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Michele Talks Stats and Chats with Linda from the Cooperators
February 8, 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:
we are back with the Cummins Real Estate Group show with local realtor Rockstar Michelle Cummins and myself Curtis Pope. Good morning, Michelle.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
Good morning, Curtis. And I really hope it's a good morning for you. I hope you're feeling better.
Curtis Pope:
I'm feeling great to be quite honest. You know, I had a very gifted surgeon apparently because I am feeling fantastic.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
You had Dr. Fantastic on hand,
Curtis Pope:
apparently. Yeah. No, I believe his name is Dr. Izadi, actually, and he was the one that removed my gallbladder on Monday afternoon. Oh, somebody
Michele Cummins - PREC:
had to do it.
Curtis Pope:
Exactly. Somebody had to do it. So no, the the staff over D Abbotsford regional hospital they took fantastic care of me. Everything went I guess, as planned. And, you know, I got some pain meds keeping me up right and back to work yesterday and glad to be here today.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
We're all so happy to hear your voice and have you back strong as ever. And like literally, you're probably going to what do they call it dry February or something?
Curtis Pope:
Well, I'm doing dry February whether I want to or not, because I can't indulge in a drink, you know, for at least I guess two weeks after the surgery. So
Michele Cummins - PREC:
you're not gonna want to after you're able to have it again. It's like not eating chocolate for a long time. And you just, yeah, it's gross.
Curtis Pope:
You might be right. No, I don't think you're gonna be right. No. I can't even go in the hot tub for two weeks.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
Oh, no, that's the work. That would be hard.
Curtis Pope:
Yeah. So my family all mocked me by going in and waving at me at the window. So yeah. Real nice family. I got there.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
Hey, if you don't laugh in life, and you know, you gotta live love and laugh. I love those three L's together. Absolutely. And your family keeps it all for you All the three L's
Curtis Pope:
they definitely do that as well. And then probably a few other L's we could add in there too. But my vocabulary is not that big.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
Well, we have a special guest on our show in the second segment, and rename starts with an L. Oh, there we go. Then they're neatly from the cooperators. She's with us today. And I am so shocked getting we I've known her for a while now. She's been telling me all I mean, all these things that you can there's more assurances than one. There's more than one way to kill the cat. No, there's there's just so much to do with insurance and actually to do with real estate. So I am so happy she's on board with being with us today. So we're gonna hear from her later we got some great questions as always, and but for now we have set it is drumroll Curtis. No, no journal.
Curtis Pope:
I gave you a drumroll but it wasn't a very good one. We have a satchel it is the statute. That's why I'm back. I mean, I couldn't take an extra couple days off. But I couldn't miss the stats show
Michele Cummins - PREC:
is one of the best shows of every month. And today, we have a glimmer of hope for the Fraser Valley homebuyers as new listing surge in January. Now, if you ask any of my sellers, who were also buyers, they would beg to differ because oh my goodness, it's still very very hard to find a property. But it's still a glimmer of hope so the meet this release, news release from the refreeze rally Real Estate Board came out February 2. And here it is. On the heels of the busiest year in history for Fraser Valley real estate January activity saw the beginning of a market rebalancing overall property sales still the third highest ever for January. It cooled compared to December. While the volume of new listings improved significantly. The board received new listings in January of an increase of 67.1% compared to December of 2021 and a decrease of 23.3% compared to January of last year. Total active listings for the month are 2332 which is actually down 44.6% compared to January of 2021. However, an increase of 19.2% compared to December 2021. If you're a numbers person, you will get all that if you're not you may have to like watch our podcasts or go on country one Oh 7.1 website or my websites re listen to this episode because it's a lot of numbers coming atcha and more to come. So Larry Anderson's president of the real estate board said in January Realtors saw the return of home sellers, yet, sales in our region remained elevated. But a positive early trend for 2022 is we experienced a significant increase in requests from sellers to list. It's early days yet, but if the trend continues into spring, we could see in an easing of the supply and demand dynamic in our region, we have a long way to go to replenish our housing stock and bring much needed balance to the market. But this is a step in the right direction. So we anticipate the seasonal influx of new inventory such as we are already seeing, it could provide a welcome albeit far from fully adequate easing of price growth into 2022 in January of this year, so the average number of days to sell a single family detached home in our beautiful Fraser Valley was 25 days, compared to 35 days in January of last year. And it took 12 days on average to sell a townhouse and 17 days for apartments compared to 28 and 37 days from last year. So now going into the benchmark price activity for the overall Fraser Valley and then we'll get into each municipality. But for overall Fraser Valley single family detached home benchmark price is at $1,569,300. And that's an increase of 4.6% compared to December, an increase of 41.8%. compared to January of last year, townhouses benchmark prices at 796,500. And that is an increase of 4% Compared to last month, that's December and an increase of 37.2% compared to January of last year, apartments benchmark price at $574,300. And that is an increase of 4.6% compared to December and an increase of 30.6% compared to January of last year. So now going into municipality by municipality, Abbotsford first, detached homes benchmark price are at $1,375,000.06 100. Actually, an increase of 48.4% from last year. Wow, an increase of 4.7% from December townhouses in Abbotsford are at 661,000. That's a 35.5% increase from last year and an increase of 2.6%. From the month before, apartments are at $457,100. And that's an increase of 39.7% from last year and an increase of 5.8% from the month before. Now mission detachment from our prices are at $1,159,000. Boy, I wouldn't have thought that back in 2007 When I bought a mission and the ad is right.
