Angela Huo | RE/MAX Westcoast

I am Matt Parker, your host of the House Rich Homeowner podcast. Managing your home finances is hard. After many years in the mortgage industry, I've decided to combine my knowledge, resources and connections and turn them over to you. Each week I'll be featuring different home finance experts or my own personal insight to help you achieve financial peace at home. Let's. Hey, Matt Parker here. So excited to have Angela Hua with me today. I hope I said that correctly. Angela, thank you for joining me.

Yeah, yeah, thank you for inviting me here and I'm very excited to talk here too.

Cool. Wonderful. Angela has been with ReMax for over seven years now. She focuses on residential and also commercial real estate and was a few accomplishments on her end which is a long list of them. But in 2016 was a very special year. She was the RE MAX Diamond Club recipient award recipient, meaning she's one of the top ReMax agents in all of western Canada and has continued that through the last few years. So congratulations Angela. We're very grateful to have you here. Quickly, just to start off, what's one thing that not many people would know about you?

One thing I would say I'm kind of, I love work. I'm a little bit workaholic but I try to. I start recognizing the importance of balancing life and work. So I'm glad that I'm doing better now because I'm a mother of one kid and another one is on the way due in August.

Congratulations.

Thank you. And then I have a deeper understanding of life and work right now. Over the years of experiences, I realized that people really have to need to have more like stronger social awareness not only about themselves, also how to serve the community and how to face the community, how to love and care about the other people when you can. Especially under this kind of COVID 19 I think that we see lots of different perspectives and different aspects of our life. It's very special occasion for everyone.

Yeah, it's so much to grow from and learn from for sure. Yeah. No thank you. How did you back to the real estate? You get started in real estate and what sort of drove you to this industry?

My mother in law had been a realtor for 30 years. I met my husband, I moved to Canada from China 10 years ago with a background of information technology and also I worked in that field in China for seven years. When I moved here, my husband introduced this area career to me and then because he found that I had great capabilities of a community communicating with people and also had a passion about business and the transaction, the Sales. So he encouraged me. That's how I started.

Oh, wonderful. And so you got in. What kept you here? Why do you love what you do?

I think there's a few reasons that I really enjoy. First of all is got a chance to connect with a variety of people with different needs and wants. So you got to think and find out solutions that fit them, and you got to face and resolve the challenges every day. The second one is the sense of achievement that this career can provide me. It really gives me a great satisfaction in my life, not only closing one deal, but also answering people's questions related to their life, assets and investment decisions, and then also other relevant questions. So as a realtor, we'll have to play multiple roles in people's lives. The third one, I think is the most important reason to keep me here is with expectable income generated from this career, I can not only feed my own family, but also can give back to the community little by little. So I did a few things in the past few years that I was proud and I was pleasant to share. I was official sponsor of St Patrick's Secondary Choir in 2017, and I was a part of the group who supported many kids on that trip to Portugal and made sure they could afford their meals and daily needs while they were there. Also, I'm a regular donor to Backpack Buddies program, and I introduced the other agents to join on board to this program that helps feed local hungry kids for their lunch packs. During this COVID 19, I increased my donation to this organization, like many other responsible Canadian donors, just to help many families with the kids while they don't have a school and they don't have enough food every day. The third thing is, as one of the proud ReMax agents, I'm continuing to contribute to our Miracle network with BC Children's Hospital to help many kids with severe conditions and give them the second chance.

Wonderful. That's amazing. I mean, all great causes. I know having two young sons myself, Anything that relates to children and just helping is close to my heart, you know. Thank you for doing that. Just in general, and thank you for sharing. I really appreciate that. If you weren't in real estate, but I know you came from a different background, but do you see yourself, what would you see yourself doing if it wasn't real estate for a daily living?

Yeah, you know what? When I was young, I learned playing violin and I was lucky to play as an actress in a TV drama. So I was always very interested in the arts. When I grow up, I didn't have Too many chances continuing in that direction. So I would like to do anything that related to that area if I have a second chance in my later life. And then also I would want to involve more community services and I would love to explore many different ways to serve as many people as possible. We all have different kinds of skills and knowledge, so maybe I can find out something that I can do and then to contribute to many people then keep giving back.

Yeah, no, that's. I love that. So I know we're in a unique time with COVID 19. The situation with the real estate market is different than. I mean, it's a unique time. Sorry I lost you there. So I'm just going to. So it's all good. It should still be recording, I'd imagine. Yeah, it's still recording, so it'll be just fine. But I'm on for some reason I'm on a different view here. I'm going to go back to speaker view. Perfect. I'm going to go full screen. Awesome. Yeah. So I'm going to just start that question again and then we'll go from there. Okay.

Yeah.

No, that's great. Thank you for all great causes, Angela. Thank you for sharing that. That's amazing stuff. And back to real estate, just in terms of the market today, being that we're in a very unique situation with the COVID 19 pandemic and a lot of uncertainty in real estate and just in markets in general, obviously seeing the stock market and those sorts of things. Do you want to speak on just what you're seeing happening in the real estate world and. Or just give your advice when it comes to long term investment or the long term approach? Because for me, I think real estate generally is a long term investment. So do you have any advice for any home buyers or sellers that are looking to get into the market right now or what they potentially should be doing?

