Lisa Billet | Village Real Estate Group of VPG Realty

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. Very excited, very grateful to have Lisa Billett with me today. Lisa, thank you for joining me.

Thanks for having me.

So, quick introduction for Lisa. She is one of the co founders of Village Real Estate Group, which is powered through VPG Realty. And I know you have two other professionals that you work with there. Lisa, how long have you been working together and how is that going so far?

So my other partners are Jody Horne and Laudan. We've been working together for almost two years. We found each other through the epg and it's been remarkable. The concept of Village Real estate really comes from the idea that we talk about raising a child in a village and how it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it sometimes takes a village to do anything. And so the whole premise of it is that we bring our village to you and we help you meet your real estate goals with the assistance of the village.

Oh, very cool. I love that. I love that. It's so true. What's one thing that not many people know about you?

Oh, one thing that no one knows about me. I would say the one thing that people don't know about me is that I am half Jamaican. Yeah. So I get to spend my time partly in Jamaica with my family there and here. My father was a realtor for 45 years, and most of that time was spent with Sutton. So he. I learned a lot of what I know through him.

Oh, perfect. Thanks for sharing. I appreciate that. So that I'm assuming that kind of brings us to the next question on how you got started in the real estate world. Obviously, growing up around it, I'm sure that had a big influence on you.

I did my dad on Saturdays when we were kids. He used to have open houses and he used to bring us sometimes to the open house and we would sit in the car and read books while he did his thing, or he'd bring us to the office on a Saturday morning. And in those days they had listing books. We didn't have the MLS system. So they had a whole bunch of these books with these little teeny tiny little pictures of homes with a little teeny tiny description. And we used to sit around reading Real estate books and waiting for him to do his stuff that he had to do on a Saturday, meet clients or what have you. So I got it sort of taste for what that experience was like from the early to mid-70s.

That's funny. Yeah. I also grew up around the mortgage world, having my father started our Tudor mortgage company in the early 90s and filing papers scanning at a very young age, from the very beginning when it wasn't, you know, where we are today, where it was very much, you know, all hands on deck. Almost all hands on deck.

Yeah.

It's fun. I love that. So if you weren't doing this, do you have any idea of anything else that you'd probably see yourself doing in the professional world?

Well, I really like the legal side, so I always thought that if I wasn't a realtor, that I probably want to be a lawyer. I just really like contracts, and some people find that really dry. But I spent about, gosh, 12 years working in resort development. In those days, I wasn't a realtor, but I was the regional project operations manager. So I got to spend a lot of time with developers and their, their lawyers developing all the real estate documents for different projects. And I got a taste for sort of the international real estate. So it was, it was. I found that really interesting.

Yeah. And a lot more important, I'd imagine, than a lot of even home buyers or sellers think in terms of the contract. When it comes to conditions or any of those specifics in the contract, having someone that knows that quite well can be very valuable.

Yeah, I mean, we, you know, as realtors, we're not lawyers, but I do, I did enjoy that side of it, that I did enjoy the paperwork side of it.

Now I know we're in a, in a unique time being, you know, when we're, when we're chatting here, being sort of in there almost mid April, earlier part of April. And with the COVID 19 situation and everything kind of changing with the real estate market, I don't know if you want to speak on that directly or maybe what your thoughts are in terms of how this might affect the market or just your sort of thought process with real estate investing and purchasing in general. But do you have any advice for current clients that are looking to purchase and or sell their property this year, coming up, of what you would recommend or what you would say to them?

You know, I think all of us realtors are having these conversations with clients right now. It's a great opportunity for us to connect with them, not just the email or text, but actually speak to people on the phone. And we can't. We're social distancing. We can't meet in person. But we've never had so much attention or time for attention with clients as we do right now. So I have sort of had clients go back to their goals. What are your goals this year? What were your needing to accomplish and then working on it from there. If you're not in a hurry and you don't need to do something. And launching something new or going after something new right now, especially if you're a seller, might not be the best time. But there's a buyer. If you're a buyer, there could be opportunities that present themselves right now. But it really just goes back to goals and not stressing about where prices are at or where the market's going to be at. We know that what slows down speeds up again and vice versa. I've been in real estate long enough. I started actually selling locally in 2008, which was probably one of the worst times at the crash of the market. And I knew how difficult that was. And, you know, what happened is everything came right around again. So I feel like there's this anxiety around it that we just need to breathe and know that it will all work out.

Yeah, no, I agree. I think I have. I have a thought process on, you know, when we get through this, whenever that is or however long that takes, that inventory is probably going to be lower than it would have been. But then interest rates. Interest rates themselves will be. Should be low. I mean, there shouldn't be too much upward pressure on them over the next little while. Even though there's been a little bit of changes with. With how banks are pricing with risk and those kinds of things. But it might be a situation where it might become a seller's market because of everyone's ready to buy again, but not as much inventory is available. Yeah.

And I think it's a great opportunity to reconnect with your realtor. You probably set some goals with them earlier in the year or maybe last fall. Take a look and see what's realistic right now, what isn't. They'll help you formulate a plan. We're all figuring it out together. No one has a crystal ball, but I think that there's always opportunity in these situations and we just need to be patient.

Yeah, no, that's well said. Thank you. Is there a property that you would think of as the most memorable one that you've been a part of or even a transaction where Whether you're the buying agent or the listing agent, that you. Just stands out to you as one that you remember.

I have. There was a. There's a few. I think we're fortunate enough as realtors that we get invited into people's worlds and we get to be a part of some really significant moments in their life. And for me, there was a couple. One I had a client or we had a client where they were fairly new to the country. They didn't think that they would ever be able to buy something. I mean, this is some of the most valuable real estate in the world, and they didn't think they'd ever be able to afford to buy it. And they worked so many jobs and they got enough money for down payment and they didn't think they'd qualify for financing. And we just worked together and they bought their very first home ever. And it was in Canada. And we both cried. We both cried. I feel when I think about it sometimes, because I felt it was an honor and it wasn't about the property, it was about being allowed to be a part of that opportunity for them.

That's amazing. What a great story. I know that we can take for granted what we have here just in general in terms of Vancouver and Canada. So being able to help people achieve life story, life goals is such a cool thing. And to be a part of that, that's amazing. That's amazing. Thanks for sharing. Last question. I like to use the term house rich when I talk to clients as just sort of a segue into what that means in terms of. Instead of. Everyone always says, oh, my mortgage is going to be so big. I'm in Vancouver, I can't afford it. And when I say house rich, I'm talking more of a financial outlook or a financial belief in terms of sustainability and growth and. And paying what you want to pay instead of what you can pay. That kind of thing. What do you feel when. When you hear the term house rich?

I feel like it's an investment in themselves. I think that, you know, they are. I know that. The feeling that sometimes they feel like, okay, I don't have cash on hand, but when they stop paying rent and they're starting to pay those mortgage payments to themselves and they start building that equity in their home, that's sort of what makes me think of perfect.

Yeah. No, I agree. And Lisa, where would be the best place for people to find you?

People can find us at villagerealestategroup ca and you can reach myself, Lisa, Jody, or Lada. And My email is lisavillagerealestategroup CA Cool.

Well thank you so much for joining me. I'm very grateful to have you and taking time out of your busy schedule. I hope you stay safe and we'll talk to you very soon.

Okay, thanks Matt.

Thanks Lisa.

By.

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SA Sam.