in touch with you and says, hey i'm thinking about selling my house can you come over and tell me what it's worth he's usually usually how it starts and then you go there with all your listing material so i go there with a schedule a which is a list of about 28 things that i'm doing for you to sell your house so just a couple of them for example is we do a video we do a drone part of the drone footage we do a 3d scan of your house

We print you a floor plan. We do 20 professional photos. Then your house gets listed on Kijiji, Craigslist, R-A-W, Century 21, Canada. I have my own website, Discover Chilawak Living. So I've got a website if you want to ever check that out. That does sound pretty cool. What is the website just focused on real estate? It's just focused on Chilawak, really.

Discover Chilawak Living, if you go there. it's it's it's it's a broad website a lot to do with us as what we do as realtors and then it's also about discovering chiluac like it's got some great restaurants that the contella team recommend going to local stuff yeah it's it's just a great place for if you're not familiar with chilowac go there and you know discover it well let's get started on that because part of the podcast is focused on building up brands building up businesses building up individuals who are making a difference in their community yeah let's talk about some of the great stuff going on in Chilliwack in terms of food and recreation, those types of things.

Yeah, yeah, like 100%. The Chilawak has got so many amazing local businesses that a lot of people don't even know exist. A lot of great food that, you know, people haven't even tapped into. The town butcher is a great place. The mad, no, what's the one in Sardis there? The town butcher. Yeah, Rebecca actually worked there and her sister does.

Yeah, run by Bill Turner. Turnbull. Bill, he's amazing. Yeah. He is awesome. And he loves what he does. And yeah, Beyond Nutrition, who was on your podcast. Yes. Another amazing local business that he also really cares about his people, his clientele and his customers that come in there. So definitely give him some support. Buttonbox, stuff like that, like little cute stores downtown. Garrison Running Coe is one for me where I had no idea how complex shoes were until I went in there. And I think that's one of the important things is like going into a small business or going to see an individual is so different when they're in a field that you're not an expert

in because they're like a portal into all the nitty gritty details that you didn't even like if you go to a sports check, they just ask you, does the shoe feel comfortable? And you're like, I think so. Like my foot's not bleeding, so I'm good. And so you go into Garrison Running Coe and they're like, well, you're leaning a little bit on this foot to this way and so we need to get and it's like I didn't even know I I didn't know and just like getting real estate it's you think you know you see houses and you're like why I understand real estate and it's there's so many things in there that you want

to be able to go to the person who's actually passionate a hundred percent like there will be situations where a client will forward me this address and then I'll say nope we're not touching that because I know in the strata they have serious issues so being in real estate you read so many strata documentation from all these different complexes and you get a real good idea with how they're running things and there's a lot of places that i'd be like don't go near because you know they've got special levies which are like a special levy is let's say they have a big leaking problem with all the roofs and they don't have enough in their contingency fund to pay it, which is your strategy you pay goes towards your contingency fund.

So sometimes you're slapped with a $5 to $10,000 special levy. But what if you don't have $5,000 to $10,000 saved, you know? Like all these things you really need to account for when buying home that your average person wouldn't even know could possibly be an issue. That's one interesting thing that I just need to hop on to right now because I'm too stupid to understand it. what's going on with condo insurance or there's a lot of things in the news, but they're certainly not educating me on it. Yeah. Okay.

This is all so new. Okay. So what is happening is basically, I'll make it as simple as possible for the viewers just because it's really complicated. The insurance companies who insure homes, one of the number one insurance company has left Canada. Okay? They just up and packed their bags and they're not. not insuring homes in Canada anymore. So they're gone. So what has happened is now all of these

homes are up for grabs for insurance. So now these major companies need to come in and kind of fill that huge void where that company has just up and left. Now a little background about that company that left is they undercut everybody for their business. So they were getting insurance so cheap. So they were insuring all these old buildings for dirt cheap and now they've left. So now these companies are being very picky. And they're like, yeah, I'll insure your building, but, you know, I want, you know, a deductible of 100% more or, you know, stuff like that. So in essence, what's happening is that because all these insurance companies are picking up, which is what has been dropped and they're now taking advantage of that and saying, yeah, we'll re-insure your

building, but, you know, it's going to be way more. So now they're bringing the price back up to where they think is reality. Now, this is causing a lot of issues because in some cases in Vancouver, you've got a $300 a month strategy, jump up to $600 strategy per month. So it's doubled so your average person who has now been living their life budgeting okay for a $300 payment every month well now they have to completely restructure their finances to cover that and that's just one circumstance I mean and it's happening everywhere no one's really excluded um every and you know any strata any strata building that is coming up for a refinance it's up in the air like no one knows what's going to happen um could the deductive

go up and your strategy fee skyrocket it's a possibility it's a possibility that it might not happen either there there have been other you know complexes that have done you know gotten new insurance and it's not gone up significantly but it has gone up i mean there's no question that people's stratophies are going to go up there's no question it has to i mean historically speaking it's always gone up you've never had a strategy go down in my experience um so yeah that's in a nutshell why is it's happening is there was a big player that is left and now everyone's kind of filling in for that and they're charging more what do you what do you see in terms of you're obviously seeing people's financials and people getting houses are you seeing any 2008 with this kind of going on is there

any concerns about well anything in terms of a mass flood of people not being able to pay for their homes due to something like this or just in COVID in general yeah COVID in general I mean it's really hard to say the government has definitely stepped in and um definitely done the most they can do to not let that happen I mean I've seen a couple foreclosures in the last week pop up here and there whereas I hadn't seen a foreclosure in the last couple years but when I got into real estate there was a lot of foreclosures at the time in 2015 and then it kind of fizzled out for a bit people, you know, as a whole, we're, you know, do their financings, we're good.

And then now, because of COVID, I think that it's going to put a lot of people in trouble. A lot of people who haven't been working for the last three months, you know, and maybe their government funding is going to stop soon. Well, then what's going to happen to them? It's a great question. I don't have the answer to it, other than the government might have to step in.

If you think about it, if you have a huge number of, the population not being able to make a mortgage payment, there's going to be a far greater problem as a whole than just people getting foreclosed on. Yeah, people are going to get foreclosed on, but people are going to start revolting. People are going to be like, this isn't right. I mean, back in 2008, in the huge market crash, in the states, people just walked away from their homes because they couldn't afford them. Like, they genuinely couldn't. People poured concrete powder down their toilets and

concrete did all the plumbing because they were so pissed off with the banks and the way that the government was handling everything and then no one was throwing them a lifeline. I don't foresee any craziness like every, you know, I don't foresee a mass foreclosure to happen. I don't see a bunch of people getting foreclosed on.

I see the government stepping in far before that like they have in getting them enough funding or, you know, I got a call from my bank as soon as this happened. And they said, you want to do mortgage deferral payments. So you want to defer your mortgage payment for six months. I was like, hmm, that sounds good. I mean, here I'm thinking they're just going to extend my mortgage period for six months.

