Interview with Krista Lapp - Top Coquitlam REALTOR® - KW Elite Realty

Hey, Matt Parker here. Very grateful, super excited to have Krista Lap with me today. Krista, thank you so much for joining us.

Absolute pleasure.

Matt, wonderful. No, Krista is a top performing real estate agent focused in the tri city area and she's, you know, she's been doing it for, for quite some time and she's high level and we're going to get some good information from her today. So let's jump right in. Krista, I like to start off fun question. What would be one thing that not many people would know about you?

Well, I would say that I've been married 26 years, have two kids, so a son and daughter. One's 22 and the other is 20. So people are always very surprised by that. Especially you know, clients who wrote looking, you know, at a property where they want to start a family and then they say to me, well you understand when you have kids one day and it's like my kids could have kids. Right, that's cool.

Yeah, I, you know, I never would have guessed that. That's really, that's really impressive. Yeah, that's so cool. Thank you. So 20, that's, that's, yeah, we're, my wife and I have been married for 11 years so coming up on 12. So we're trending, we're trending in the right direction but yeah, I don't know if you're good skincare program or whatever it is but keep it up. That's really cool.

Thank you.

Yeah, wonderful. So back to real estate. How did you get introduced to it? So sort of what, how did you find it and what made you sort of get into real estate as a career?

Right. So it actually wasn't really on my radar. So my background is I owned a web development social media management company and I just kind of, you know, I had a friend who was in real estate and just kind of started those discussions about, you know, what would that look like and opportunity presented itself and then I really just sort of dove in and never looked back from there.

Yeah. Okay. Interesting. I always find it so fascinating how everyone sort of finds our industries especially, I mean even on the mortgage side it's like, you know, it's not something you kind of grow up thinking, oh that's something you know, I'll probably end up doing. I mean for me it was simple. It was just I grew up around it. My family was in the mortgage industry so. So it was a pretty smooth transition in. But it's always cool to see what people like yourself that have now found such High level success and how you found it. So it must be interesting. You should probably have a lot of skills from your past sort of career that you can transition over into the real estate world and sales side of things, I'd imagine.

Well, exactly. Right. So I think that the work ethic was already there, the understanding, relationships, communication. So that side was there, the sales side also. But then also bringing in sort of that unique perspective of understanding how to market online. Right. Being social media savvy, understanding having how to have a really great website presence. Right. So taking all those elements and bring it into the real estate side, I mean, it's just advantageous for not just clients, but also for my own business and growing my business to meet new people. Right, yeah.

And those things are so important today when, when, you know, selling a house or buying a house, the online presence is, is, is so valuable. So what do you love about your sort of day to day job?

Right. Well, the day to day is, I mean, you kind of. I have in my mind that there should be the structure and like this perfectly planned out day with blocks of time that usually goes out the window. Right. So what I do like about it is that it is sometimes ad hoc, you know, you're kind of throwing a scenario or situation that you need to deal with right away. And I think because of this type of business. Right. And expectations and how you can work it, it's not like your standard 9 to 5. I love that flexibility and opportunity to make changes on the fly. Right. So still very committed to taking care of things that need to be taken care of Right. Throughout that day. But I do love that there is that flexibility and needing to drop everything to do this, to take care of this. Right. So you have that option and just the connecting with people, doing that every single day.

Yeah, no, it's like I'm a big fan of trying to time block, you know, set certain tasks at certain times. But like you said, things happen, things come up and it's like, okay, well now we have to react. So it's good to have. It's that ability to sort of be able to maneuver those things that sort of come that wouldn't necessarily happen in a traditional 9 to 5 setting with, you know, a lot of evenings and weekend potentially and things like that. So it's definitely, it's definitely. I love it and I'm sure you love it. But it takes, I think, a unique, you know, it's special skill set or mindset to be able to be able to handle those sorts of things. So if you, you might have something that you know, draws back from what you were doing before. Real estate, maybe there's a skill that you have in real estate that could also be a business at the end of the day as well. But is there, if you weren't doing what you do, is there anything that fascinates you or something else that you see yourself doing that you feel you'd have success in?

