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Michele Talks With Stuart From Windsor Wolves Creations Ltd.
October 5, 2022 | Posted by: Michele Cummins
Curtis Pope:
Saturday morning. It's time for another edition of the Cummins Real Estate Group show with local Rockstar realtor Michelle Cummings and myself Curtis Pope. Good morning, Michelle.
Michele:
Good morning Curtis. Are you feeling the fall weather?
Curtis Pope:
You know, I'm still wearing shorts.
Michele:
Good for you.
Curtis Pope:
I'm one of those West Coast guys that like tries to wear shorts as long as I possibly can.
Michele:
I'm the total opposite. Me my sweater and long pants as soon as my boots as soon as the weather
Curtis Pope:
you're breaking out the flannel. Yeah, you can all stylish. some apple cider, all that fun stuff.
Michele:
I waited. I was very patient and waited until the first day of fall until Thursday afternoon to have my first fall drink.
Curtis Pope:
Was it a pumpkin spice latte? No. Oh,
Michele:
I didn't go that route. I went with a slightly different route. Wow. Yeah. And it was delicious. It was hot as well, because I've been having iced coffees mostly during the summer but you know it's fall. Now. You got to have a hot coffee. So I had
Curtis Pope:
to make that change. Oh, maybe you had the wasn't a Christmas coffee wasn't?
Michele:
No, I didn't do that. I didn't know that. I was not very But although I did have northern lights put up my Christmas lights this last week already know. Well, they said they can do it early and they're not charging me anymore. So I said have attr
Curtis Pope:
What do you got Richard on fourth, you can put up your Christmas lights.
Michele:
Men should not go on ladders. Okay. Don't go on the roof. And don't go on ladders. Unless you're in contracting like Stuart, our guest here today. That's right. And even then I question some people going on ladders anyway. So I pull
Curtis Pope:
them off a few ladders in my time. That's what I'm talking about. Stay off the ladder, but I fall better than most people. I roll with them and I'm good.
Unknown:
You drop roll. Wait, what is it? That's for fire?
Curtis Pope:
Well, there's not usually a lot of stopping when I'm falling off a ladder until I hit the bottom and then there's still some rolling and trying to bounce back
Michele:
or when you're on fire. Or you're on fire. Yes. So did you have a fall coffee
Curtis Pope:
yet? No, I have not because again, I tried to like make summer last as long as possible. I mean, we're still playing softball. We got a game Monday night or last game then like we're in tournaments coming up this weekend. So to me, it's not fall yet until baseball is done.
Michele:
Are you gonna get talking about baseball, you're gonna get your real estate license. So you can play in our tournament next year.
Curtis Pope:
It seems like a lot of work just to come to play on your team like, worth it. Isn't there some way I can be like an employee for you for a day like you know, when
Michele:
they sign weekends, you can help me with open houses. There we go houses
Curtis Pope:
when you sign somebody to a one day contract, and they're eligible to do things like can't we do that? Like,
Unknown:
you just have to chase off one bear and you're good to go.
Curtis Pope:
That's right. I keep your bear chaser away or person.
Unknown:
So stewards. Talking about there is a bear going into my live Facebook walkthrough video this last week, showcasing the property and mission that I have off Keystone. It's wonderful. It's beautiful. And this beer was adorable. And it didn't attack me it just ran away. So it was all safe. It was all good. It was just
Curtis Pope:
looking for a picnic basket according to cartoons, right. Back to my childhood. Oh, yes. So
Michele:
last week, not this last Thursday, but the Thursday before I had the sellers seminar zoom event, and it is up on my YouTube for everyone to go and view if you didn't get to be there yourself. It is there. And on my socials, you can check them out. Today, our first segment, we're going to talk about a couple pieces of news that I feel the public should know about. And if they don't know already. And so the first one is actually that the government is talking about foreign buyers and not allowing them to purchase in Canada and they think this is going to cool off or calm down or reduce pricing of, of real estate. Now, should foreign buyers be banned from buying in Canada? Do
Curtis Pope:
it well, good luck. There's always a way around, people will figure this out. People have already probably figured it out. They're just waiting for the government to say something so they can put their plan into action.