And, you know, I'll just, I don't care. You know, it wouldn't bother me. I'd save money for six months and then keep going from there. But that's actually not how it is. When I asked more about it, it was you get a mortgage deferral. for six months and then you get an extra $300 added on to your mortgage payment for the rest of the entirety of it and I was like well that's no deal like you guys aren't giving me a deal you're just basically saying you don't need to pay for six months but it all needs to be paid within

that same time period so your payment's going to go way up and I was like no that you know that there's no deal there like a deal would be take six months without paying and then in the end I'll give you six months kind of a grace period like that to me is helping out the people so I didn't take that deal because I was like I'm just going to keep paying you know COVID hasn't really affected my business the way that I mean I'm sure other people's have um for example my brother works on the movie sets he's a lamp op he has not worked in three months because the movie industry like you know is very very cautious because he he's doing a movie with um Dr. Bullock, she's not going to walk on to set if there's any kind of problems.

Like, if there's any notion that she could get COVID, there's just no production happening. So, yeah, I mean, that's interesting. Let's let's do a little bit on what COVID has been like in terms of trying to show homes. It's been crazy. It's been crazy. Every time you want to show a home, you got to fill out a document saying you don't have COVID, that you haven't traveled in the last seven days, that you're, clients are fully healthy you know you got to fill that out every time you want to show one home

well your client wants to go see five homes so you got to fill that out five times and you got to wear gloves every time you go into a house you got to wear a face mask is optional um but the gloves and the hand sanitizer is pretty much mandatory so yeah it's like i open up the doors if they want to see the closet i open it up my clients don't touch anything um if they have kids which a lot of the time my clients have kids they got to hold them just weird you know usually I'm so used to handshaking or even giving a hug and now it's like can't do that and a lot of my older clients always still go in for a handshake and I'm like can't shake your hand doing it you know this I'm just doing it because you know you're not allowed you know I'm being

told by the government that you know shouldn't be and I'm a professional so I just need to follow the mandated rules kind of thing, you know, I'm not looking to upset anybody, even if I were to think that we should be able to shake hands now, which I don't think that, but, you know, I wouldn't do it anyways. Yeah, that's, that's super interesting because it's changed so much in terms of, like, when you see somebody shaking a hand, when you see people doing those things, you're almost alerted to it immediately as like a danger type feeling. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Pivoting a little bit more. natural hazards are something we almost never talk about. But I thought it would be interesting just to kind of get a feel for maybe the Fraser Valley in general. What are some things that you think people aren't maybe necessarily have in the front of their mind or only think about when they're buying a home? Okay, so here's some really, really good ones that I run into all the time. Mosquitoes, okay?

So when buying a home in Chiloac, definitely no, if it's really, if mosquitoes are prominent in that location. Chilawak Mountain, really bad for mosquitoes. Where I grew up on Berkeley Avenue, really bad for mosquitoes. Invasive species. So we now in BC have quite a few invasive species. Just recently, it looks like a stink bug almost. Like it's this weird-looking beetle, and there's a lot of them.

And so you just, that you can look for, there's a thing called radon gas, which actually is very new to my industry, okay, and it's on all the PDSs. So a PDS is a property disclosure statement. When you're selling a home, you must fill out a property disclosure statement. It's about three pages long, asks you very straightforward questions. Has your house ever been used for growth of marijuana? Have you ever had plumbing issues? Blah, blah, blah.

There's a ton of questions, and you answer them honestly. They've added a whole section about five questions about radon gas. Do you know if your home has ever had any levels of radon gas? So now I'll get into what is radon gas. Radon gas is a senseless, odorless gas that if you have too much amounts of it in your house will lead to death. You will get cancer from it and die. So BC actually doesn't have a lot of pockets of radon gas.

You can actually look it up on Google. You can Google radon gas map for. were Canada and you'll see all the problem like Alberta has quite a few big pockets of it and it's been there since the beginning of time I mean people have had radon gas issues from the beginning of houses being built the issue has arised because all these new homes that are being built are so airtight back in the day ventilation was key okay so they had ventilation all throughout the house now everything is so airtight that the radon gas fills in up through the ground goes in through your water, comes through your shower, through your water, and then it comes in through

the spout. Okay, it comes in through your sinks, comes in through your showers, your tubs, it even comes just seeping through your crawl space. If you have a ground crawl space, you'll seep through there into your house. So you can get right on testing in your house to see if you have it. And I work with a home inspector who has the test, but the test takes 90 days to work. So you have to leave this thing in your house for 90 days, even to see if you've got high levels of it. So that being said, yeah, like, that's brand new into my industry that now I have to explain to people what radon gas is. But, you know, as, I mean, I'm going to speak as a whole of Chilliwack.

You don't really need to worry about radon gas here. But I mean, there are certain areas that you do need to worry. And I'm pretty sure radon gas comes from high concentrated uranium that's in the, earth that it comes from that this just became a science podcast wow i didn't i didn't even know like i've heard the word right on gas i had no idea what it was there you go and that's that's fascinating so what would happen if that is and like how would you resolve that yeah that's a really good question so it's actually not a big issue at all if if you have high levels of radon obviously yes don't don't go in your house for until it's remediated and the process is really just to get ventilation

throughout your house. I mean, you're never going to eliminate radon gas coming into your house ever because it's coming from in within the ground. You can't get rid of that. What you can do is push it out of the house where it's not harmful. So, you know, it's about when I talk to my home inspector, I think it's about $5,000 to actually get everything in your house ventilated properly that you don't need to worry about the high-level gases. Yeah, so $5,000, you get some ventilators, and you're good to go.

Perfect. Yeah. What about earthquakes, flooding, volcanoes, we have Baker. Yeah. Any of those ever? Floodplain, for sure. That, for sure, comes into my world on a weekly basis. Especially right now.

Especially right now with the water table going so high as it is. Yeah. Anything in the floodplain has to be a certain, has to be built a certain altitude above sea level. Okay. So I've just sold a house on the end of Corbold in Berkeley. So very end of Corbold, there's built on a dike. So there's a dike right there. And my seller actually bought the property a year and a bit ago and then tore it down.

And he built two homes. And we went through that whole process. And in that process, he had to build his backyard onto the dyke, which is very complicated with the city. You have to do it exactly how they do. do it. You have to get an engineer to come in and help you. Make sure that you're not tampering with the dyke. And so you actually have to build your living space. So you can't have a bedroom, a bathroom, or a kitchen or anything. I believe it was six feet above

out like seawater. Okay. So to get into the front door, you got to go upstairs to get into this guy's house because he had to physically build it up so high that if there was a flood, There's no living space that's going to be affected. It's like he's got a five-foot crawl space or six-foot crawl space on the house. That's just like a room. Yeah, yeah. It's just for like storage and stuff. But he had to do that legally because of the floodplain and the zoning.

They had to do that. Wow. That is that is super important. What areas do you typically cover? Hope, it sounds like a little bit. Yeah. All of Chilliwack. Yeah.

We cover all Fraser Valley. I've done quite a bit of business and hope. Um, Agacy, Harrison, Abbotsford, Langley, I've sold all as far as, like, downtown Vancouver. I've sold a couple condos. You know, I, I, I specialize in Chilliwack because I was born and raised here. I'm a professional, so I educate myself on a daily basis on rules and regulations and zoning and everything that is pertinent to know when you're buying a property. So even though I don't specialize on Langley, I specialize on buying property. So it doesn't matter that I don't know specifically the area.