Curtis Pope:
Yeah, that's a pretty big, you know, maybe should hang on to that property just a little bit longer. Michelle,
Michele Cummins - PREC:
tell me about that. Like Warren Buffett says you hold real estate you never sell it? Well, of course unless you have to better equity. Anyways, that's a whole other episode. So we'll talk about that later. That's an increase of 45.7% from last year and an increase of 8.1% from the month before townhouses admission benchmark price at $650,500, an increase of 34.8% from last year and an increase of 2.2% from the month before and condos are at $464,900, an increase of 23.1% from last year and an increase of 2.4% from the month before. And then detached benchmark price for White Rock Salsbury areas at $1,927,000. An increase of 3.5%. No sorry, 30.5 the eye for that right. Double double check there. It's not Groundhog Day anymore. But there you have it. That's an increase from last year and month to over month. It's an increase of 2.6% and then townhouses their benchmark prices at 961,800 An increase of 41.1% from last year and an increase of 4.4% from the month before and condos and White Rock South Surrey are at $633,200, an increase of 24.2% from last year and an increase of 2.2% from the month before. Laying Lee's benchmark prices for detached homes are 1,641,300 An increase of 41.41% Sorry, from last year and an increase of 5.2% from the month before townhouses in Langley are at $793,500 An increase of 33.8% from last year and an increase of 2.9% for the month before and condos at 500 In 34,400, an increase of 31.6% from last year and surprise, an increase of 2.6% from the month before. And then delta North Delta benchmark price for detached are 1,457,900. That's an increase of 44.2%. From last year and an increase of 4.3%. From the month before, and townhouses at 809,800, an increase of 40.4% from last year and an increase of 5.7% from the month before and condos and delta are at $480,000 at 23.6% increase from last year and an increase of 7.9% from the month before. And then the city of Surrey and this is all combined, all of City's three benchmark prices for detached $1,674,100 An increase of 39.5% from last year and an increase of 4% for the month before townhouses $836,600 An increase of 38.9% from the last year and an increase of 4.7% for the month before and condos at 522,100 an increase from last year of 29.4% and an increase from the month before of 5%. And did you notice Curtis every single municipality in our beautiful Fraser Valley benchmark prices for detached homes there are over a million dollars
Curtis Pope:
I did notice that actually as you were going through all that and it's just it's remarkable to me that that that's where we're at.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
And you know what looking at the median prices and average prices, I just took a glance every single one in every single municipality is all over a million dollars for detached amazing. Wow.