Michele:
Exactly. So you don't think it'll affect affordability?
Curtis Pope:
I am saying no. I'm being a bit pessimistic here. I know. But the government's always usually just a little behind on these things.
Stuart:
And like you said, like everyone figures things around things like when they bought the foreign buyers tax app, and they came back and bought with a vengeance after that after they figured it out. And then they raised it again. So but there's affordability issues and they're actually self imposed because there's too much red tape, I believe. And Stuart you can you can pipe in on this one and delays and costs to building new homes for people to live in. And the foreigners buying doesn't have the majority buying power right now. So how long World would that help. I mean, bring off the red tape of for builders for developers and allow them to build more streamlined and quickly and more efficiently and more cost effectively. It's truly, that's definitely the case. And especially now with the step code and the way that things are actually increasing lately, it's becoming more and more difficult and more and more challenging to be able to pass certain inspections, especially with regards to efficiencies and green building. But yeah, there's especially city of Vancouver, any contractor that's had to do anything to do with permits and the city of Vancouver, it's an absolute nightmare, months delays and all that kind of stuff. And sometimes clients try to coerce you to do work without permits. Hopefully, you'll get the permit, hopefully, you'll get the permit and stand strong. And there's, I know a number of contractors who started work without it, they got busted. And then this, the homeowner ends up with their house ripped apart, and they have to sit on it for three months, six months, something like that, until the contractor can actually come back in once they've got the permits and everything. So yeah, one of Richard's friends had a roof that they were trying to do or something else. And they were stuck with a tarp on their roof for a year waiting for the permit because they got bested. Yep. Yeah. crazy like that. So how the, like when developers purchase properties and contractors like to say you're trying to budget you're trying to give quotes, and how can you when the cost of everything is going up the delays in the supply chain? Yep, they fix that that would fix a lot of affordability issues. Yeah, I mean, even within that, I know, a lot of folks, myself included, our estimates and quotes are only valid for, like very short periods of pockets of time now, because thing things are so they change so quickly, right on the rise. And, I mean, I myself is and I can tell you, I know others as well who have gotten burned on projects, and we've kind of committed to something and it's just, you got to stick to your word and, you know, try to negotiate and communicate with the clients as as honestly and truthfully as possible. And hopefully, they're understanding, you've got to increase the costs on jobs. But you know, sometimes you quit a job at 200,000, by the time we actually get to doing it, it's probably going to cost you 200,000, let alone trying to make money on it. So it hurts everyone all around, it hurts you in your business. And now, you know, we need people like you. And then for the homeowner who's trying to afford it, what did they do they have to, they still have to do it or they they cut back on what they want to do. So now people aren't purchasing as many things as they could and then inflation you think of inflation as well on top of everything. And so there's there's a lot with that. So fix the supply chain, that would be really good.
Curtis Pope:
It's a great step in the right direction, fix the red tape, obviously, and the red. That's the big part of it. It always has been. It's a bureaucracy, right. And it just like, nobody wants to move too fast.
Unknown:
And if you don't move too fast, you end up stumbling along the way.
Curtis Pope:
Exactly.