I know what to look for. You know, I know how to find the resources to call the city. Ask about, you know, the OCP on that location. Like, I know how to do those things that even though it's not Chilliwack, I can still execute and make sure you're making a good decision, even as far as Langley in Vancouver. Yeah. Yeah.

That's awesome. The other thing I was going to ask you about is what are your favorite? places just in the Fraser Valley as a whole that you think maybe young people would do well in or areas that we might not have thought of that would be good to start out in like to so if you were like wanting to buy into the market kind of yeah first time home buyers where some areas throughout the Fraser Valley that people might not have thought of hmm agacy I would say is like a nice one it is it's affordable and there's some really nice places there There's some newer townhomes that are, you know, priced well that you could get in at the right time and it's going to appreciate over time.

Hope also, if you're willing to do the drive, I'm not saying that's a part of Chilliwack, but, you know, it's within realm of reality of, you know, you could still commute if you had to work in Chilowack or Abbotsford. Where else would be a good one? Rosdale is pretty expensive, you know. Like, I love Rosedale. It's just very unrealistic for a first-time home buyer to be even looking. Because there's no condos or apartments or, like, there's a couple townhome complexes, but, you know, where I live, I live in midtown. So now it's expensive. I mean, when I bought in two years ago, it was a lot cheaper.

And the market obviously has gone up since then. But, you know, places, I just sold a place on KIP. It was a six-year-old townhouse. Really nice. It's like on the Spadina side, if you know where I'm talking. that whole area um yeah that that's a nice area awesome let's pivot back a little bit to family yeah what is the personal life like for you now with two children a fiance what what is that once you're off work what is that like it's a lot of fun it's a lot of uh screaming and running and

hecticness definitely is not for someone who likes peace and quiet when i come in the door it's daddy like lots of screaming and no it's it's awesome but it's two different worlds i mean i'm 25 years old and all my best friends are you know nowhere near even fathoming having kids so you know for me it's kind of like i'm living two different lives where i've got my family at home and i'm living this very adult life and now i've got my best friends who are you know not there figuring themselves out, figuring out what they want to do with their career and where they want to go in a direction. And I'm just, you know, past that. And I've now started my life with my own family and stuff. And it's very interesting to see both worlds and where I've come, you know,

how far I've come. And, you know, I love to be able to give them insight on what it's like being a father. And then, yeah, you really learn to appreciate your own time, your personal time like aside from being with anyone just you know being what what do you do when you're alone um reading books like you know you take for granted just random mundane things like that but when you have kids like you it's hard to come by free time by yourself is really hard to come by yeah that's so interesting because at 19 you're trying to figure out where do i want to work what do I want to do and then it wasn't all that much longer until you it did happen exactly like it was almost like you were foreshadowing what was about to happen because you were in this position where

you were like I don't want to stay here this isn't good for my body I need to figure out what I want to do long term and then four years later children family townhouse huge transition how how is the support like through you obviously have a family dynamic at work what is that all like for you It was very strong. So my support group with my family, direct family, super, super strong. My work family, I used to work at a brokerage called Select Real Estate, awesome people there. They were definitely a big part on getting to me, getting me where I am today. Very supportive on the kids.

Like, yeah, it was like all happened so fast. It was like, I have a girlfriend and she's a kid. They're like, holy crow. Yeah. And then it was like, well, we're having a kid. And it was like, holy crow. What is going on? And it was kind of like, yeah, it was like an instant family kind of situation I was kind of thrown into, you know. But I haven't looked back since. And you learn to adapt, move forward. How do I make this the best situation I can possibly for everyone involved? And yeah, it's just, you know, everyone, you know, a lot. Like, when I, like, when I was going to have Mali, I was like, I'm not ready to be a dad. Even though I had been being a dad for two years. And I didn't understand. I was like, I'm not ready for this.

And when she came, came so naturally, it was like the most beautiful experience ever. And it all just came naturally. It all fit into place. It was like, I was meant to do this. And, yeah, I feel like, I feel like as men, none of us feel ready. and I feel like that's a normal thing to feel, but you are ready. We're all ready and, you know, you just need that push. For me, it took having a kid to really step outside of myself and work towards something

greater than myself. You know, now everything that I do, I do for them. I do for Matthias and Maley and Sarah. Like, I don't just think about myself. I'm not just working to get myself a Rolex or something, you know, materialistic. that I don't give a shit about anymore. But, yeah, I used to be very materialistic. I used to be, yeah, I want to drive the Jaguar or the Tesla.

But now it's like I want to take my kids on a vacation, provide them these memories that I had as a kid. It's like I want Matthias to never feel like he's without, give him the coolest shoes and whatever he wants to do. If he wants to be in sports, I want to be able to get him into sports. you know things your priorities change so quickly it's crazy because that's literally what the podcast is about it's about finding that motivation to get up and do the grind and do all the hard work all the details that might be in your job where you have to fill out a form that you've done

10,000 times yeah you don't want to look at the next 10,000 and first time we got to keep doing it yeah and you have that motivation of this is what's going to get my child into hockey or this is what's going to open these doors for him and I want to set him up and the community as well. Where do you see yourself going moving forward? Yeah, I've thought, I've thought about this for a long time, where I want to take my career, where are we going? Just so we're clear, this has been a crazy path and it's only been like five years. I know. From 20, starting as a real estate agent to 25 and competing with the popular established realtors. I know. It's, It is unbelievable.

Like five years ago, I never would have thought I would be where I am today with having a family, having a career, having a house, you know, fulfilling these goals that I had set for myself five years ago and over surpassing my goals. And now my goals I'm setting are much higher than what I would have even imagined prior. I've started the team, so I want to keep working with the team. Like the Kintella team is just getting started. I hope to have more people a part of it. like to have like a whole administration, a secretary, that kind of thing, you know, provide people a career themselves so that, you know, I could help them out and also they help me out and join it. I plan on actually going into commercial real estate, which is kind of a big part of the

community aspect of it. I have done quite a few commercial deals this year. I'm starting to branch into that. So now I'm working with businesses, okay, who are looking for lease space. So I help them get into the right spot that's going to yield them the most business, the most foot traction, make sure the building's good. And then I hope that will later on lead to me making relationships with mall owners and store owners that, you know, will trust me in leasing out their space to people who need the opportunity to start a business. Like, I want to work with people who want to put more into the community, and I want to work with businesses that are looking to better the community, and yeah, that's what I want to do. I want to get into commercial part of real estate. That's the golden line, is to want to improve that and to be a part of that, because there

are so many businesses that have trouble finding the right spot. Because the town butcher, which we both like, was downtown Chilliwack. And from my understanding, that was a really hard place for that. them to be because it's just you're not in a community of people who get the luxury purchases of high-end quality meat and paying that extra amount for hormone-free, free range, those types of things, it's harder for them to be able to put that forward in that area. So finding that is a lot of work. It's almost like connecting to people together like your mom did. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And that's where I learned it from her, honestly. Like her sales,

was so she was never the type of person to push you into something like even if it was like a bad deal for you she'd be like you know what this isn't for you like let's keep looking you know like it is out there but let's keep looking like she never settled for mediocrity and and i don't as well so i'm never you're never going to see me like when i show property i don't i don't say much like i go in there i explain to them everything they need to know about the property And then I let the home show itself. I mean, at the end of the day, you don't want your realtor telling you, you should buy this house. You want the house to say, you should buy me.