Curtis Pope:
Oh, with that, I should probably think about taking a break Michelle? No, there's a lot of stats there and I know you love your stats and people can get a hold of these stats by going where
Unknown:
Michelle come in we're back
Curtis Pope:
with more right after this she becomes real estate group show with Michelle Cummings and myself Curtis Pope. And I know you gave a quick introduction there but I know you're world famous for your introductions. Michelle. So why don't you give an intro to our guest
Michele Cummins - PREC:
we have here for our listeners, Linda neatly and she is with the CO operators and she was born and raised in Alberta. And we were talking about this actually off air a little bit here before the show. I love Alberta, you know it's a Heartland love it. Anyways, she transferred her job to BC to make her home here. And he's been with the cooperators for six years, that's as long as I've been with REMAX actually. And her background is in banking and finance. She loves what she does. And she loves educating people I've seen this firsthand. And she loves educating them on all sorts of investments and and and all that but also how the biggest thing is protect themselves and their loved ones. And she loves the outdoors and being creative. That's a lot we have catered spirit in. And she has great reviews online. If you look her name up in the cooperators, and she has a really neat Facebook business Facebook page and a Twitter she actually gives really great advice on there. I'm always liking and reading them. And so anyways, without any further ado, we welcome Linda Neely to our show.
Unknown:
Hello, everybody. And thank you, Michelle, I'm so happy to be here with you.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
Thank you for coming on. And I wanted to ask you the first question because Curtis and I were like, he has questions. I have questions. And I'm like, I want to ask the first one. So my first question to you is, do you have to buy the creditor insurance from the bank on your mortgage?
Unknown:
That's a great question. We come up with this a lot, because the bank is always going to offer you their creditor protection when you buy the mortgage, but you don't have to take it. We have a great product and the difference. There are some differences between doing creditor insurance and our insurance. When you do a proper life insurance policy. We do the underwriting up front. On creditor insurance they do the underwriting Add Time a claim. So there can be some discrepancy there, we also have a level amount, so the amount that you purchase is going to stay the same throughout the term. And we like to match up our term insurance, along with the amortization of the mortgage. So it's there, and it's gonna protect you fully, we also your premiums will never change to that entire time. The challenge with credit or insurance is that every time your mortgage does come up for renewal, you're gonna have to renegotiate that life insurance piece on the market. So you can look at increasing payments, or even a possibility that you don't qualify medically for. So by keeping the level of mouth, you are the owner of the policy, when you do with us, your payments will never change, it gives you some real good stability, knowing what your payments are going to be in the future. Also, it's fully portable. So because we do the life insurance on an individual, rather than on the home, you can actually sell your home. And by the way, incredible stats there that you gave us. So you know, it might be a really good time to sell and relocate. And you can do that without it affecting your life insurance policy, and still have the protection in place without increasing your payment. You don't have to ever renew it until the like I said this how the term is up. And yeah, so there's some really great thing that another really big benefit is that because the amount stays the same, so if you buy a million dollars, you're gonna get a million dollars, even if your mortgage balance decreases. So when you do the creditor insurance at the bank, there's just going to pay out the outstanding mortgage, and there's not going to be anything left for your family. When you do more, you know the the insurance with us, we're going to be able to provide you with that full payment. And then your spouse will be able to pay off the mortgage and keep the difference. So there's you know, some great benefits
Michele Cummins - PREC:
what I love about cooperators too, and you explained it better than me. So maybe you can share quickly, what's different with the cooperators than other Life Insurance insurance companies?
Unknown:
Well, we are 100% Canadian owned, we've been around for over 75 years. We are a true cooperatives. So we really do care about our people before profits. And we're very community minded. And we're an agent, as opposed to broker. So everything is in house, we have all of the expertise that are fingertips, we can walk you through the claims, we're not passing you off to another company, everything is within us from start to finish.
Curtis Pope:
That's very, very cool that you are kind of a one stop shop that way now. Now, this is one I've always, you know, heard people ask now, why do I need life insurance? When buying a home? I'm young, I'm healthy. Why do I need to buy life insurance?
Unknown:
Yeah, another great question. And one that I come up across quite often. So your mortgage is your largest asset that you're buying. And it's also going to be your biggest step. We buy insurance all the time you buy an iPhone for $1,500, we're getting the Apple Care for it, it makes sense to protect that investment. Most couples both have to qualify for the mortgage as well. And what people don't realize is you've entered into a legal contract. And if one of you dies, that contract is actually broken, and the bank can not renew your mortgage, they can call the mortgage. And then you could be in a position where you're forced to sell when you're still grieving for a lost spouse. By having protection that's going to take care of that you're able to clear off that debt and at least not have the financial worry of what's going to happen to your home, when you're still grieving and allows you to grieve properly.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
That makes perfect sense. And a lot a lot of people don't know. And so I wanted to ask about, like when they move. How does it affect their life insurance policy? You mentioned a bit earlier, but like, what do they do? How does it affect them?