Unknown:
Okay, the pending cooling off period for buyers is the next topic I wanted to talk about because this is huge. So have you heard about the newly legislated cooling off period? I have. Awesome. Okay, so have you I have not okay, perfect. So
Curtis Pope:
I work with a real estate agent quite closely on a week to week basis. So I have her to becoming acutely aware of I
Michele:
just need your license now. One day contracts in the knowledge. So some quick facts about this. So first, what is the cooling off period? Well, also it's being called homebuyers rescinding period. So you know about the seven day rescinding period that a buyer has for new home construction or pre construction for pre sales. You don't have to have any subjects. It doesn't matter. If you have a firm offer in place as a new construction buyer, or pre construction, you get seven days to change your mind. And that is what the government has for new home construction. However, we've never had that on resale properties. I mean, I've never heard of that anywhere in this area. So they're talking about starting this January 1 2023. And the three date period is what they're they're going to do they're wanting to give three days to for a buyer to resend it starts the day after the offer has been fully accepted and does not include Saturdays, Sundays or statutory holidays. Buyers are subject to a fee though of point 25%. So point two 5% of the purchase price to exercise their right of rescission. So yes, they can present the offer within three days but they will have to pay that penalty. So there's no option to waive. Because I asked this question. There's no offer to waive this because usually buyer's or seller's that they agree and okay, we're not going to allow that in negotiations. You think that would be okay, but it doesn't matter sellers buyers can't sign to an agreement to waive this, the three day period stays. The rescission can be delivered by snail mail, fax or email, or the email must be sent with a read receipt option. Keep that in mind that texting is not a legal way of rescinding so that is what they're talking about.
Curtis Pope:
You can't you can't rescind by an emoji or a gift. What does this mean? Happy face? I think that means what? I just want to poop emoji. Does that mean they're rescinding?
Stuart:
The fact that fax is still accepted as being credible in its own right. So I don't have a fax anymore.
Curtis Pope:
No, it goes right to our email here. Yeah. You try to fax us an email anyway.
Michele:
I had that option for a long time. Yeah, that's a good one. Okay, so the notice invoking the rescission is deemed to be received as soon as it's sent, the Read Receipt does not have to be returned by the seller just initiated by the buyer side. Okay, another fact the fee can be deducted from the deposit money held, the balance of the deposit automatically is returned to the buyer. During the three day period, no authorization from the seller is required. So now, right now, usually, it's after subject removal is when you do like that's a typical real estate transaction in our area is you don't really give the deposit until 24 hours or so after or at time of full subject removal. But now, I'd be telling my sellers, we need to deposit at time of acceptance, at least to make sure this point to 5% of the purchase price is covered in case they do rescind, because there might be issues, you know, what if they tried to hold that back, we need money and trust now. So that's going to change that game of real estate as well, for my suggestion to my sellers, at least, and I'm sure other realtors would do the same thing to protect their sellers.
Curtis Pope:
Like when my real estate agent came here and handed me a check for $50,000 A couple years ago,
Michele:
you had such a great Realtor you have.
Curtis Pope:
I was nice. I wonder who it is. I mean, the money was gone real fast by the new house. But still, it was a nice moment, it helps
Michele:
every little bit helps. It's so true. So yeah, you want it that. And the last note is seller must provide a mailing address, fax number email address in the contract to purchase sell to provide a notice to the seller. So that will also be so that's that's what we got on there.
Curtis Pope:
All right, well, we should probably take a quick break here. But if people want more information about your listings, and what you do as a realtor, where can they go? We're back with more right after this. Alright, you're back with segment number two of the company's Real Estate Group show with Michelle Cummings and myself Curtis Pope. Now, Michelle, I'm gonna put you on the spot here because I know we've already had them talking. But you do those world famous Michelle Cummings introductions. And I think it's about time for one of those.
Michele:
Okay, well, this time I was actually going to be a little not. So what did you call him? Huh? World and world class.
Curtis Pope:
I don't even know what I said. I know you always do these big, huge World Class Introductions where, you know you really build people up wonderfully. So I figured we'd have you do that.
