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Michele Talks Government Regulations And The Need For More Housing
March 15, 2022 | Posted by: Michele Cummins
Warning! ;) This is a digitally automated transcript of the show so there will be mistakes throughout - including the spelling of Michele's name!
Curtis Pope:
one thing that means is time for the company's Real Estate Group show with our local Rockstar realtor Michelle Cummins and myself Curtis Pope. Good morning.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
Good morning. Good to take a morning Enos hazard. Quote, but anyways, good morning, Mr. Pope. How are you?
Curtis Pope:
I am wonderful. It is great to be here on a rainy weekend looks like we're gonna get rained for like the next, you know, three months now next week anyway. But hey, that's what we get living on the West Coast.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
That's right, tropical climate that we have. But I'm looking at my window right now. And I do see ferns, which I'm really happy for. Because, you know, shortly soon enough, there's going to be they're going to be covered by the blackberries that have taken over the invasive species. So I love seeing ferns. I love green. So I'm okay with the rain. But I can't believe it's already in the middle of the march. Like we were just saying, hey, it's the first show of the month. It's already the beginning of March. Can you believe it? And now it's the middle of March.
Curtis Pope:
Yeah, I know. St. Patrick's Day is coming up fast. And before you know it, it's it's like spring break for the kids here and stuff now too. It's like it's crazy.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
Yeah. Oh, yeah. And tonight, don't forget to spring forward your clock.
Curtis Pope:
Exactly how you don't want to wake up and be that person that's, you know, completely out of whack for like a whole day or two.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
I've done that. I think once in my life just once. Well, you know, I usually set two alarms, just to make sure, but then I always second guess myself. And I'm always having guessing myself during that whole next day. Because I'm like, Yeah, but did everyone else spring forward properly? So are all my appointments gonna be messed up? So from always, that day? Is it a little bit, you know, wow, I live in peace, hopefully, but it's a little stressful anyway.
Curtis Pope:
Well, I know with cell phone technology, they all they automatically adjust for you. So really, we we don't have the excuses we used to have.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
It's true. So okay, so I had a really cool event. On Thursday, I had my first homebuyer seminar that I hosted, along with financial planner, Brandon Kirk and mortgage broker, Jessica Oates, who have both been on our show. And we had a Zoom meeting. And we had a couple giveaways. And it was a lot of fun. We had great questions and answers. And it's our first it was our first one of real estate wise webinar series that we're doing. And we'll have a webinar once a month. And our first one was last week. So so excited, that was on the six steps to buying a home for homebuyers, and I'll be posting that video on my YouTube. So check it out there as well as my social media for anyone who missed it. But next month is our first one for our sellers series. And it will be at 7pm via zoom on April 14. And yes, we'll have some more giveaways. And be sure to register for the Zoom link. So you receive that. And I'll be posting it on my Facebook business page probably in a couple of weeks. And so yeah, so every month I'll be doing one in the month one Napster next month will be for investors. So keep an eye out on it. Yeah, it's a blast, a federal crackdown and decided to do it.
Curtis Pope:
Very cool. And just another resource for people that have interest in real estate in the industry to learn more about it.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
Yes. Oh, and can I do a call out?
Curtis Pope:
No, you may not. Of course you can do it anyway. I don't, I'm not gonna stop you, you know that you're just gonna do it anyway.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
So I'm looking for service providers, trusted and good, reliable, professional service providers, so business owners to partner with and helping each other's customers and clients. So if you're out there and you hear this or you know somebody I have need for painters, for plumbers, renovation experts drywallers cleaners like house cleaners move in move out cleaning photographers, stagers and designers. So if you are wanting to grow and help each other, please contact me and if you know anybody that would like that as well. And I've got an announcement. So this announcement, it's about the Bank of Canada, of the BOC and their meeting on April 13. And guess what? They're going to raise the interest rates another quarter percent. They say they had mentioned that they were going to do it in June. But no, they're going to do it April 13. So if you are a buyer, and you're not pre approved, or your previous approval will end before then please get out there, find your mortgage broker and get pre approved before April 13. So that you don't affect you.
Curtis Pope:
That's probably a good call. Because yeah, that's, you know, we just went up a quarter percent now we're gonna have another quarter percent that's gonna add up pretty quick.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
It does, and it makes a big difference in the pocketbook of what you can afford. And then that you know, the purchase prices today. So, yeah, so I just found out, you know, I have my place in Oregon on the Oregon coast and my nephew is getting buried there next month. That's so exciting. And I found out that Oregon, you know, how buyers you know, to really stand out one of the things that they do is write a letter of love to the seller and their property, you know, to try to get their foot a little bit better in the door to try to reach the sellers emotional side to hopefully choose to work with them over the 10 other offers they received. Well, Oregon had banned a judge actually, by your love letters. Yeah, I can you believe that? I couldn't believe it. They actually said it's because it was discriminatory. But then they they people were fighting it because they were saying but it's also it was against free speech. I just can't believe that you you wouldn't be allowed to write a letter to somebody Yeah, really
Curtis Pope:
love a property and you want that person know that you're going to take care of it and that you want to, you know, you know, you love what they've done with the renovations or things like that. Why wouldn't you want those people to know that?