Yeah, I have a few keywords that I would like to share First. Stay calm, stay clear minded. Watch the market and take actions when you should. With so many uncertainties in front of us, many people feel anxious. I do too. And then sometimes we don't know what to do in the near future. So in the past three weeks since our social distancing and emergency announcement, we start reading and watching lots of negative news everywhere. What we heard and watched would affect how we think and how we perceive this world around us. So I would like to suggest that we should limit ourselves to those news every day. Maybe within an hour, I think maximum. And then also based on my own experiences and daily activities related to the real estate. What I see is the real buyers and sellers with the most urgent needs will stay on the market and then do as much as we can with reasonable measurements to protect ourselves. I can see that the viewing inquiries on my residential listings have increased again in the past week. The sellers of course are still cautious, yet not so appetite uptight with allowing people to view their properties. We just take lots of protections for both parties and to make sure everyone is safe and vacant. Residential properties are much more easier to work on with less concerns because it is vacant. So it's easier for us to control. Interesting thing is the offers still come to my listings. We still have a lot of activities going on. Even in the past three weeks I closed one deal. It's really difficult to talk because we cannot even present offers physically anymore. And then at the same time we figured out how to how we do it. So I see the activity still going on. So it's not so bad. In the next six to eight months, based on my observation, I think the sales volume will be decreased due to this COVID 19 and the impact on our overall economy. I think the most reason is lots of buyers that right now have not steady income as before and then so they might find challenging later on to approve the mortgage. Maybe they have got a pre approval, but due to the situation change, there might be some challenges over there. But I know that our government and also lots of lenders are doing their best to help us out. And then the price on the residential might have slight drop down since the demand becomes less later on this year. At the same time in spring of 2021 with the inventory reduction, the numbers of listings reduction and then the buyers need still there. The buyers they can come back on the market anytime when they find the situations more steady and clear. And then it is possible for the market price to go up a little bit. And then the market probably gradually become more sellers market again. That's my estimate. So I would suggest that for long term, if you have urgent needs, you should still stay on the market and watch and then to feel what you can do. But don't go out of your comfort zone. If you don't feel comfortable with some movements or actions, don't do that. If you feel comfortable and then you feel it's under your control, you can totally do it. It's really depending on personal preferences. There's no the best way to do it at the same time. Home sellers what I see very positive signs that as a real estate agent we got to talk to people constantly, even more often right now under this situation because lots of homeowners, the lack of directions, they don't know what's a firsthand experiences on this market. So by emails, by phone calls and by zoom video meetings, we got to keep in touch with all of the people that we can, we care about and we are serving this way that we can release their anxiety and then their uncertainty about the market. Then there will be a reduction like also less chance for them to pull out from the market very fast. So what I see is there's still so much we can do and then I see the positive signs from the market. I'm confident that we'll go through this difficult time.

Yeah, well said. Thank you. I have to agree on the lack of inventory over the. Once we get through this, depending when and when we get through this, we'll definitely have a direct correlation to the market itself. And interest rates most likely still being quite low should probably drive a lot of activity on the buyers wanting to get back into the market. But then with inventory low. Yeah, I agree that. I think that's perfectly set on the long term vision. Back on to more of a fun, fun approach. In your time in the market, obviously having been a part of quite many, many transactions, is there one property or one situation that stands out as the most memorable to you?

Yeah, there's a lot of memories in my career. The most memorable one was that I think I helped one family who just lost their son to cancer and then they tried to relocate at a new place. It was very painful for this family to continue to live in the regional townhouse. So the couple decided to sell their townhouse and change to another single detached. I remember it was in 2015, that was my second year in real estate and it was very, very hot market. After I sold their townhouse within three weeks I brought an offer to a cute single house and we had to compete with the other seven offers on that day. And I ended up helping this family get this house as their new home. And I knew we were not the highest and the strongest offer. So the wife, the family was very happy and then they appreciate me. The wife gave me a Starbucks coffee cup as an appreciation gift and I have been using it since. I really love that cup.

Wonderful story. I mean how involved you can be in clients lives at very, very crucial moments is pretty special. And to be able to help them through that is forever memorable. And I'm sure that they are grateful till this day. So thank you. I talk with clients about house rich a lot. I like to take a different approach with a lot of people in Vancouver in the lower mainland think, oh my, you know, everyone has big mortgages and they, you know, their house poor and all that kind of thought process. When I have clients that are the complete opposite of that because we focus more on cash flow, more on what I want to pay versus what I can pay and just sort of creating wealth from real estate. When I say house rich to you, what do you think of what does that mean to you?

I think that it means to me that by practical planning and actions you can own a property and accumulate your equity properly and then also you can grow your equity. Sometimes you need to use it and maintain it by applying the right principles and knowledge so you can see this kind of investment as a long term and then you can grow your wealth for sure. So you don't have to be always a great aggressively sell and buy and sell and buy. Too much actions. But you, you got to plan and you got to know the principles. So it's better to have a honest professional to guide you how to do it.

Yes, yes, thank you. You know, really grateful to have you with us today. Amazing advice and insight on the market and your stories. So thank you so much for that. Where would be the best place for anyone looking to purchase or sell their home? Where would be the best place to find you?

The easiest way is to visit my website, which is my name, angelah.com and then I think it's you can find my detailed contact information and then all of my information. Also you can send me the message directly from my website.

Wonderful. Well thanks again Angela. I appreciate your time. Wonderful to have you here and you take care and we'll talk to you very soon.

Yeah, thank you. Bye bye.

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