Michele:
This expectation is now set. Oh, yeah. I'm excited for this. Stuart. Stuart? Yeah. No, Stuart Windsor is here with us from Windsor wools. And he owns and runs a fantastic company. And you've heard him on the first segment. And I am going to let him tell us a little bit more about himself right now. But we met I was it within the last year. And we met through some business associates and we got talking and we visited and then we just I got to know his business and how he runs things. And he really stood out to me. I know a lot of contractors. I know a lot of builders. But there was something about Stuart that really stood out and he's got an amazing Google reviews and I wanted to read a couple of them and just quickly just part of one go on to his Google you will see it but they were so excited when he came in him and his team. They said he was professional A high quality responsiveness was great and value was wonderful. And they said that they had no complaints and no issues when they had him do a major renovation on their condo, they were very, very happy with how he responded to questions. And so I always look up Google reviews. Of course, everyone should and probably does nowadays, but so it's proven that Stuart is a man for the job. And right now, Stuart, can you please tell us a little bit more about yourself personally, maybe share a little bit, personally speaking? Sure. I've got pretty large and ambitious dreams to be able to. I'm building my life currently. So through the two businesses that I'm running through Windsor wolves, to be able to give back to the community. My partner is from Mexico. And we're really, we're both really keen to get to go and start building some sort of educational facilities down there to be able to help some of these smaller villages in Mexico to help empower the youth there to go to break away from their kind of their current financial standards and where they're at. So a lot of what I'm doing now, on the construction side of things, as well as the business coaching side of things are really feeding down that path of how to push me towards that. That's amazing. Now, how did you meet this partner? How did you decide to do this? What was in your heart, your call, um, well, I met my partner she was here. She's, she's just here for, like, originally, I kind of eight or nine months, I met her in a Mexican restaurant, and I'm quite chatty. So I went, and we chatted up pretty good. And then I gave her my number, she ended up, you know, connecting with me. And we it was kind of all history from there. But prior to that, on the desire to give back, I taught English and chem in Cambodia for a while, and to have and see that to have that experience. It filled my heart, and really changed the entire trajectory of my life. And I really have to thank that entire experience for really correcting my path and pointing me in the direction that kind of leading with my heart with what I'm doing. So it's an amazing story. Thanks for sharing,
Curtis Pope:
it has been to Mexico to you, you do fall in love with Mexico and the people there because the people are so friendly. And, and great. And and I like it because I'm tall there. But what I like would love about Mexico is the people though and their and their spirit and their personality. But at the same time, it's a bit it can be a bit almost depressing because there's, it's such a difference. You're either filthy, stinking rich, or you're poor. There's no middle class. They're very little
Stuart:
anything very little. Yeah, and only in certain kinds of cities, Mexico City and Monterrey, which is actually where my wife is from. And exactly that and but they are so warm. They're so welcoming. I mean, even from the first day that I met my, my wife's family, they welcomed me in with hugs and open arms. And just,
Curtis Pope:
it was just incredible and amazing food.
Stuart:
I mean, we can do a whole segment on that. So
Curtis Pope:
I love Mexican food. And I, I do love Mexican. Yeah, we can do it. We can broadcast from Mexico, this show at some point, maybe vacation property or something rebroadcast from the vacation. Alright, how you think well work on that.
