Ayla White | The R & D Group of Stilhavn

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. Thanks for joining us. I'm here with Ayla White. Thank you so much for being with us today.

Thank you so much for having me, Matt.

Yeah. Grateful for the opportunity. Why don't you give us a little introduction on who you are, where you work, and just your sort of background in the real estate world and we'll go from there.

Absolutely. So my name is Ayla. As Matt mentioned, I've been working in real estate for over seven years now. I started in Northern Alberta and did two years there and I've just done over five years here. I'm with the R and D group, which was also known as the Ruthie David Group, based out of East Vancouver, and we're with the Still Haven Brokerage. We're the top team in East Van. I believe we still are year after year. We work a lot in the Commercial Drive neighborhood, but I go out towards Port Moody and Burnaby as well myself as I have family and friends out that way. But yeah, that's a little bit about me. I've got a degree in psychology. I've lived all over the country and here I am now, and I'm happy to be in Vancouver and this is where I've always wanted to call home.

Wonderful. No, that's a great neighborhood that you guys focus on. I'm sure it's been very busy over the last little while, that's for sure. A lot of people probably relocating over there, even from west side of Vancouver and different areas as well.

Yeah, absolutely. Especially right now. Obviously we're going through Covid right now, but we're still seeing a lot of action on the east side, probably the most in the city, including North Vancouver and West Vancouver and the west side. But it's still busy. People are still buying, surprisingly. And yeah, it's a good spot to be in. I guess we're fortunate that way.

Yeah, yeah, no, that, that's. That's good to know. What's one thing that not many people would know about you?

I've lived in four different provinces and I grew up in the prairies.

Oh, perfect. Very cool. Which provinces?

So I was born and raised in Saskatchewan, and then I did my degree out in Toronto and then moved to Alberta and then eventually here. I always wanted to call this place home, though, because growing up where it was flat, I always loved the mountains and the ocean and. Yeah, knew I'd end up here eventually.

Cool, cool. Because when did you get. How long it used to. I know you mentioned it, but when did you get started in real estate? Was it, you said quite a few years ago now.

Hasn't it been years? Yeah, started in Alberta and then moved over here after doing two years there in real estate for longer. Been here over five years now.

Oh, perfect. And what do you love about it? What makes you love what you do?

I love working with people. Coming from a background in psychology and I've always done sales jobs. I just love working with people, seeing their homes and how they live and just making the biggest life reality and watching how happy they are and grow together and onto the next stages.

Yeah, very cool, very cool. And if you weren't in the real estate world, if you weren't a realtor yourself, what do you envision yourself doing?

I'd probably be a psychologist. I wanted to be a therapist growing up, going through university, which I think I can bring some of that over to my real estate career too. Helping people and working with people on a daily basis and working out problems and whatnot. So it's just always been a passion of mine.

Yeah, I know, I know on your side of things, you wear many hats, I'm sure in the process. So I think that would come in very handy. Managing expectations, just managing emotions, sort of very emotional situation. Because it is, as you said, generally the biggest investment and. Or purchase someone makes in their lifetime, continually, whenever we work with them. So having that. Having that background and expertise is probably very valuable.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. We obviously work with a variety of different people and just trying to get an understanding for who they are and what their expectations are and just making sure that we understand them. I think it's really important too. No one's the same, right?

I know we're recording this at a very unique time in the market and just in the world in general, but I know that you meet with your team regularly. You're surrounded by very good people in the industry that have amazing resources and information. Team, do you have any advice to give to clients on the current market right now that you would like to share with us?

Absolutely. You know, it's such a tricky time right now. I think the best thing to do is if you're not in a hurry, you're not serious about Buying right now or selling, I think you should just wait for the better of everyone, right. For the health of everyone affected. I think if you're in a crunch and you need to sell or you need to buy, then like, it's still happening. And I, obviously, I still want to continue my job during this period, but we're just trying to be safe and smart about it. We're still seeing lots of sales. Surprisingly, it's. Yeah, it's just such a funny and unique time. I mentioned earlier that we. I've been telling clients that, you know, if you're not serious about it, you should just be putting it off. Hoping that listing agents are going through special protocol when doing the showings and making sure that people aren't going in all at the same time. And showings are standard. They've got, you know, gloves and masks and sanitizer, that kind of thing. But yeah, it's just such a tricky time. I would say if you have to buy and sell, it's, you know, our team is very capable of doing it. We're still doing it and we want to help people. That's our job. But I think for the time being, especially because this is only a couple weeks in, I think it'd be best to wait it out if you're not in a crunch.

Yeah, no, I'd have to agree with you 100% on that. Do you have any advice for anyone that's maybe thinking, hey, this might be an opportunity to. I don't like to use the word opportunity during this, but this might be a chance for me to potentially purchase a property that may not have been able to just given the current situation. But I don't know what you're seeing, but I know we're seeing multiple offers still on homes. I think inventory is low. What are you seeing in the trenches out there in terms of the market?

Yeah, absolutely. There's certainly those people out there that are looking for their opportunity now, right before this all happened. I've been in so many multiple offer situations, listings way over ask price. It was a pretty crazy and intense market. So for those buyers that they really want to get into something right now, unfortunately, to say it out loud, it is kind of an opportune time. Yeah, we're still seeing some multiple offers. We're still seeing places listed. I have some stats here in front of me as well. Maybe I can just go through those right now just so people kind of have an idea. Vancouver Market's at. In terms of detached listings on the west and east side. Of Vancouver, we have 159 properties listed in the past three weeks and we've had 87 listed in the past two weeks for sales and detached, we had 31 in the past two weeks. In Vancouver, we're still seeing a lot going over ask price, there have been some, let's say, deals out there, but I think the deals it's going to be the longer we go through this. Right. But there's still people still there. We're still seeing multiple offers in terms of attached properties. So anything that's a townhouse or condo, we've seen 301 attached listings in the past two weeks, hit the market and 51 sales in the past two weeks. And then on the North Shore in North van, we've seen 8 sales in the past two weeks and 57 attached listings in the past two weeks. As for detached, we've got 3 sales in the past two weeks and 49 listed in the past two weeks. I didn't.