Like, I let the house speak for itself because I'm never going to compete with, like, I fell in love with it, like, all this stuff. Like, I can never verbally say that stuff. Yeah. And I've learned, I mean, I've been in the business for five years. I've learned the hard way. Like, I've been, I've said things out loud that these people may have loved the house. I started pointing out negatives because I thought they'll never love this piece of shit house like but they have the eye of what the potential for it and I might not even be seeing

it at that time so I like to just keep my mouth shut until I hear for them right a mentor of mine back in the day when I was starting he told me a good quote he said you've got two ears in one mouth you need to listen double the amount you talk okay and in real estate that's really important because sometimes when you talk too much you can talk your way out of a deal you can say the wrong thing you can you know like less is really more and then when you're listening to people's problems or their interests or what their needs are that that's that's when we can do our job because now i've got that information yeah and you obviously showed that at the beginning you were talking about how catching all of those small details is so crucial to the sale to making sure that

that person's actually genuinely enjoying where they're going. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that a lot of the time, people who build up brands like real estate agents have to do, they get used to having to pitch themselves. And then you get used to pitching yourself all the time. And then you start having viewpoints and it starts to build on itself. But it sounds like you balance that out really well of, I want you to be, this is still

about you. This isn't about me. And I'm going to get out of your way and let you come to your own conclusions. And if I can help with information, I will. but I'm not going to say this is you need to get this house today 100% like what I like to tell my clients is we're a team like you and I me client like you client me real we're a team like we're all in this together we're trying to you know get you from point A to point B and we're going to do it as inclusive with you as possible so you know that's key is it's completely making them feel like

they're just as a part of it as you are that's awesome yeah the other question I was going to ask is role models. You did mention that you did have a mentor at the beginning, but you are this person, and it's been a long time since we've hung out, but you've always maintained this personality of friendly, approachable, usually very funny. Where did that all come from? Hmm, that's a good question. I've definitely had mentors in my career life, but I definitely wouldn't say they have attested to who I am as a person, and what you know me for, for being friendly and positive and, you know, optimistic mindset. I think that really comes from a young age, just being happy go lucky.

I really looked up to my dad, and my dad was very much happy, very content with life. You know, nothing really would upset him. Like, I just learned that. And then I also, my mom was a very, very happy person. Like, always taught me that even if you're not, like, fake it till you make it. smile until you are smiling like that's just how i was kind of raised to the point where i i never really was down i never really suffered from depression like i never went into these um debilitating mental states because i've never known to not be happy you know like i've i've

obviously gone through lots of um turmoil in my life like i've gone through some stuff and um there was you know everyone does but i you know seeing the brighter side of seeing the positives of the situation are far greater than dwelling on any negative points. So I would say that my parents were my role models and just having that positive outlook on life. And then my grandpa, my papa, who is basically like me, just like he lights a room up. He's the funniest guy ever. He could have been a stand-up comedian. He was the entrepreneur.

He was the people person. I got people tell me lots of stories about him and he tells me lots of stories. and that's like my role model who I would like to be like, you know, that's who I emulate when I'm trying to be this positive role model myself. That's awesome. Can we touch a little bit on some of the hard stuff? Because I think the hard stuff you went through, because to me, one of the hardest parts of being a role model

is letting those vulnerable things out because a lot of people might look at you and say, 19, he had it figured out. He knew he needed to switch over into real estate. Five years later, he's killing it. He's got his family involved. He's got everything. And it can be discouraging in the sense of some people don't have that strong family support. And they're just trying to figure it out.

So if we can let people know that it isn't all sunshine and rainbows that you did face some adversity, I think that would help people realize that they can get there too. And it isn't just 19 easy-peasy going to real estate and kill it. No, for sure. Yeah. So growing up, like I said, I was really privileged. I had a great childhood. I would say the adversity came when I got out of middle school,

went into high school kind of thing. And yeah, I mean, obviously there's temptation and drugs and alcohol and stuff like that. And partying became more important, I would say, than my schoolwork and my education. And I think it comes down to I was more focused on my own happiness, I would say. school wasn't making me happy. Partying with my friends was making me happy. But these life choices were getting me in bad spots, right? Maybe not hanging around with the right people, getting myself, you know, like flunking

out of a math class because I wasn't showing up. A lot of bad life choices that could have been avoided that, you know, I was just thinking for myself and not thinking for my future. So I think once I got out of the mindset of, I'm not going to just think about Brett present, Brett now. I'm going to think about Brett in the future because I'm going to be him one day and I want to leave him with something and give him the best opportunity as possible. And so, yeah, I quit smoking, I quit drinking and, I mean, now there's moderation.

I still do, you know, I still hang out. I still party a little bit. But in moderation, you know, like celebration, not every week. and every day with my friends that are, you know, I'm going nowhere kind of thing. And I think as we people, we get stuck in these habits of, well, I've been living like this for the last year, so why am I going to change now? But I think we need to wake up and really pull ourselves out of, you know, the mental states that were stuck in, that rut that we might be stuck in, and just really say,

hey, I want to change my life for the better. And that's what I did. You know, after I made that decision to get out of drywall and, you know, make a better choice for my life, that really, really changed me. And it really, my actions really started changing my outcomes. And I started noticing a difference. And once I started noticing a difference, it was like, I'm on to something here. Like, living this way is the right way I should be living.

I don't know if you're religious, but I found God kind of thing. I'm quite religious now, Christian. I go to Main Street Church. That's been quite a pivotal role in myself. And going forward, I think that finding that, finding that, and then also having the people in the church for support, If I would have found that a younger age, who knows where I would be today? I mean, I mean, I'm happy where I am and I'm happy I got those resources when I did.

But I know that if you're a young guy and you're going through the ringer and you're just partying and you're suppressing your emotions and you're just living, you know, there's definitely hope for you. And, you know, there's definitely, um, a better way. I mean, for sure. Absolutely. Going to the religious question, I, I was raised Catholic, but more overall through Dairy Queen days and, and all the way up until probably about a year ago, I was pretty stance against religion, but I do not feel that way anymore. No. I can't get behind that. I've been listening to a biblical series by Jordan Peterson and he's been going through each, um, Like Adam and Eve, Canaan and Abel, and he's been going through them and what we can gain from the information psychologically. And through that, and coupled with the fact that I'm seeing a lot of self-esteem pushers, I believe that people should be confident in themselves, but I think that we're all really, really, really, really flawed.