Stuart:
Part of our intention is to be buying properties down there as well. So you know, I know, a realtor that can help me out with buying properties in Mexico right now. So great connections down there. There you go. So what does your business do? Yeah, so like I kind of mentioned before, there's kind of two components to it. So one is the general contracting side of things. So we work hand in hand with interior designers, architects and engineers to perform residential renovations and commercial tenant improvements. We're also in the process of getting our new home builders license. I was previously a project manager for a Passivhaus builder. So my intention is to get back into the high efficiency game as well. And then additionally, to that, I'm doing business coaching for small construction trades. And really, hyper focusing on the individuals I bring in are very values driven. So respect, honesty and accountability are the three driving values of myself and the people that I would like to work with and bring in and then helping them with being able to manage their money, whether it's through job costing, and how to price jobs, time management stuff. So understanding what jobs to take what jobs not to take how to actually make sure that they have time for their family and loved ones or whatever they want to do. Then lastly, just finding their ideal clients and making sure that they understand what separates them from their competition. company culture is so important and you want people to you want to work together for a long time longevity and it sounds like you definitely have that in spades. You know what you're doing there. So what separates besides what you've already mentioned, because a lot of that separates, oh and having a vision You gotta have a vision and you do oh, so good. Okay, so what separates you from your competitors? On the contracting side of thing. I make a point, again, that honesty has been a big thing. And I know some individuals have a difficult time with when mistakes are made, and being honest about it and taking accountability for it. But I'll be the first one to admit when I've made a mistake, and work with the clients to resolve anything that's kind of come up. But then also really trying to dial in what I'm good at, and what I'm not good at, and making sure that I'm only staying focused on things that I have strengths in or that my team has strengths in, and then finding the appropriate people who are able to fill in the gaps with that is so true, because one of the Google reviews that I read said that something about the paint wasn't done right or something without the paint. And they they asked you about an instantly, you said, I'll take care of it. And you got somebody in there and you repainted the whole thing. And you didn't charge them one thing you did, they didn't have to fight with you. I've had contractors in Oregon coast, my beach house, oh my goodness, horrible, horrible, like, the major things they did wrong. And it was the it was horrible experience. So that was great. I know exactly what your job that you're referring to there. And yeah, it was just one little kind of blemish or painter that the the painter had made. And we kind of discussed it, and it was just like, nope, I'll take care of this. And yeah, we repainted the entire apartment. And they were just like they were blown away by by doing that. And it just it, it just setting a higher standard, it's what I'm going for is huge customer service. And it was amazing. That was great. Okay, so then who would your ideal client be? So on the contracting side of things, I tend to connect with a lot of interior designers and we share work back and forth a lot. But the individuals themselves tend to be generally professionals or entrepreneurs, people who have a general kind of means to add a lot of love and character to their properties, and not people who are looking to just kind of skip through something and try to get something done and slap it together. And then on the coaching side of things, generally people are, they've got fewer than four employees. They are, they're rocking around with not branded trucks, they're probably working 1416 hours a day, probably going job to job, a lot of taking from Peter to pay, Paul, that those style of contractors and there's unfortunately a lot of them out there. But it was with just a few kind of tweaks and changes to what they're doing. can really empower them and make a world of difference to to their life. For me in particular, the coaching fills my heart a lot more than the contracting. Because I know that I'm able to make such a significant difference in the lives of these individuals and their families around them and and kind of their, their their network. So watched it and you've seen it. It's it's incredible. It's incredible. So do you coach only contractors and builders? Yes, typically. Yeah. So I'm only focused on construction trades. Oftentimes, I'm trying to stay specifically on red sealed trades. That's like plumbers, electricians, carpenters, but being a general contractor myself, I'm taking on general contractors and I still have a few others that are not red seal, but just construction trades in general. Yeah. Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for coming and in the studio again. So this is wonderful to have art. You're our first gas back in the studio, right?
Curtis Pope:
That is true. Yes. For three years or so. Oh, yeah.
Stuart:
Yes. Thank you for having me. This has been an incredible experience and I appreciate being part of the team here. Thank you for coming. And I have a I'm gonna end with a quote of the week that is I chose it specifically you inspired this quote. But before I end the show with a quote I do want to mention all my open houses I've gotten nine of them this weekend you're gonna name all nine of them nine No, I'm actually not just go on my socials and you can see all your one day contracts come in. So our quote of the week to give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift. But that's okay. It's from Steve Prefontaine.
Curtis Pope:
I can't make fun. That was pretty close, I think. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, she practiced that a couple times where we got on air. Oh, that's a good one. I like that one. Okay, if people want more information, or do you see your listing your open houses, all that stuff, where can they go? I'll come in. And join us again next week and we will talk real estate in order to unlock your real estate potential on the show real estate is maximized. Thanks for listening