Oh, wow.

Okay, numbers there. But yeah, it's still, it's interesting to see where it's kind of hot and where there's still an activity. I mean, if you're looking, especially on the North Shore, it seems like there's a bit more opportunity if you know the inventory is a bit lower there and there's not as much activity.

Yeah, well, I'll get you to send it over and we'll include that in the notes below the episode just so people can see those stats and in real time and see what's actually happening. I mean, numbers tell the story and it's very interesting to hear of still activity happening, still people listing their homes. So I do agree that we're still new, we're still in the early stages of this, but we'll see where this takes us back to more of a fun question. I like to say, what does house rich mean to you?

Now when I read this question that you had given me, do you mean in terms of somebody being house rich but cash poor?

No, I look at it because what we're, I mean our whole goal is to, I use the term house rich. I think it's just a great term because a lot of people think of house poor a lot, meaning, you know, owning real estate in Vancouver or wherever, hey, I'm gonna have this big mortgage, payments are gonna be really high and I won't have any leftover cash flow for to live my life or to live the life I want. Where we look at it more of a, more of an optimized investment Strategy where I think we've, we've helped clients utilize equity, utilize their situation to continually further their portfolio going forward is more of our approach to it. So to me, how it's rich, house rich would mean, you know, making sure that you're in a situation, making sure you're purchasing something that is achievable, affordable, fits the budget, not necessarily overextending in that regard and then utilizing that investment. That's not technically an investment, more of a process. You know, we're prospecting, we're not really thinking that we're going to get an exact return on that investment because there's no rate of return on real estate in terms of, in terms I put $500,000 towards it, I'll get X percent back. So it's more of, it's more of a long term thing. So how do we figure out a strategy to turn it into an investment? And leverage to earn on those funds is kind of a more of a in depth strategy that we take with clients. But back to I guess your thought on it. What would it, what would you, what does it mean on your end if I said that house rich?

Well, I mean look at the stock market right now. That's your answer right there. Real estate is obviously the better investment in my opinion. You know, even though we might see a dip in the market, especially in Vancouver, we're always seeing cyber is cyclical. You know, are we gonna see the crazy booms of the crazy increases that we did 10 years ago? Probably not, but we know that we're still seeing people walk away with some equity and being able to upgrade down the road. Yeah, I think just looking at, you know, the price of oil and the stock markets and everything and look at the market, we're still seeing activity. People aren't afraid. I'd be afraid to invest right now unless it was in low stock. Right. So think that just answers it there. I mean as long as you can afford to put, you know, X amount down and cover your mortgage payments, you're, it's just, you know, it's such a, why wouldn't you, you know.

Yeah, I look at it as long term. For me, real estate can be a very, I mean to maximize on short term situations is far and few between and you have to, you know, be very expert, expert at those situations. But I mean, I think it's long term, I think really the value. And even if values do come down over the next little while, in my opinion it really only matters if we're selling or we want to refinance and access equity out of the home. I mean, if the value comes down over the next little while and. Or just stays where it is, that's just fine too. Right? Because it really only matters where it ends up. And historically, going through past challenges, whether it's locally or globally, generally ends up in a better position than where it started. So. Yeah. And I think we'll come out of this with very low inventory, very low interest rates, and once potentially things normalize to whatever that normal ends up being, there could be a situation where the market just picks right back up again because of where that leaves us at the end of this situation we're in today. So, yeah, thank you so much. I really appreciate.

I agree.

I think that's very helpful. And where would be the best place for clients to contact you, reach out, get advice from you? Specifically?

I have a pretty active Instagram account, so it's aylawhite. All one word. A Y, L, A W, H, I, T, E. We've also got our website, ruthandavid.com and you can also reach me on my cell phone at 604-880-7787. Definitely shoot you the info so you can tag at the bottom of the video. But yeah, I'm available anytime, not just during this crazy time, but I'm always here to answer any questions or concerns that people might have.

Well, thank you so much. Again, grateful for the opportunity. Always a pleasure working with you and chatting with you. And we'll make sure to include that. And is there anything you want to leave us with or.

Yeah, I think just on the last point that you mentioned, I do, you know, in terms of predicting what's going to happen in the market here, obviously I don't have a crystal ball, but having talked with our office, we've kind of collectively agreed that we do think the office or the market will bounce back eventually. So, you know, I think we will go back into a market, whether it be later this fall or back in next spring, but we are gonna anticipate a busy market after all this blows over because people still need to buy and sell at the end of the day, and that's why we're still seeing activity right now. You know, some people might have sold already, so they still need to buy. I've got clients that have kids on the way. Like, there's just. There's always going to be a market out there. And yeah, I know it's a scary time, but I'm here if anybody has any questions. We're doing a lot more virtual meetings and video walkthroughs of properties and whatnot. So I'm not afraid to be out there for anyone. So I'm always here.

Wonderful Life happens, things happen and we'll always have to re readjust as needed. And thank you again for joining us. I really appreciate it and thank you for the valuable information and we'll talk to you very soon.

Okay, sounds good. Thanks so much Matt.

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