And with a self-esteem movement, they're telling people, people are fine the way they are. When they're stuck at a job, they hate, surrounded by people, they can't stand. And they're saying, you're fine the way you are. and you should just need to be confident in yourself. It's like, no, your life's a mess. You don't like your life. And you need to create the steps and set the goals to better yourself. Yeah.

I mean, I think 2020, where we are right now, we're in such a dark place throughout the world because we're so complacent with the way we are. And I think that instead of trying to push bettering yourself, we're pushing, no, accept them for how they are and you accept yourself for how you are. And so it's kind of like the participation risk. Okay. So you didn't come first, but you get a ribbon for participating. I mean, I appreciate that to an extent, but at the same time, there needs to be some kind of a push to be number one. There needs to be some kind of a push to better yourselves. If we are, how would you say, worshipping and really idolizing all these horrible things, which we are as at like the music industry, for example, I'll talk a bit about just because I really don't like music industry.

and the stuff they promote like the top 100 chart why is it that all the songs are about guns and killing cops and doing drugs and treating women poorly and making it so that women who you know use their body is is is awesome like that's a cool thing now whereas in reality it should be like yeah i think body positivity and i think sex workers is is definitely okay and i think that you know that they have the right to do that. But do I think that we should be pushing this onto our youth so that they think that that's actually the end-all be-all and not just an option? I think that's where we're doing a disservice to our youth.

I think that we need to change the way we're idolizing all these horrible things and making them cool, you know, like it blows my mind. And that's where I really do think that religion. plays like a key role. And again, I did not respect religion at the time. And growing from that now, religions often tell people they're not enough as they are. And I think that's just true. I think that we all, if you ask yourself seriously, like, what are the things I'm doing in my life that by my own definition, I shouldn't be doing that I know is wrong, but I'm continuing to do. That is a way of communicating with the transcendent of if you say that, you're going to get an

answer and you're not going to like it. Yeah. It's hard to ask those questions of what are the things I'm, what are the vices I have in my life that I know I shouldn't do, but I'm still doing. And that's where I think the, the harsh part of religion is trying to tell you, you aren't enough as you are and you need to work harder. And when they talk about things like false gods, it's true that we are placing certain bad ideas as if they are the greatest idea that has come out. And that's just not the case. and I see that a lot in schools and it concerns me because you're right. We've disconnected from the positivity of family, friends in stuff like music. When do you ever hear about like the top 100 chart talking about how family is the most important thing?

You won't. Yeah. Because it doesn't sell. No. And that's a bad thing because we're entitling ourselves to hear the story that we think is the most interesting. And it's absolutely not because a lot of people drink every weekend. and they see no issue with that, but you're not living up to your potential if you're doing that.

And in Chilliwack, maybe we need your help. Maybe we need you to start the business that we haven't thought of, and it's in the back of your mind, and you're just not leaping on it because you're enjoying the bar too much. And so I do appreciate that about religion, and I have been enjoying the biblical series, because it does open your eyes to the fact that that book is thousands and thousands of years old, and it has some of the greatest ideas that we've come to.

Yeah. But I do look at it. it as more of a psychological approach just because I do think that when you ask yourself what's like what am I doing wrong and you do get an answer but it's not you it's not you didn't answer the question when you receive that response I think that there is something God like about that saying what did I do wrong and what am I doing wrong by my own definition and just waiting a second and realizing that the thought was there the whole time and you never you never reached for it unless you ask so that's kind of my position on religion at this point. I think there is something going on there that is super important. And I think that we've been way too harsh on religion and we've been throwing the baby with the bathwater. And myself included, that was an error I made for a very long time trying to tell people, this is not the way. And I was so wrong. I remember so many debates at Derry Queen between you and I, I'm sure, had happened. I don't even know, but what? But there was always something

to debate over. Well, I lose those debates now because I don't feel that way anymore. Oh, that's classic. Yeah. So we can move a little bit into what you would like to see the community grow as in terms of maybe businesses that you don't think have been started or things that we could be doing in the community that were just not yet prioritizing. Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. For what I think we could use in the community to better ourselves would probably be more like youth outreach programs.

Like, I remember when I went to Central Church, because I did grow up Christian, kind of, but then, you know, you push it away kind of in high school and you, it's easy to live like a Christian when it's easy for you. Like, and then when it's not easy anymore, it's easy to throw it away. And that's not the point. So I think that if we had more youth outreach programs, just to do fun stuff, you don't have to make it religious. Like even when I went to Central and we did youth retreats and we would all hang out with these kids and stuff and around Central Church there, there's a lot of low income housing. So you get a lot of rough kids and, you know, I think that putting them together and then giving them a really good role model, which I had, which his name was Nathan. And he was a youth pastor. And I should have brought him up when you asked me about role models.

but he was a really big role model for me, the sweetest man, he would help anyone in our youth program, and that, I don't know if it's missing from our community, because I'm not a youth anymore, because I'm not in it, I don't know, but I'm not seeing it being advertised or anything, but it would be nice to have some kind of a, you know, like what was it at the YMCA, like Freaky Friday or something, something more where we can connect our youth. at a young age and give them these role models, give them people good people to look up to

and really screen those people, you know, really make sure that the people who we are putting in those spots are meant to be there and have the best interest for the children at mind. But like I said, I think that it all starts from the youth and that's where we

really need to put all our attention because then it's going to help all the future older people because we're going to get them when they're young. A little off the subject for cool things I want to see in Chilac, I'd love to see a cool VR place. Like, I've been trying to get some investor to open one up. One just opened out in Vancouver, and it's crazy, man. Like, you get the headset on, you get a backpack, you get a gun, and you're in this huge warehouse room, okay? And they've got

cameras all over, and you are fully in this VR world, okay? And you're playing like a call a duty game with like, I think it's like six other people in the room. So something like that's like something, I want to see like different things come to Chiloac, things that you wouldn't normally see in kind of a outskirts of a town. The one that I thought of was a boxing gym. And that's just because for youth today, it does not seem like we give them a positive outlet for some kids' lives are just hell. And they're impossible to get through and talking it all through. is just not always the answer because even when I was growing up some of my friends were getting beaten to a pulp those people need an outlet because those people started attacking me and my friends and in a way of coping like now I can see it as that but back then it was like why is this person trying to start fights with me right and it's because we have all this pent up energy and you see it we see it in so many movies where the person does better after they have an outlet and you can say that that's not always the case but at least it's something and I just I tried to sign up for boxing they only have one place I ran into

some issues trying to get set up there and I didn't go back so I'd like somewhere to be where youth can have an outlet have good role models of people who've been in those similar circumstances as coaches to build that relationship and let them be a part of it and let them clean the boxing gym to make money if money is one of the issues because it was certainly one of the issues for me when I was growing up is we didn't have enough food on the table to begin with so any extra money I could make cleaning the gym and those types of things would have really helped lower the burden on me being able to eat lunch at school and those types of things yeah yeah for sure I could totally see a boxing gym targeted at the youth um I actually have been boxing for

the last two years now at nine rounds and that's a boxing gym and sardis and it's pretty expensive though so to make it accessible for the youth it's just not there yet like this this was my idea was to charge individuals like you and i a regular a higher fee if you can afford it yeah because what you're doing is you're paying for the youth because in my what i was thinking about is one of the problems that arises if you bring great boxing coaches out to chilaac and you or i don't want to have to wait or go through that process is we would just hire the person privately and you run into problems with the person wanting to just take the coach and do their own thing with the person. Right.