Michele Cummins - PREC:
Yes, exactly. Like how, how I just I just can't believe it. Like, if a buyer wants to write a letter to a seller, have adder, you should have that ability, but Washington state is actually trying it, too. I heard as the second state to try it. I don't think it's going to work out as it didn't seem to work out for Oregon. But that was interesting. Okay, so we got to get into our first topic though here, okay. And that kind of brings me into a politic policies of government and realtors are trying everything we can do to help real estate REITs both locally, our local governments and our provincial governments and our federal governments. But there's this seven day refund period for buyers that the government's talking about. And so the for I go any further, I just wanted to say if you don't know about it at all, it just explained it here. So bcrta, which is the British Columbia Real Estate Association in hand with the local real estate boards and realtors. We we've published more than 30 recommendations to the BC government and the provinces real estate, regulatory, the BC Financial Services Authority to help guide their decision making to better protect consumers in the real estate transaction process progress. So a key recommendation that we made is for the government to mandate a pre offer period instead of a cooling off period to improve the home buying and selling process and mitigate consumer risks in this competitive market that we've been in so realtors, for realtors, it's very important for us to under understand and know what that is and to explain it to our clients and customers. So the consumers. What's the difference between a pre offer period and a cooling off period? Well, a cooling off period gives buyers the right to withdraw from a purchase agreement within a specified period of time after their offers accepted. The objective of this policy is to allow buyers time to reconsider their decision after having their accepted offer. Although the government has already announced its intent to implement a mandatory cooling off period, our research has led us to have significant concerns with the policy. Instead, we're proposing a pre offer period which would mandate that a listing be available for a minimum of five business days before offers are allowed to be presented. This will provide prospective buyers with the opportunity to undergo due diligence, giving more time to ensure proper financing is in place, reviewing any documents and disclosure statements and conduct a home inspection before submitting their offer. A pre offer period will allow potential buyers to ensure that they are making offers that are well informed while also reducing pressures of a highly competitive real estate market. So already many, many realtors and sellers have had a holding off period. They just signed a form saying we're waiting to present any and all offers until this day and this time, which typically has been five to seven days after they list. So already they're giving that timeframe for the buyers to do all their due diligence within that period. And that's the market that we're in but this cooling off period. Okay. Why the difference? Because a key difference between the two policies is that the cooling off period it's reactive, allowing potential buyers to reconsider a decision after it's been made. While a pre offer period is proactive allowing due diligence to mate to take place before an offer is made. So potential issue with a cooling off period is that if a potential buyer rescinded their offer, it may create a cascading effect, which would jeopardize the sellers ability to purchase their next home. A cooling off period tries to protect buyers but doesn't consider that many buyers are also sellers. And if their own home sales falls through as a result of a cooling off period, their own home buying efforts could be jeopardized. A pre offer period avoids this unintended consequence by taking place before in offers made. Another potential negative consequence of a cooling off cooling off period is that it may increase the total amount of offers ultimately worsening housing affordability. Sophisticated and wealthier buyers may take advantage of a cooling off period presenting offers on multiple properties to preserve preserve their options, and later backing out of all, but their own preferred deal. This already happened with a lot of properties, and this will just facilitate it even more, and it's not good. If this occurs, it would increase the instances of multiple offers. This resulting increase in demand from insincere or frivolous offers could offer further increase housing prices, a pre offer period would not give opportunity for these frivolous offers. It's important that serious buyers feel confident in their offer and on the property and that can only happen with due diligence completely beforehand. So that is what we as a Real Estate Association is is is trying to express and get out there and let the government know, maybe a better way to consider trying to help buyers and buyers or sellers. Most of them.
Curtis Pope:
Alright, well it makes perfect sense. Okay, so we should probably take a quick break here. If people want more information about your listings about the services you provide as realtor where can they go?
Michele Cummins - PREC:
Yes after they can go to actually find out more or to buy promote the better way to purchase homes in DC is hashtag Better Way Home DC.
Curtis Pope:
Perfect. We're back with more right after this.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
She says
Curtis Pope:
coming through the state group show with us Oh Cummings and myself Curtis Pope. Now, Michelle, you're talking a lot over the last couple years about how we need more housing in British Columbia. I know that's really coming to a head right now.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
Yes, in first second thing I thought he was gonna say Michelle, You sure talk a lot.