Right, that, that's a very interesting question because I actually don't have a plan B. Right. So no, when I think about it, I mean anything to do with people communicating, I probably would go back to something to do with it. Web development, that sort of thing. I'd be an entrepreneur. I definitely, you know, that sort of. You build it into your lifestyle. Right. And I'm Definitely not that 9 to 5 sort of person, more like 7am to 10pm kind of person. Right. And so something, yeah, definitely something to do with people communication, it. And then there's this whole side where I really interested in learning more about the cryptocurrency and trading as well.

Yeah, the financial markets can, I mean it's very interesting and especially, you know, it can be very exciting too. Right. It could be quick little, you know, excitements that actually similar to real estate, which it can be, you know, especially I'd imagine when you're in, you know, a multiple offer situation or you know, put into and you're competing against X amount of offers and your client actually gets the place. That's an exciting moment and at the same time can be one of the most difficult moments because of the fact that it's been such a difficult year, especially from a buyer's point of view, given the competition out there. So that, I mean leading into that then, I mean as we're recording this, we're mid November 2021, you know, on the tail end of historically busy year and you know, a challenging year from a, from a, from a real estate perspective. Values, inventory levels, all that kind of stuff. Any sort of advice that you can provide or give that you feel is relevant today for anyone that's in the market or thinking about getting in the market.

Absolutely. And I think you brought up some very good points and I would say the biggest thing when I'm meeting with buyers is to help them understand the expectations of the market and what can you do to prepare for that. Right. So we all know getting pre approved by. But beyond that, given the market that we're in, most of the properties that are, you know, high demand or very desirable they are selling on that offers in day with that subject. Free offer. Well, how do you compete with that? So know what you need to do the week prior to prepare for that. Right. So it's not just that you're pre approved, you know, take it a step further. Can you get an appraisal done, Check with the city, you know, check out the property, do all of your due diligence so that you can go in nice and clean. Right. Because you have to, you have to be very competitive in this market. Right. So yeah, 100%. Be prepared, understand the market expectations if you're a seller and become educated on that and be willing to go there. Right. If you're not willing to go there, then, you know, your emotions take over and you may pull back. Right. And I would say make sure you're working with an agent that understands how to navigate that multiple offer world and that has good connections within the community that you're purchasing in. Because relationships are key, right. In terms of, of who the seller's agent is and who the buyer's agent is. A lot of times deals come together because there's that relationship there.

It's so true. It is a relationship business. And like you said, the preparation is so key, especially in a market like this, I think always. But especially in situations that we've seen over the past months where like you said, well, we need to make sure financing is in place pre inspections. Is there a way that we can sort of get around a lot of these different things to make sure that they can go in subject free or how do we get creative to make it happen? And really, so I found over this last year there's a lot more upfront preparation consistently and then maybe it's the third offer that that person's putting in and we're doing it again. So it's that management of, you know, knowing that you may not get the property, you know, it's going to be difficult. You are competing against a lot of other people and that's a difficult thing when it's, you're, you're looking to buy a house to live in and to move into. So I'm sure you're hands on with that frequently throughout the week. And you know, managing expectations and emotions can be a tricky thing, especially when you're thinking about, you know, where you're going to live and in your family home. So. No, that, that's very good advice and I agree one with everything you said. So thank you. You've probably seen a lot of cool properties and interesting Situations throughout the real estate, throughout your journey. Anything that's memorable or a situation that's the most memorable to you that you can think of.

I would say one is very recent. It was just within the month of November. So representing a seller, they have a lovely townhouse, did the showings offers in on a certain day. Received nine offers on the property, six of them being subject free. Very nice offers. Right. So she had great selection from six for six offers. And many of them were pretty similar to do with pricing. One of them was well above others. And so for me, thinking, what do most sellers do? They want the offer that has the highest price, right. Best terms and conditions, highest price. So this particular seller, she took a much lower offer and the reason behind it was the story of the buyers. So this buyer's agent provided a letter, photo, background, history of these buyers. It turns out, you know, there was some motivation on the end of the buyers as to why they wanted to purchase this property and why they want to live in this complex. And it touched the heart of my seller. And she's like, I want to take this offer. And I actually. So I hung up the phone and I actually, like, I just gave it a few minutes and I'm like, I'm going to call her back one more time and just double check. Because, you know, there was a financial difference between this offer and a higher offer. I just really wanted to make sure she was confident before saying anything to any of the agents. Right. Call her back. No, I want to give this young couple an opportunity to get into the market. And she took that offer. So when, you know, when I gave the agent, the buyer's agent, that phone call, he couldn't believe it. Like, it was unbelievable moment. So I was very honored to work with that. That client. It meant a lot to me and it just like showed how huge her heart was to do something like that.