So we would have the more influential people, the people who can afford to, they would pay more, but that would subsidize it for the youth who might not be able to pay anything. Right. And so that was one of the ways I thought that that issue might, because I did immediately think, well, how are we going to get the youth in there? We would have to somehow pay for the coaches to be in the same room. 100%. I know karate and Taekwondo was pretty prominent in Shilow for the youth.

I know that's also kind of pricey for people and I know for low income families, it's not usually something that they would want to put their kid in, but it definitely brings discipline and it definitely gives them an outlet and something to build goals, learn to build goals and achieve them, you know, work your way up, get your own your new belt. Like there's definitely lots of rewarding things to physical activities and yeah, we've got great soccer programs. Yeah, we've got great basketball programs, but we, you know, we're always looking to do more and something like bringing in a boxing club, like have like a club or like a facility where there's a, there's a community. And some of these, you know, like people around the

skate park, like I remember, like my mom didn't let me go to the skate park and I never understood why. And as I got older, you know, my rules lessened and I did go to the skate park and I experienced why I wasn't allowed to go there. There was a lot of profanity, a lot of drug use, a lot of, you know, like underage kids drinking and just like you're exposed to this harsh world of these, there were really young kids there that were using these teenagers as role models. Well, now, where are those kids now, you know, that have emulated, like, that kind of lifestyle well they those kids were never really given the chance to to build great role models they

were never put in front of you know you or i in a in a circumstance that they could study us and learn from us whereas if you gave them something like a boxing club or a gym or something to put them in front of the people they need to be in front of you know i think we would see huge change yeah because that's what i went through was living here i didn't and even now when i look at like who are the top 10 role models of Chilawak. It's hard to manifest who those people would be because all of our conversations are so quick now where we say we know each other, but we never see each other. We never talk.

We never do any activities together. And talking is one of the most important parts to knowing a person. And that's one of the benefits of the podcast is to be able to sit down, have a conversation that's longer form. So we can take the time to go into that little conversation that goes, a little bit sideways and into something in detail. And I think that we need to have more conversations so we can figure out whose ideas are good and whose ideas are bad because the more we hear from someone, the more we get the information,

we can choose for ourselves. Is this person someone I want to look up to or is this someone I cannot get on board with? Right. And so I think that's why it's important to have a variety of people on is because some people don't know what it's like to just do well. Some people start from absolutely nothing, which was why it was great to have Jake on. And some people start a business, which is why it was great to have Johnny on. And some people are just self-starters like yourself who just went out and they figured it out and they pushed themselves and they found a way when you could have just said,

well, all the other people are just sitting in the office waiting for someone to call. And you chose not to do that. And so these different types of people are so important. So we can start to figure out who we do want to emulate. 100% I mean adapting is I think the one of the most probably if not the most important thing that us humans can learn to do is adapt to the situations around you so when COVID hit there were so many realtors who curled up into a ball and stayed home and they were like well my world's over because no one's going to be buying a house but I was like no how am I going to how am I going to still stay afloat pay my mortgage I've got, you know, two kids. I can't just not work. And at the time, my fiance wasn't working because she works at InVision Bank and they were closed their doors for a period of time in the beginning there.

So we fully moved to video and we're like, you know what? We're going to start doing video and really push it. And it made quite a difference in the market. You just start seeing all these other realtors pushing videos. So it's like once you start paving away, people will follow. And I learned that in real estate. Once you start paving away with certain types of marketing materials, if you start doing things, I'm going to pay for all your legal fees. I'm going to do this.

People will follow you. Like other realtors will be like, oh, he's working for him. I'm going to do that too. So, yeah, it's definitely COVID and everything. It changed up. It definitely made us adapt. And I've had to adapt my whole career. Like, I've had to overcome many obstacles in the market.

There was times where I would cold call. Like, I don't do any of that today, but before, I would just call random people in Chilowak, 6.04 numbers in the phone book. Hey, have you been thinking about buying and selling? You know, it's a really good time right now. I got hung up on so many times I couldn't even count. But I was still doing it. And I still got some business from that. And it gave me the thick skin I have today for, you know, if someone says,

know to my face, it's business. Like, I don't take anything personally. That's, that's one interesting thing we should get into is because you do have to face a lot of nose and a lot of, like, I have no interest in talking to you, those types of barriers. And to continue, because even, even doing this, it can be difficult to remain confident in what I'm doing because you don't get a lot of feedback. Right. Unless it's either really, really positive or nothing. And so I, sometimes I have no idea whether or not what I'm doing is resonating with people or not because it can be so back and forth. So what is that like just didn't work to have so many nos? Is it just developing thick skin? Yeah, it really is. It's really developing thick skin and then also understanding why are they

saying no. Is it me or is it no? It's not a right time for them. And asking that question, oh, sorry, miss, why would you not like to list your house? Well, you know, so they can give you any reason but at the end of the day you need to find out why are they saying no why are they rejecting your ideas why are why is it and then if you can get to the root of that problem maybe we can turn them into somebody well i i i just uh their excuse could be they were thinking of doing it you know in two three years or you know they didn't want to pay a mortgage penalty because you know if you sell your house too fast and you had a five-year fixed term you're going to have to pay a mortgage penalty so you know and then

And once I find that information, oh, hey, I might be able to help them. I might be able to lessen that blow on that fee that the mortgage broker is going to cause or the banks are going to charge you. So it's all about finding out why I'm being told no. You know, it's not like they're just seeing me and they're being like, no, because I don't like you. Well, you don't know me. You haven't given me the opportunity to get to know me.

So when people say no, I don't usually just take no for an answer. I'll usually, like, do some more digging. A lot of people say a lot of people will just be shut down. No. Okay. On to the next one. No. And then they get defeated.

But if you really dig into, why are you saying no? Oh, it's not me? Oh, you don't. Oh, I totally understand that. Well, then that takes off the pressure on myself. I didn't do anything wrong. They're not ready. And that's totally fine.

Well, and they feel heard because they actually got to explain themselves and just saying no over the phone. You don't get that information of like, maybe they want to tell. you why. Maybe admitting that they have this problem of a mortgage fee is, and you can say, well, right now under these conditions, we can do this for you to help lessen that below. And they can say, hey, that's exactly the answer I needed. And I was just too afraid to ask the question. Exactly. So that's a really good way of addressing that issue. 100%. And sometimes it's even like, I dealt with such a horrible realtor. You know, he never called me. And I just reassure them, listen, if you work with me, there's never a time you can't get a

hold of me. And I've got two partners. If you can't get a hold of me because I'm busy, they know exactly what's going on in your situation and you can talk to them as well. So we're, you know, I think the biggest problem with people that, what people have with other realtors is the lack of communication. You know, I hadn't heard from him from months. Well, what the heck? How have you not heard from your realtor in months? What do you mean you haven't heard from him in months? I talk to my clients daily, weekly. Like, if they haven't heard from me, that's not good. Like, if they haven't hurt for me, that means they haven't had a showing request.