Curtis Pope:
No, that's for the people to comment on our YouTube page. My favorite comment ever you guys talk too much.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
Oh, we don't want any dead air here. Exactly. Yeah, VCs housing supply. It really needs to increase now. Not tomorrow. Not next week, not next year. Now. It really got so the fact that we're here in BC. I mean, we just we're not nowhere near the supply to meet the demand that we have. So, for example, march 2021 67,000. Buyers searched for homes across BC, while only 24,000 homes were listed for sale. I mean, those numbers like that's crazy. So the the disparity between the housing supply and demand will continue to rise as the federal government resumes its immigration program. And this year alone, the Government of Canada aims to welcome more than 400,000 new permanent residents 70,000 to 80,000 are expected to settle in BC the province already has domestic demand that it can't meet. BC is already home to four of Canada's fastest growing cities. That is Kelowna, which I call the Palm Springs in Canada Chilliwack Believe it or not Chilliwack Kamloops and a Nymo. So the CRE as research shows that these cities have a $1 million benchmark for a single family home or townhome. As the demand for housing grows while supply continues to lag behind the pressure on potential homebuyers will only worsen. Moreover, British Columbians whether they're home buyers or renters, we need options in housing types. Building out middle housing such as duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, laneway, and secondary suites can create a much needed diversity in the housing stock. The diversification and densification of housing are essential in cities and transit, accessible population hubs. When there's such a mismatch between supply and demand, it's no wonder that multiple offer scenarios and even subject free offers are just the norm. So BC Realtors support more transparency. So this whole episode we're talking about government policies and how BC realtors are moving forward with suggestions to the government to help for real estate REITs and policies. So that's why the professional association for VCs 24,000 realtors, the BC Real Estate Association, which we call BCRA, has submitted a white paper A Better Way Home, protecting consumers in real estate transactions to the BC government with more than 30 recommendations as mentioned in the first segment to improve the BC real estate sector and better protect consumers. And on our show, we talked about the first one the first segment, this is a second one that I wanted to bring forward because it is so important. In our recommendations, we urge the provincial government to make infrastructure investments to local governments conditional on official community plans, housing needs, reports, zoning, bylaws, and other local policies to allow for increased density and a mix of housing types, to put simply, to speed up and increase housing, diversity and start. So we have also suggested the creation of a permanent national housing roundtable in coordination with the federal government to bring together all housing market stakeholders to help address these challenges in an integrated manner. So our other recommendations include making property disclosure statements mandatory, making all strategy documents available upon listing and giving buyers more insight into multiple offer scenarios. informed decisions instead of regret. The mismatch between potential homebuyers and available properties means that there are a whole lot of frustrated British Columbians who have been unsuccessful in their home buying journey so far. According to a survey of unsuccessful homebuyers in DC since January 2021. By far, the most common reason for an unsuccessful purchase was competition from other potential buyers. That was 49% followed by inadequate financing, which was 31%. Similarly, among concerns expressed by successful home buyers, the largest was pressured to make an offer on comfortably above the list price to be competitive. I'm surprised that's 22% Because it seems like it's 99.9% to me, but that's what the survey says 22% with fierce competition between buyers, subject free offers and risky financial decisions are being made without proper due diligence. Often buyers prepare an offer 48 hours after showings. And it's done without an appraisal inspection or sometimes even without reviewing strategy documents. Like Like so many stories that that that I have heard, making subject free offers. And that's why our first segment talks about the pre sale period where sellers can hold off or should hold off at least minimum five days before looking at offers to give hires a chance to to be able to have an opportunity and do their due diligence. So the current real estate market and what it has meant for buyers and sellers have been people just everyone's worried, from consumers to government to realtors. The BC government in particular has taken notice so concerned that consumers are making increasingly risky decisions. The BC government has said it will introduce a mandatory cooling off period as I mentioned in real estate transactions this spring. a cooling off period would allow buyers to change their minds and cancel a signed purchase and this is just not good. There's a lot of legal consequences likely having the seller in a difficult situation, particularly if they're buyers again, of another transaction, it's just it can snowball from there. And again, this reminds me of how the government came out with the foreign buyers tax without thinking anybody in IT firm accepted binding contract to purchase and sell for a certain price shouldn't, after the fact be surprised of this huge fee that they have to pay. So sometimes when they roll things out quickly, and without getting the right advice by the stakeholders that are in the heart of it, and it's things can go wrong. So we're asking them to cool off themselves a bit. Bit back, and let's have more tasks. Let's, for splits, let's get together and chat more about this. And before that happens, so we want that free offer period, at least we find that that would be a better suggestion. But also who knows how long this type of multiple offer situation is going to last? You know everything for time? And do we really think that this is going to last forever and ever and we're always going to see multiple offers, you know, this is for your time, you know, so let's look at that as well and not be so focused on just what's happening today. But understand history understand human human nature, psychology and, and the lookout of the future and you got to look at everything, not just what's happening to you today. You have to be able to react with wisdom, knowledge, understanding and, and peace of mind for sure. So that there there's a lot more to talk about about that. But I've got some wonderful new listings. I just hit the market this week that I would like to mention to all those buyers who are still looking for a home.