It's a special person. Look past just the numbers, right, and see sort of the whole situation and the whole. Yeah, the whole, the whole. Understand from an emotional point of view and just sort of intellectual, like an emotional intelligence of, you know, this is, this is just the right thing to do or this is, you know, this is what feels right to me. And to act on that, not just to, oh, they offered this. This, you know, this offer was the highest. Let's take that one. That's. That's really cool story. Thank you for sharing. That's. It's nice to hear. Very nice to hear.

So those letters and photos, they can work, right?

Yeah, no That's a, you know, you think, oh, does it, will this actually help? And I think that, you know, people are innately very good, you know, and I think that it can definitely given the right situation, in the right circumstances, be very beneficial like it was in that situation. And, and you know, look what it did. Thank goodness it was just made it meant to be. And that's, that's a cool story. That's a happy ending. I like that. That's really nice. I talk about, I use the term house rich. I think it's kind of fun but I talk about a lot of with clients is tax deductibility. Smith Maneuver Strategies creating wealth from equity in the property, whether to buy more real estate or to invest in the markets like you were talking about as well, the term house rich. Or when you hear that, what do you feel or what do you think of when, when I say that?

Right. So it's really about building equity in your property or your properties. And what this does is it, it opens up options for you, right. It gives you security, it gives you freedom, it gives you opportunity. So that could be, you know, taking money out to send your kids to university, right. Helping them secure a property or family member, purchase a home. Right. It also gives you the potential to, you know, do a mortgage, like a reverse mortgage so that you can retire and live comfortably and have security there. Right. So another example is we have a client who they want to purchase a pre sale property but they're like, where do I come up with $200,000? All your clients have $200,000 cash just lying around extra. And so you know, we talked about the equity and he had no idea. Right. So it opens up options for you and just it gives you security, peace of mind and you think about as well, you look at the Vancouver real estate market and the trend, it's always, you know, there's little dips but it's always on the upward swing. Where can you like, if you take your average income, like your average person's job, you can't even compete with what they earn versus owning a property and what that could create. Right. So you know, you could have like your average job but you can be host rich, which is amazing. It gives people opportunity.

Yeah, no, well said. It's, you know, it's a challenging place to buy real estate given the price point. And you know, it's not like incomes of sustained, you know, house value increases. But like you said, what we've seen is being in the market does give options and gives opportunity and because of the fact that, as you know, I always like to say, like, the trend's your friend, like, as the trend and the value continues to grow, it's, well, we have all this equity that's today doing not much, really nothing. How can we leverage that equity to then further ourselves financially, Provide comfort, give peace of mind? You know, maybe it's even just having a line of credit as a just in case fund that is there separate from insurance and things like that or savings. It's just a nice form of security just to know that, you know, we have that just in case and if we ever wanted to use it, well, we have the opportunity to, you know, do something financially beneficial as well with or have funds for the next place from a deposit point of view, because I need deposit funds before I sell all those different things, which is really the planning, planning aspect of it. So no. Wonderful information. Thank you so much, Christa. I really appreciate it. It's been an absolute pleasure to have you. And where would be the best place for any, any buyers or sellers looking to find you and to connect with you?

I'm definitely reachable online so you can check out my website. So kristalapp.com my phone number, 604-725-2494 and then all my links in terms of being able to reach me through social media are on my website as well. And I'm pretty easy to get a hold of me. You call me typically answer my phone obviously unless I'm, you know, not available.

Wonderful. Well, thank you again, Krista. I'm grateful to have you here and I'm sure everyone will enjoy what you had to say and I look forward to being speaking with you very soon.

Absolutely. It's a pleasure. Thank you, Matt.