And if they hadn't had a showing request, I'm calling them and saying, we need to change something up because your house isn't being shown. Either we need to drop a price a bit because, you know, we're missing people, or we need to do something strategic. We need to change the photos up. We need to do a little Instagram video for you. Like, I'm always just, there's no reason why things just sit on the market other than price, okay? But you need to brainstorm. You need to get creative. Like being a realtor is all about being creative.

Like anyone can just put something on a website and say, for sale. Like that doesn't take skill and that doesn't take experiences. What takes the skill and the experiences and what I do is like if we hit a wall and we're not getting any showings, what can we do now to change that? Without necessarily dropping the price to begin with. You might need that price. And I totally get that. Okay. what is your dollar? What is your bottom dollar? Well, I can only go 5,000 below that. I can't even

look at offers under that. Well, maybe we'll take it down to your bottom. Every showing request, I'll call the realtor and say, hey, look, we're priced to sell. That's why you probably are showing the property. This is like priced right where we're going to sell it. They're not looking for a lowball offer. You set the president. That way, I'm not getting a low bowl offer. And then my seller saying, you told me that, you know, blah, blah, blah. You know, I would say my advice, to anyone who's looking in to get into real estate is do what you say, be reliable. So if you say you're going to send them an email tomorrow, send them an email tomorrow. Because that is, I've heard so many times, well, my realtor just ghosted me.

You know, do what you're going to say and also always be on time. Never be late because that shows lack of care. When you're showing property and you show up five minutes and your buyer's already there walking around, that looks bad. because it's like I always show up five to ten minutes early. I case the property. I look for anything that I can be like pointing out. I do a little drive by.

And that way when they get there, I'm educated. Hey, there's a park two minutes down the road. There's the shopping right there. You know, the backyard's got an awesome view. Like when you have that information, the trust builds. And that's what builds up trust is your accountability. That's such an important thing for people to hear because you're absolutely right. There's a lot of people who just don't communicate. They will leave it to the last minute or they'll just forget to respond. And that makes a person waiting for the email on the other side, checking their email in the morning. You just don't know when you say, I'm going to email you tomorrow, whether or not they're up at 8 a.m. checking their email. I've done that multiple times in different circumstances, hoping the person's going to respond. And it took them three extra days from what they said they were going to do. And that's just demotivating to me because it doesn't feel like you care.

It's like, are you interested? I'm giving you an opportunity. You're not getting back to me. Like, what's going on? Yeah. And there's no reason for it because it's like, how long does it take to write an email? Obviously, you want to word everything correctly, but you can at least start it just right away on your phone and then go to your computer and finish it and clean it up the way you want to

in order to make the experience positive for the person. That's awesome that you do that. And I think it's important for people to hear that because I do think that real estate agents and obviously lawyers get a take. terrible rap and because there's a lot of bad ones out there yeah and so we're flooded with people who aren't putting in that effort and it's important to give people the opportunity like yourself to differentiate themselves for sure yeah so let's move on a little bit more to what you want the listeners to know about yourself okay what i want you guys to know about myself is that i'm an

extremely hardworking charismatic person that goes over and above my way to really bring people happiness in searching a home in searching for a home I mean like at the end of the day my main goal is to bring my client's happiness and everything I do not just real estate like everything I do like at the end of the day I want you to feel happy I want you to feel fulfilled with yourself like that that's who I am as a person and I've always been that way and I've always wanted people to feel comfortable you know I've never wanted people to feel like an outcast I've always wanted to bring people into the group even if they wanted to be excluded because in my brain i know that you're better off with the sphere around you you're better off socializing with people you know i've

always wanted to bring people in i'm a father of two kids who i love extremely much and yeah i mean that's that's kind of who i am that's what i want people to know about me um and i'm in this real estate world for the rest of my life really i don't see myself switching up you know like I'm here for the long run, and I've already been here for five years, so I know a few things, but I also am not naive enough to know that I have a lot to learn. And I have so many things to learn, definitely in the commercial world and even in the residential world. I mean, real estate's so funny where you come across these obstacles that are so unique in each deal that, you know, I could never foresee any of the crazy stuff that was going to happen to me.

I mean, I've been sued. I've been taken to counsel. Like, it's just crazy. And you can't prepare yourself for that. So, again, what I want people to know is, I think quick on my feet. I go over and above for people, even if I don't know you, because I want to earn your business. and I can feel for you, and that's pretty much it. Did we touch on that lawsuit a little bit?

Can you tell me a little? Because everyone's going to be wondering, and if I don't ask that question. Yeah, I know. Okay, so I'll start with the lawsuit was dropped, so thank God. I'm $10,000 richer from that, so I didn't have to, you know, give up my funds. So this is kind of a story about rough beginnings. This is when I just got my license back in 2015. The market was just about to take off.

When I say take off, we would get 27 offers on a house, 27. Okay, so the market took off. So this was right before that. This was the calm before the storm. I was just getting my feet wet into the market. I was just starting to become, you know, a realtor. And I got my first, this was my first real live. listing for a friend of my mothers.

And so everything was new to me. I was on my own. I did have a mentor, but at the same time, it wasn't a very, like he didn't look over everything, okay? I was fully on my own, right off the gates, when you get your license, you're on your own. No one really gives a shit about you other than yourself and your managing broker who you were making money.

So those people are your two people, yourself and your managing broker. So I listed this house. I had an open house, and I had this gentleman come up to me, and he had an offer in his hand. And he said, I want to buy the house. Me being in the new realtor am, I said, that's great. Yeah, let's do it. And he said, yeah, here's my offer, blah, blah, blah. It was just a blank contract.

Nothing was on it even, which I made so many mistakes in this deal that looking back, I'm like, what was I think? Like, why didn't anyone wasn't looking out for me? You know, like, how was I just on my own like that? Long story short, because it would take an hour to explain the whole scenario of what happened. Basically, I had verbally accepted an offer with this gentleman that came to the house on an open house day. Okay? And it was verbally accepted with my seller, okay?

Two days later, I get four more offers on this house, but I have already verbally accepted an offer. So those four offers, I had to call every single one of them and say, listen, I'm really sorry. I'm just starting out as a realtor. I actually already have an accepted offer. And here's the kicker. The accepted offer was my offer. So I was representing both parties. So what do you think those four other realtors are thinking? They think I completely screwed them because I had accepted an offer before they brought me there for, okay? So I had to call each realtor apologize profusely that I'm a rookie. I didn't know I had to accept because I thought a verbal offer wasn't anything.