Curtis Pope:
So obvious. There's a lot of people out there looking for a home so they're probably waiting to hear. Where are these new listings, Michelle, what do you got?
Michele Cummins - PREC:
Yeah, and I got some good ones. Okay, so I got this awesome one. It was the show home out in on Harrison Highlander community. And this is in Briar woods. So it's a bare land strata. It's the one street that skated it was the show home built by Kirk off construction and it has geothermal. It is a two storey Plaza full walkout basement. Gorgeous decorating, gorgeous home built in 2008. It's four bedrooms, four bathrooms. It's almost 9000 square foot lot. It's at one I love the number 119 11 Woodside Boulevard. It's priced only at 1.1 million. And it's where the the eagle soar and it's just beautiful out there. I have an open house there. Today from 11 to one I'm going to be headed off there in a little bit here. And so I hope to see you all there today from 11 to one o'clock and it's on my you know, just look up my my website if you need that address, again, a 1911 Woodside Boulevard, okay. And then I've got a brand new one and mission. And it's off McHugh and Avenue and this is on a 10,000 square foot lot. It's a four bedroom, three bathroom. And yes, it has a suite mortgage helper, or in law suite. And it's a little over 2500 square feet. It's got a double garage that was priced at 1,250,000. And then I've got one in Chilliwack. And this, believe it or not, is only priced at 780,000. Why? Something under a million? Yep. 780,000. It's a cute rancher two bedroom, one bathroom, just under 5000 square foot lot actually multifamily future zoning and their overall community plan. So it's a great investment. If you need a starter home or you're an investor. It's a 1955 built home. And you know, it's totally renovated, and it's got a detached garage. So that's 780 People really good. And yeah, and then I've got a brand new five acre property. It's completely private. It's gated and fully fenced. So we have dogs. It's all birds road emissions, and it's almost five acres I should say. And it's 2007 bill. The house is adorable. It's four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and then there's a detached Carriage House, a double garage that's fully insulated and heated. And then upstairs. It's like a man's cave right now. So it's roughed in for a suite like a kitchen I should say. And that's it's got a full bathroom, a bedroom and then the living room area and the kitchen area just isn't put in yet. Just the kitchen and that price is 1,600,000 you can get a five acre with the Carriage House private and gated built in 2007 for 1.6 million. Now. I've got Cloverdale I've got an end unit townhouse for $825,000. It's two bedroom two bathrooms open to 2008 Almost 1300 square feet, low maintenance fees and I've got an open house there today from two to four. So check it out on my Facebook or my website or on the MLS there too. It's at 68 A Avenue unit to keep it thank you. It's got a big extra yard back yard because it's a corner it's an end unit. It's a got a double tandem garage. It's a it's a cute clearly so yeah, so that's my open house today, my two open houses today. And I also have some open houses on Sunday. And anyway check it out. Thank you so much. Oh, and the coach of the week. Oh and don't forget my ledgeview row homes I've got freehold non strata, we actually just released them for sale last week. There's eight left right now and it's really peaceful East Abbotsford location adjacent to trees in the forest of green space, and Crown land. The over 2500 square feet, the four bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms to come live in serenity, nestled between legs and tree farms the lead the trails and walk the lead through Gulf Country Club, only 1.298 for the inside units and 1.348 for the end unit. And you could put a an in law suite in the in the basement if you want. So with that the end of the week quote or the beginning of the week, however you look at Saturday. Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire. And that's a known,
Curtis Pope:
I'm just trying to think that it's got me thinking we could be here a while like you thinking about that one, but I like it better. Yeah, we could be here for weeks if I try to figure that one out. But I do like it. All right. Well if people want more information about what you do as a realtor, and they want to see your listings, your open houses all these things, where can they go?
Michele Cummins - PREC:
Michelle cummings.ca And join
Curtis Pope:
us again next week and we will talk real estate in order to unlock your real estate potential on the show where real estate is maximized. Thanks for listening
If you missed last weeks episode where Michele and Jessica Oates have stats and discuss mortgages, please go back and take a listen - it's well worth it!