Unknown:
Yeah, it's great. It does not change at all, which is the great thing. So life insurance rates are based on risk. So the older you get, the the higher your risk is just naturally, and your health. So when you're young and you're healthy, your rates are going to be low and you can lock in for a long period of time. You can by locking in those rates, you're going to take advantage of those rates and being able to secure your financial situation.
Curtis Pope:
So what differences are between say having a term and a permanent life insurance plan?
Unknown:
Yeah, the life insurance does have a couple of different options. You have term insurance and you have permanent insurance. And term insurance, think of it like a car loan, it has a specific length of time, 1020 30 years. And after that is over, it's meant to cover temporary, temporary, things like a loan, your mortgage, child's education cover for a temporary period of time, permanent insurance is in place for your entire life. So it's there any time it's a guaranteed payout, because at some point, we are going to die.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
Yeah, we talked about a couple shows ago, right, Curtis? And Curtis is like, I'm never gonna
Curtis Pope:
speak for yourself. I'm gonna live forever. I got plans. Yeah,
Unknown:
right. And it's great. Most financial planners will have a combination of the two, have one that takes you right through life and have one that covers your bulk of your finances at your, during your most at risk years, right?
Michele Cummins - PREC:
What are the advantages of working with a financial advisor like yourself, Linda?
Unknown:
Oh, that's great. So what we do as a financial advisor, we look at your big picture, not just one piece, not just your market, we look at this big piece of the puzzle, we look at your whole financial situation, and we're going to sit down with you and we're going to put together what's called a needs analysis. And when we come up and determine what is the right amount of life insurance to cover what your goals and priorities are. So every time I meet with a client, it is really client centric, and it's client focus. So what did they want to accomplish with the life insurance, what's most important to them, we're able to put a detailed report together with them with a recommendation of the amount of life insurance that covers, so we're looking at not just covering the mortgage, or we're looking at income replacement is their children is their donations that they want to make their depth and covering the big picture up into retirement. We also work with them and look at their financial needs and making sure that they're on track for retirement. And so your bank is going to give you creditor insurance. So just taking care of your mortgage was nothing extra. And we're going to look at the big picture and put a proper plan in place that's going to really protect you and your family.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
Thank you so much, Linda, for all this information. That was a lot of information actually. And I know there's so much more you know, education as as you love to give people knowledge and wisdom. And so I I wish we had more time, but we will definitely have to have you back. And if anybody wants to get a hold to Linda and ask her more questions, feel free to contact me Michele Cummins, - prec. Ca or in any way my contacts and I can I can connect you with her very easily. Thank you, Linda.
Unknown:
Thank you so much, Michelle, and thank you, Curtis. Thank you.
Michele Cummins - PREC:
Now new listings coming up I want to mention I just put together just went live eight listings in a land assembly of diamond Avenue and a couple corner on heard so diamond and heard. Now the pricing for all the properties of 83,137 square feet is at 1,719,900. And so dollars, that's about $153 a square foot, it is zoned currently our 558. It's we've had our permitting and we've got the permitting has been approved. And it's for four storey building with approximately 128 units of the density bonus. So that is if you know anybody good developer as out there, that right now is available. So and then I have six properties. It's three side by side duplexes off Second Avenue in Michigan. And that asking price for all six properties three duplexes of 5,200,000 and that is harmony with the city went very well as well. And it's a four to six story condo with approximately 55 units and a 10,000 square feet of commercial space. So it's mixed use. And so that one is available, call me if you're interested in that or any type of development and I can help you with that. And, and the quote of the week we are on and this is a really neat one. It's very profound quote I chose this week and it's the best way out, is always through. And that's by Robert Frost.
Curtis Pope:
Short and sweet but very profound at the same time. I am impressed Michelle,
Michele Cummins - PREC:
once in a while.
Curtis Pope:
That's a good one. I like that one. Well, people want more information about what you do as a realtor,
Michele Cummins - PREC:
where can they go? It's all coming up here.
Curtis Pope:
And join us again next week when we will talk real estate in order to unlock your real estate potential on the show real estate is maximized. Thanks for listening
If you missed last weeks episode where Michele and Curtis talk Stars, Feng Shui and the Most Affordable Places to Live in BC, please go back and take a listen - it's well worth it!