In school you're taught, a verbal offer like in the course isn't going to be held up in court. But then this gentleman was scaring me like I'm going to sue you if you don't accept my verbal offer. You already said that the seller would sell it to me, blah, blah, blah. So we ended up putting it on paper, blah, blah, blah. long story short one of those four buyers was not happy and sued me and took me to court and i had this huge letter from ubc saying you know the list of everything that i did incorrect because a file was opened and i get audited on that file so they look over everything you do so even if you made a minor error with the paperwork that's a whole like you're being punished for that and then if you made

another mistake you're being punished for that so i was on the line for a bunch of shit and i just got my license so as a young brand new realtor 20 years old my first listing and i'm being sued i'm like okay i quit like i'm not i'm not cut out for this but you know what it was a whole two years later that all the charges were dropped and yeah i think that at that time because the market had just boomed and I was probably the first dual agency dispute I think of the bunch but after mine was dropped there was a lot of people that got a big wrist slap in the industry and to this day I do not double end deals to this day I refuse people have come up to me as a client to me and they say hey I see one of your listings I want to buy it I say

you know what it's a gorgeous house I don't blame you I just can't represent present you. So I have to refer you to one of my good pals here because I don't want to, I don't ever want to be in a position again where even though I was working in the best interests of my clients, it got twisted and it made me look bad. It made me look like I had intently done that when it was all coming from a lack of experience, right? So even though my intent was right, It looked like I was trying to screw those people over. And that's how they were painting you. And that's how they were painting me.

And that's how I was painted on this complaint. But they did a huge investigation. I had like three interviews with like people on the council. And they basically agreed that it was from a lack of experience and genuinely just not knowing how multiple offer situations work. And I mean, it's very complicated. Real estate's a very fast-pacing thing. You can't just say, yeah, we'll accept your offer.

You can't do that. Because hypothetically, what if you got three offers the next day and there were all $10,000 more? Well, now you just did a disservice to your client. So all these things I've learned throughout my career just of really who's in your best interest? Always your client first. You can't give a shit about the money. The money is not important. even if you're trying to put the deal together at the end of the day who's in your best interest

always your clients first that's awesome yeah that is a horrifying story because just to be starting out and to have that concern of being painted in that light i cannot imagine going to work the next day and feeling it all confident in yourself if they had just written up a whole piece about all the little teeny tiny things you did wrong and you're like i'm just starting out like this is really harsh criticism it was really scary yeah And it was like, yeah, $10,000 I was being fined. And I was like, well, I just am getting started. I don't even have that kind of money right now.

So it was like, what's going to happen? And then I get suspended. Well, then I can't even make more money if I wanted to. So all these things going through my mind. And it really made me the realtor I am that's very sharp. Like I don't put out a contract unless I wholeheartedly know I am protected and my clients are protected in every avenue. And yeah, from the beginning, I had a mentor, not really a mentor, but I had a higher-up

realtor than me, say to me, listen, you're getting into this business. What you need to know is, it's not if you're getting sued, it's when you're getting sued, and you just need to know how to deal with it. So if you're going to get into real estate, just know you will be sued, okay, because this is the world we live in. I mean, even if you do everything right, I can't change the fact that my buyers have buyers' remorse, okay? So let's say a buyer buys a house and they hate it. There's a train behind them or there's something or, you know, something.

They will find a reason to sue you. They will find a reason to point the finger at you and say, you are the reason why I'm unhappy, and you're the reason why this whole transaction went sideways for me. When in reality, you were following the rules, you were doing. what they specifically said, and I can't force anyone to put their pen to paper to buy a house at the end of the day. So if people are unhappy, we can't really, you know what I mean? That's when I say it's not when, it's not if you get sued, it's when, as if like we can't really control every outcome in every situation. Well, that's really clear just because you're dealing with two major things.

A lot of people's money and a commitment that they're supposed to be making for like 20, 30, 40, 50 years. plus emotional attachment. Yes. And so they're leaving a house that they've known and recognized and any of the issues that were at that house aren't a big deal because of all the memories. And then they're moving to a new place and all they're seeing is a train going by and looking at the time

and going, you know what? I really hate this. Who can I hold accountable? And it's not looking in the mirror and going, I just committed to a mortgage and I'm going to have to pay this mortgage off for five years without getting a penalty. And then I can consider moving.

It's, I want to get out of here. Who can I hold accountable? And I will throw this person to the wolf in order to get that dealt with. And realtors are always the first to go. Yeah. Always. That's so unfortunate. Mm-hmm.

But you know what? There's been many, many, many circumstances where the realtors deserve to be thrown in there. And you know what? I can't speak for them and I can't tell them what they did is right. And there's been a lot of wrongdoings in the real estate world and there's been a lot of shadiness. But all I can do is tell the people that I put my best foot forward to not. to not be like that and that's all I can do as a realtor right I can't prevent them from you know doing wrongdoings but you know I can just be the best I can be and hope that people use me and

and they're in the best hands possible I 100% support that and one of the benefits is we now have almost two hours and 40 minutes of a recording of if people don't believe you they can just watch the whole podcast and you're consistent throughout it's it's not like you're scripted you're consistently putting out the same message, no matter what topic we move to, and the same philosophy. And so I think that's really important for people to be aware of. Could you tell people how to find you? Yes. So you guys can find me at the Contella team on Instagram, or Brett Contella on Instagram. On Facebook, we're the Contella team. I also have my own personal account, Breck Contella. You can DM me on. My mobile cell phone number is 604-798-2938. So if you

guys ever have any questions about real estate if you guys ever want to know how to get into the market what's my first step you know if this podcast wasn't enough you want to know more i would love to get coffee with you i would love to you know you can pick my brain i'm a wealth of knowledge about the real estate market um i've been doing this for five years i bought a house myself i know the whole process ins and outs and yeah i mean i would love love love to be a realtor that just works with first-time homebuyers like people who don't know anything about the market and I can educate them and also bring a really awesome experience for them to get into the market so that they can look back and say, wow, I'm so happy that, you know, Breckintello was able to do that

for us and he really cared about us. And that's what I want people to know is that I actually genuinely care about you. Well, I think that you are the next person I think that needs to start a podcast because you are an exquisite speaker. You are a wealth of knowledge. And I think that this is a topic that we don't talk enough about and that people are super susceptible to failing in and not succeeding in their first home purchase because there isn't enough people like you in that community. For sure. I'm really grateful to have you on and we almost did three hours. Awesome, man. It flew by. Awesome. I'm so grateful to have had you on. Awesome. Thank you so much. I would be happy to do it again. Awesome. Don't forget to check like and follow.

at the Kintella team on Facebook and Instagram to see beautiful photos of local homes. That's Kintella spelled K-E-N-T-A-L-A. As Brett mentioned in the podcast, he is available to contact and serves all throughout the Lower Mainland. You should check out K-Kentella Photography online and on Instagram. Please feel free to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, at Bigger Than Me Podcast. Where to Explore Chilawak. He'll keep on Chilawak Mountain. It has an amazing view of Heritage Park, Vetter River, Vetter Mountain, Shiam, and even Elk Mountain.

Great Blue Heron Reserve. It is out near Greendale. It's an absolutely beautiful area near Vetter River. It has a staircase to a viewpoint. Near there is Amble Coffee. It's an excellent spot to go with a loved one, and you can even support local business. I'm going to be able to be. I'm going to be. I'm going to be. You know, I'm going to be able to be.

We're going to be able to be. Thank you.